Alanis Morissette likens postpartum depression to terror: ‘I dipped into psychosis’

Alanis Morissette is getting candid about the terror she experienced with what she calls “postpartum activity.”

Although terms like postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis may not have dominated trending topics in the 2010s when the singer-songwriter was having her three babies, Ever Imre, now 15; Onyx Solace, 10; and Winter Mercy, 7, it’s an especially hot-button issue today. And Morissette knows a thing or two about grappling with the condition.

On Wednesday, Morissette appeared on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast and told host Alex Cooper that she experienced postpartum depression after giving birth to each of children, and that the condition worsened each time.

“Basically, I became another person,” she said, adding that her hormones felt out of whack. “There’s some version of menopausal flux combined with … invasive thoughts that are so harrowing — terrible, ceaseless, invasive thoughts, anxiety, depression, rage, off the charts. I felt completely out of control, and yet I was touring … and being a boss and being someone taking care of money and finances and everything, and that is the part where, when I’m quiet and alone, I might weep a little bit.”

In recent months, attitudes around postpartum depression have shifted, and the condition has been discussed more urgently than perhaps ever before. Hayden Panettiere’s death sparked renewed scrutiny of society’s treatment of women suffering from the condition. And the polarizing trial of Lindsay Clancy, a labor-and-delivery nurse who pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity after killing her three children in 2023, has captivated the country since July.

Back in 2019, Morissette discussed her experience with the illness, but the topic hadn’t yet garnered the public’s attention like it has today. Morissette told Cooper that when she first experienced symptoms, she reached out to multiple therapists, who didn’t seem to know how to treat the issue, no matter how well-meaning they were.

The “You Learn” singer said that the “invisible load” that mothers often carry — which the Institute of Child Psychology describes as the mental and emotional weight involved in running a home and tending to children — should no longer be invisible.

“We’re making it visible,” she said. “I’m going to tell you the 37 things that we do an hour … let’s name it. Even us calling it ‘invisible load’ keeps it invisible.”

The Grammy winner told Cooper that she went on tour while suffering from postpartum depression during the pandemic and that it became so severe, she “dipped into psychosis.”

“The depression piece inside PPD, unfortunately, I was familiar with it,” she said. “It was all the other stuff. It was the invasive thoughts and the terror. All I could picture was death and terrible things. … The bummer for me inside PPD was that I was losing people’s trust in my sanity. That’s a bummer. When I have spent my whole life attempting to establish to people I love that I’m safe, and that I’m predictable, and then all of a sudden I wasn’t. That was a loss, because people looked at me differently. They looked at me like I maybe couldn’t be trusted.”

The singer said she’d recovered since the struggle. “I feel so happy that I’m back.”