Famous Friday

Meet Marie Osmond: A big advocate of Postpartum Depression, a great entertainer, and mother of eight!

Marie: Hi, I'm Marie, and I had Postpartum Depression.

All of us: Hi Marie!

Judi:  One of the interesting thing about PPD is that usually you think the person is fine and has it all together.  You always seemed to have it all together.

Marie:  You know, one of the interesting things that I have found, it almost makes me emotional, is women have [this attitude of] "I can do it. I'm fine. I'm good. I'm strong. You know, I'm doing great. No problem." (Taken from interview here.)



Judi: Yeah, it is really hard to admit that something is not right.


Marie: [Women] deny the core feeling inside of them and I really believe that there are men out there, they know their wife isn't fine. They know that she is struggling, and when she pushes them away they feel hurt. And so they go away and she feels hurt it develops this whole thing, whereas I really believe if we could just speak honestly about it, and I really believe it does cause a form of depression in men.

Judi: Thanks for bringing that up, Marie.  I think we don't give our husbands enough credit for what they go through when we struggle.  It is scary for them and also depressing to see their wives this way.  I think if we as women talked about it more, it wouldn't feel so daunting for our husbands.

Marie: [Yeah] I think it is something that has brought shame, and guilt. This is one of the factors of it. It makes you feel helpless. It makes you feel like you don't even belong in your own life. You weep, you cry, you have no joy. I mean it is the most devastating thing that I have ever been through. I'm a pretty tough woman...and I literally could find nothing that resembled my life.


Judi: This is a theme we seem to see with everyone.  That "shame" word.  Shame on you Shame word! If you give all of us some advice, what would you say?

Marie: [Self Love] What I'm talking about is self love. Even in the Commandments, it says to love thy neighbor as thyself, not to love thy neighbor more than thyself. And I think that's what happened. I just -- I beat myself up so bad inside, and I think that's what a lot of women do.

Judi: It is hard as a mom because we don't get a lot of positive feedback, ya know?  So I totally agree.  Self love. That is going to be my theme this weekend.  MORE SELF LOVE.

Thanks Marie!  Welcome to our Support Group!