Brooke Shields speaks out today in the NYT against Tom Cruise and his insensitive campaign against her use of antidepressants prescribed while she was suffering from postpartum depression.  I have no idea why Cruise has chosen this woman's ordeal as the vehicle for explaining his religious beliefs.  Did he ask her out while filming Endless Love together, and she turned him down?  Is it because she's taller than him?  Who knows.  But if I were Katie Holmes, I would seriously take his arrogant rant into consideration.  I learned while I was pregnant not to take pregnancy advice from anyone without a uterus or a medical degree.  This would include Tom Cruise.

Brooke Shields and I have a lot in common. 

She was the main model for Calvin Klein jeans, and I once owned a pair of Calvins.  She starred in Blue Lagoon, and my parents wouldn't let me see Blue Lagoon.  She went to Princeton, and I know people that went to Princeton.  And, we both had postpartum depression.  I was diagnosed with PPD after the birth of my first child.  My physician also described antidepressants, which I took for about nine months.  All I can say is that after being on the antidepressants for a few months, Paul said it was like having his wife back who had been taken from him.  I did not have PPD with my second child.  I have since been told by other moms that they, too, had PPD, although people rarely talk about it.  Funny, because I've heard all kinds of intimate birthing details from moms (and dads), but this is one subject rarely broached.  I would hate for Tom Cruise's stupid, uneducated ramblings to compound that fact.  PPD hits a lot of women very hard, women who have been quite successful and desired and prayed for their children.  They already feel bad about themselves for not being the blissfully calm earth mother they thought they would be.  The last thing they need is for a high school graduate actor to give them medical advice.  (I don't think Tom Cruise has even played a doctor on TV.)

As you can tell, I won't be going to see whatever movie he's in that opens this weekend.  If taking medication is frivolous when you have a diagnosed medical condition, then spending $8-9 on a ticket to see some escapist action movie has to be, too.

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