Shields blasts Cruise's depression drugs 'rant'
Actress Brooke Shields has blasted back at Tom Cruise after he criticised her for taking antidepressants to cope with post-natal depression.
Shields branded Cruise’s comments a “disservice to women everywhere” in an editorial in today’s New York Times.
She said if any good can come from the actor’s “ridiculous rant” it would give much needed attention to a serious condition.
Cruise sparked controversy last month when he criticised Shields for her drug use, calling her irresponsible and claiming she could have taken vitamins to cure her depression.
He launched into another passionate rant about the effects of psychiatry and prescription drugs when asked about his comments during an interview on US television earlier this week.
“I’m going to take a wild guess and say that Mr Cruise has never suffered from postpartum depression,” Shields wrote.
The actress, currently starring on the London stage in Chicago, said she had considered swallowing a bottle of pills or jumping out the window following the birth of her daughter, Rowan Francis, in 2003.
A doctor later attributed her feelings to a plunge in her oestrogen and progesterone levels and prescribed the antidepressant Paxil.
“To suggest that I was wrong to take drugs to deal with my depression, and that instead I should have taken vitamins and exercised shows an utter lack of understanding about postpartum depression and childbirth in general,” she said.
Cruise claimed there was no such thing as a chemical imbalance that needed to be corrected with drugs.
“You don’t know the history of psychiatry, I do,” the Scientologist told NBC host Matt Lauer.
