Busy Philipps Says She ‘Didn’t Know’ Postpartum Anxiety ‘Was a Thing’ Until She Experienced It Herself

Though it’s been a while since Busy Philipps became a new mom, she remembers it clearly, including dealing with postpartum anxiety. The 40-year-old recently admitted she was unaware of what it was until she experienced it herself.

“I didn’t even know that was a thing,” she told People in an interview published on Friday, March 13. “I had heard only really terrible postpartum depression stories, like the ones that would make the news. And that wasn’t my experience so I thought, well I guess this is just what being a new mom is like — being unable to go into the grocery store because you’re panicked and crying in your car.”

Busy has two daughters — 11-year-old Birdie Leigh Silverstein and 6-year-old Cricket Pearl Silverstein — and it was after giving birth to her eldest daughter she began feeling anxious. Things started looking up for her once she sought help and addressed the issue.

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“It took me a long time to really be able to vocalize what I was going through and to get some help for it,” she told the outlet. “I’m glad that people have been more open about all kinds of postpartum issues.”

It seems like experience has been the biggest teacher for Busy. After she welcomed her second daughter, she learned urine leaks were also something common for new moms. “This is an issue that a lot of people shy away from and don’t want to talk about and yet it affects one in three women, and that’s a lot of women,” she added. “After I was a new mom with my second kid, I experienced this and I never really knew that that was a thing that happens.”

This wasn’t the first time Busy opened up about a personal struggle or experience. In 2018, the Dawson’s Creek alum took to Instagram to reveal she was raped when she was 14 years old. “It’s taken me 25 years to say those words,” she wrote at the time. “I wrote about it in my book. I finally told my parents and sister about it four months ago.” She’s so brave.