Chrissy Teigen Opens Up About Struggle with Depression, Inspires Us with Her Raw Honesty
Postpartum depression impacts millions of women in major ways and every woman is impacted differently.
According to Chrissy Teigen, one of the ways she was impacted is that she noticed some of her greatest passions diminishing, and that includes her love of food and cooking.
Anyone who follows Chrissy on social media knows she’s really into food -- eating it, and cooking it -- but she shares with PEOPLE that for a while after having her first baby, Luna, that all changed.
“I started looking at food and was like, ‘I’m just not in the mood.’ It’s like going to the grocery store when you’re full. You just don’t want the same things. Food wasn’t that thrilling for me,” she tells PEOPLE. “That was one of the first times I knew something was wrong.”
At the time, she was working on developing recipes for her second cookbook Cravings: Hungry for More (which just launched last week), the follow up to her 2016 New York Times bestseller Cravings. But she said she just wasn't feeling the work and couldn't get into it.
“When I wasn’t feeling great, being in the kitchen was like torture. It felt like such a job, and you want to be excited when you’re in the kitchen,” she says. “I cook because I love food and I love to eat. It makes me happy to serve people. And when you aren’t feeling that way, it was like torture.”
RELATED: 20 Depression Quotes to Show You Things are Not Hopeless
But once she figured out what was going on, she got better. She was prescribed an antidepressant and sought help from a therapist. (Teigen told CBS Sunday Morning she believes she avoided PPD the second time by eating her placenta after giving birth to Miles, 4 months.) As she recovered, she got her appetite (for life, and for food), back.
“When Chrissy is living her best life food is a huge part of it,” says Adeena Sussman, Teigen’s coauthor, who moved in with the couple while working on Cravings and Cravings 2, told PEOPLE. “It was great to see her pick that love of food back up and just run with it when she was feeling better.”
Returning to the kitchen, Teigen says, “was like riding a bike. It was like nothing ever happened.”
“I’m so happy we didn’t rush into this book,” she says. “And I’m so grateful to everyone around me for supporting being able to pause until we were able to put out the best possible Cravings.”
If you are going through a tough time and the things you love aren't fulfilling you anymore, something else may be going on. See a therapist and recapture your life -- and your passions.
