Gwyneth Paltrow’s latest edition of her GOOP newsletter featured her experiences with postpartum depression, along with similar feelings from Twilight star and new mom Bryce Dallas Howard. The Huffington Post reports:

Gwyneth wrote: “When my son, Moses, came into the world in 2006, I expected to have another period of euphoria following his birth, much the way I had when my daughter was born two years earlier. Instead I was confronted with one of the darkest and most painfully debilitating chapters of my life. For about five months I had, what I can see in hindsight as postnatal depression, and since that time, I have wanted to know more about it.”

Here’s what Bryce had to say: “For me, breast-feeding was even more painful than giving birth. And despite a lactation consultant offering help, I felt incompetent. I refused to give up, forcing myself to do everything possible so that my son would consume only my breast milk with no supplementation. I forged on, barely sleeping, always either breast feeding or pumping and never getting the hang of it. Occasionally I drifted off for a few minutes, but that decision to “feed at all costs” left me no room for recovery, no space to explore my feelings, no time to rest.”

Regarding Bryce’s depression: “My husband began shooting a television series, and late evenings when he returned home, I would meet him at the door, shaking with fury, ‘I’ve hit the wall and gone through it, and I feel I am expected to go further.’ He would ask what he could do to help, but knowing there was nothing he could do, I screamed expletives at him, behavior he had never experienced in the seven years we had been together.”

WebMD reports that postpartum depression is caused by changing hormone levels, and can be treated with antidepressants and counseling. It’s a difficult time for many women, since they feel guilty about not being happy with their new life as a mother. It also doesn’t help that the disease is often misunderstood and skewed by the media. For example, Tom Cruise criticized Brooke Shields for using Paxil after she gave birth to her daughter Rowan.

Photo: SFGate