Jessica Rowe: I felt ashamed
JESSICA Rowe has revealed she felt “ashamed” to admit she was battling post-natal depression, despite her strong history of mental health advocacy.
The new Seven Network recruit said yesterday that her traumatic tenure at the Today show coupled with the long and painful fertility treatment she endured to conceive contributed to her decline after the birth of her daughter, Allegra, in January.
However, her stunning admission has been applauded by depression support groups and sufferers for shedding more light on the dark disease.
The 37-year-old will return to Australian TV screens as a contestant on Channel 7’s Dancing With the Stars.
It was after nominating national mental health initiative beyondblue as the charity she would dance to raise funds for that Rowe conceded she “had to be true to myself and admit I’d suffered (from post-natal depression)'’.
“At first I had planned to put it behind me. I’d recovered and wanted to move forward,'’ she said.
Rowe told New Idea she had tried to ignore the symptoms, which she knew were more than just sleep deprivation and the normal hormone changes women encounter after giving birth.
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“I was getting very anxious. I felt out of control. I worried about everything, like whether she’d get a cold - but beyond normal levels. I also had trouble breast-feeding,'’ she said.
Rowe told The Daily Telegraph: “It also shocked me that I felt so ashamed of admitting it. Of not coping.'’
But her close work with depression support groups and her family experience with mother Penny, who has battled bipolar disorder, forced her to admit she needed to seek help quickly.
“If I hadn’t done that, my recovery process would have been so much longer.'’
After four attempts at IVF, Rowe said her desperate longing for her child made her depression harder to admit.
“I felt ashamed. How could I feel like this when I finally had this beautiful treasure?'’