Reese Witherspoon reveals secret battle with depression

Actress Reese Witherspoon has opened up candidly about her experiences with depression, which she suffered from as a teenager and also as a new mom to daughter Ava, who she gave birth to in 1999. The Morning Show star also shared how her grandmother, Dorothea, had also suffered with depression, and Reese’s mother warned her it could run in the family. “She had been this well-educated woman who was then left alone with two little kids while her husband went to work,” Reece told Harper’s Bazaar. “She got really depressed. My mom was honest with me and said, ‘You need to be careful. This could be genetic.'”

After Ava’s birth, she said the depression was “really bad,” as her mood fluctuated up and down. “In the first six months, I was simultaneously happy and depressed. I just cried all the time, I was up all night, I was exhausted. It was a hormone drop I didn’t expect, which I experienced right after birth and again when I stopped nursing six months later,” she said.

“Everyone has an opinion. It’s hard being a young mom and having people tell you how to be, how to react, how to give birth, how to nurse and how to feed your baby. It’s inundating.” 

Eventually, the Legally Blonde star turned to a good friend who encouraged her to seek professional help. “I had the connections and the means to get to a doctor, a mental-health specialist, but a lot of people don’t. They struggle on their own and hide it,” she said.

She now credits the experience to her success, in part. “I was probably successful because I had so much anxiety. They go hand in hand,” she said. 

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“I had pressured myself to extreme levels to show up at work in a perfect way. We all now know – perfect is not attainable. It’s not sustainable. I stressed myself out in service of my job, and it got me really, really far. I’m rewarded for my anxiety and perfectionism.” 

The 49-year-old added that over the years, she has started to pace herself a little more. “I’m getting older, and am starting to relax into the idea that I’m enough. I mean, I’ve had an abundance of good fortune, great work opportunities and worked with some of the greatest people on Earth,” she added.

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Reece’s mother is a paediatric nurse, and encouraged her to speak openly about things that were on her mind, something she has brought into her own parenting style. “My mom never talked about mental health in a way that made it feel untouchable, unspeakable or taboo; she was almost clinical about it,” Reece revealed.

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“When I was a teenager, she would proactively ask whether I was sexually active, about birth control. I don’t beat around the bush. If something is on my mind or I’m concerned, I’m always going to be that person who pushes the edges and asks the hard questions,” she added. 

The Oscar winner, who turns 50 next year, also says she is embracing the next chapter of her life. “I like getting older,” she said.. “I think it’s great to be wiser and understand your place in a business. I’ve worked really hard to get to that place… I feel like I’m living my purpose, for sure. I love my job. I love my fans. I’m the captain of my own destiny.”