Alanis Morissette talks about ‘terrible things’ that postpartum depression triggered

Alanis Morissette has revealed more details about her battle with postpartum depression (PPD), sharing that she had thoughts of “death and terrible things” and even went into psychosis after the birth of her third child.

The Ironic hitmaker has three children, Ever, 15, Onyx, 10, and Winter, 7, with husband Mario 'Souleye' Treadaway.

She opened up about the journey during an interview on Call Her Daddy with pregnant host Alex Cooper, who asked her about the differences between depression and PPD.

“The depression piece inside PPD, unfortunately and fortunately I was familiar with it. It was all the other stuff,” Morissette said. “It was the invasive thoughts and the terror. All I could picture was death and terrible things.”

According to Mayo Clinic and Postpartum Progress, PPD is one disorder under the group of illnesses called perinatal mood and anxiety disorders.

There may be problems of bonding with the baby, enjoying motherhood, periods of anger or rage, sadness and crying along with a feeling of being overwhelmed or possible thoughts of harming yourself or running away and escaping.

While she’s “happy” now, Morissette told Cooper that it was a “bummer” to lose people’s trust in her sanity.

“They looked at me like I maybe couldn’t be trusted or was going to fly off the handle,” she continued. “And that’s not my thing.”

Morissette’s first child was born on Christmas Day in 2010 and her youngest arrived in August 2019 and even though she has experienced PPD with each pregnancy, she says it doesn’t get easier.

“From my experience, each postpartum depression gets increasingly harder,” she admitted. The star added that she “just wanted to meet my kids, though, so badly, so I kept going.”

She explained how she eventually lost touch with reality following the arrival of her third baby.

“Basically, I became another person,” the musician continued. “All the hormones are all over the place. There’s some version of menopausal flux, combined with depression, invasive thoughts that are so harrowing, terrible, ceaseless.”

For that reason, Morissette also told the podcast host that she uses the term “postpartum activity” since it’s not necessarily depression that makes up the majority of symptoms.

“First time, I waited a year and two months,” she said about admitting she needed help. “Second time I waited eight months. And third time, I think I waited three days. I was just like, ‘Oh no, I’m not doing this again.’ And I did it again.”

The Canadian-born artist recalled how she pushed through her tour dates during the COVID-19 pandemic and managed to take care of finances and remain a boss, but she was secretly struggling.

In reality, Alanis Morissette admitted that she “felt completely out of control. I still showed up. I dipped into psychosis. It was a wild ride.”