Ayesha Curry Spoke About Postpartum Depression
Ayesha Curry on the Reality of Postpartum Depression: "I Lost Three Years of My Life"
Ayesha Curry is opening up about the brutal reality of postpartum depression. Despite the picturesque life that many portray on social media after welcoming a bundle of joy, Ayesha was struggling after the birth of her and Steph Curry's second child, Ryan, in 2015. In an episode of the Because Life podcast hosted by her sister-in-law Sydel Curry-Lee, Ayesha opened up about identifying the feelings she later realised were related to postpartum depression and anxiety. "Looking back now, I can say without a shadow of doubt, I had postpartum depression with Ryan, but I didn't know what that was at that time," she said.
She said that when she stopped breastfeeding at six months, she "felt like a failure," and it "brought some other insecurities with it." Ayesha struggled being in the public eye, with every move being scrutinized by the media, so her instinct was to become "really, really, really good at hiding my feelings and trying to make everybody OK and suppressing all of the things."
"I feel like I lost three years of my life because life started to become blurry."
Suppressing her emotions took a toll on Ayesha emotionally, and eventually, physically when she decided to get a "boob job." "I thought by fixing the outward, it would fix all of the things in my head, and it did no such thing. Worst decision of my life," she said. While Ayesha was struggling with postpartum depression, she said the plastic surgery only exacerbated these feelings causing deeper depression. "I think I had to get on medication. It's been a journey," she shared. "It was the worst three years of my life. I feel like I lost three years of my life because life started to become blurry. When I look back at that time, I was always tired . . . I just wasn't much fun to be around."
One of the issues that Ayesha brought up was the lack of conversation about postpartum depression. "It's not anything we talked about with our moms at the time. It was this invisible thing. Even to this day, I've never heard my mom talk about it. They didn't experience that. It might have been a sign of the times," Ayesha said. But that's exactly why she's speaking about it now, to eliminate the stigma surrounding postpartum depression and encourage others that it's OK not to be OK. Check out Ayesha's full episode of the Because Life podcast with Dear Media.
If you are feeling anxious or depressed and need help finding help or resources, the Anxiety and Depression Association of America and the National Alliance on Mental Illness (1-800-950-6264) have resources available.
