Telling her truth. Jamie Otis has been diagnosed with postpartum depression six weeks after her son Hendrix’s birth, which she was “terrified to admit out loud.”
The Married at First Sight alum, 34, wrote via Instagram on Wednesday, July 8: “I’m scared of looking weak. I feel like there’s such a stigma associated with mental illness. When I heard the doc speak the words ‘postpartum depression’ [at my six-week checkup], I instantly felt like I wasn’t good enough or strong enough to fight the hormones. (The nurse in me knows that’s not the case — and I’m working on fighting this feeling).”
While the former reality star has struggled with depression “for forever and … this isn’t entirely new to” her, she wrote, “When I think of the person I want to be, it isn’t a depressed Debbie-downer. I want to be the happy one always encouraging others and making them smile. When I think of the kind of MOM I want to be, I want to be the attentive one who never tires of getting down and playing with my kiddos.”
The Bachelor alum is “so fortunate to have access to” support, medication and therapy, she concluded. “I am committed to coming out of this funk stronger, happier and a better mom.”
The New York native and her husband, Doug Hehner, welcomed their baby boy in May. The little one joined big sister Henley, 2, who is “not so interested” in him, Otis exclusively told Us Weekly last month.
“She went away when I first had him. … Because it’s the first month, he sleeps most of the time,” the Wifey 101 author told Us in June. “She’s like, ‘Oh, you’re so boring. … Let’s hang out [in] another year when you start talking.’”
However, the toddler is helping the baby boy in her own ways. “When he’s crying, she’ll go, ‘Oh, Mommy, baby’s crying. He needs a pacifier,’” Otis explained at the time. “And she’ll run over and grab the pacifier and give it to him. She counted all 10 [of his] toes over and over again.”
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