Alyssa Milano is opening up about a difficult part of her journey into motherhood. The Charmed actress recently revealed that she had postpartum anxiety after giving birth to her son. She connected her story to the ongoing Lindsay Clancy murder trial. The case underlines the need for mental health support for mothers, said Milano.
Alyssa Milano shares her postpartum anxiety struggle amid the Lindsay Clancy case
Milano shared her story on Instagram on Wednesday, Aug. 19. She reshared a 2018 Time article about her postpartum anxiety on her Substack. Milano explained that her mental health started when she became a mother. After two years of miscarriage, she welcomed her son, Milo, in 2011.
Milano shares Milo, now 14, and daughter Elizabella Dylan, 11, with husband David Bugliari. She said she faced daily anxiety attacks after Milo’s birth. She worried about the ways her son could die while in the care of others. Her anxiety would frequently turn into a full-blown attack after a long day at work.
Milano said she went to an emergency room at 2 a.m. and asked for a psychiatrist. She said, “I went to the emergency room at 2:00 AM, asked for a psychiatrist and got help.” She then requested doctors to admit her and remained in a public psychiatric ward for three days. Milano said that her therapist and psychiatrist helped her deal with her illness and heal.
Milano shared her story as Clancy’s murder trial continues in Massachusetts. Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, faces trial over the January 2023 deaths of her three children. She also allegedly cut her wrists and jumped from a second-story window in an apparent suicide attempt that left her paralyzed. Her defense says she was overmedicated, suffered from postpartum psychosis and was not criminally responsible for her children’s deaths.
Milano stressed that postpartum anxiety and postpartum psychosis are two different conditions. Still, Milano said the trial highlights shared concerns, like mothers with mental health symptoms need to have those symptoms recognized, believed and treated quickly.
Milano also explained why access to care matters. She said mental illnesses do not always have obvious signs and that she was lucky to have insurance and the means to get help. She said, “Here’s the thing about mental illnesses: you don’t always look sick, and the answers are not always clear or black-and-white.” She also said she had insurance and financial support that helped her get treatment.
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Originally reported by Ayusi Adhikari on Mandatory
