Alanis Morissette, who rocketed to fame with her 1995 album Jagged Little Pill, was once dubbed the Queen of Alt-Rock Angst. She revealed in a new blog post the title could have easily referred to her private life as well.
Morissette, who has three children, explained in a new post on her personal web site how she was rocked by postpartum depression. The mood disorder affected her following all three births.
The “You Oughta Know” singer welcomed her third child, son Winter, into the world in August at the age of 45. Her son, Ever Imre is eight and daughter Onyx Solace is three.
Hayden Panettiere Flaunts 40 Pound Weight Loss: Recovers From Postpartum Depression
The Canadian rocker married to rapper Mario ‘Souleye’ Treadway in 2010.
She painfully acknowledges she is currently living with postnatal depression.
She also lived through the condition twice before. But Alanis can see “another side” coming when she gets over the mood disorder, and she is extremely grateful for all the support she has had from her husband and loved ones.
The ‘Ironic’ hitmaker also criticized Western society for not properly respecting and caring for women after child birth like so many other cultures do.
“I see it changing, which is so heartening … but the general way is bereft of the honoring and tenderness and attunement and village-ness that postpartum deeply warrants.”
Alanis adds: “I have my eye on that prize again … even as I drag my ass through the molasses.
“I have answers and protocols and solutions and RXs to be sure,” she writes about her experience. “I’ll share more specifics once I have my wits back about me. Hormonal.
Alanis then goes on in a stream-of-consciousness post to detail all the things she’s feeling.
“Sleep deprivation. Fogginess. Physical pain. Isolation. Anxiety. Cortisol. Recovery from childbirth (as beautiful and intense as mine was at home, dream birth.), integrating new angel baby with older angel babies. Marriage. All kinds of PTSD triggers. Overstimulation. This body,” she says.
“Attempting to crawl back to some semi-recognizable configuration. Some around my relationship with needing. Reaching out. Seeing how great I am at setting boundaries in some areas, but how blind-spot-ty I have been with them in others. Reaching this point again where the sleeping giants of my survival strategies are being roused….the persevering.”
“The soldiering. The show-up-no-matter-how-broken-things-feel-ing. Yes, the addictions. In my case…work addiction–over-giving. Over-serving. Over-do-ing. Over-over-ing. All lovely qualities without the ‘over.’
“At worst: beautiful human qualities that are on 11 in a way that the body ultimately can’t sustain. the #InvisibleLoad with today’s normalized cluttered lifestyle taking on epic proportions.”
“Support. Food. Friends. Sun. Bio-identical hormones and SSRIs at the ready. Some parts of the care-prep has been a Godsend, and well-planned.
But for all of this preparation – PD is still a sneaky monkey with a machete – working its way through my psyche and body and days and thoughts and bloodwork levels,” she adds.
The new mom, the new parent(s) is creating the foundation for the circumventing of so much of the pain and divisiveness that we see in the world. Preventatively.
We are on the ground floor of creating secure attachment. From which ALL other contributions to the world of relationships, service, politics, authentic self-expression, ‘success’ and LOVE are borne.
“THIS is the epicenter.
“THIS is where it all begins (certainly in utero too, but more on that some other time).
“THIS is where the fabric of our culture, of our world, is crafted.
On physical, emotional, neurobiological, chemical, spiritual, mental, existential, practical levels. Wouldn’t it be cool if we treated all postpartum moms and families with this awareness and honor?
“Even if the treadmill of the quickening of our culture didn’t change pace … That there might be a life raft of empathy toward the feminine life-givers who bear it all and give more than words can even begin to touch on.”