O, The Oprah Magazine: The Healing in Revealing

Mental illness has long been a topic too taboo for public consumption. The storytelling series This Is My Brave is changing that, one beautiful, painful, triumphant, true tale at a time.

By Molly Simms

After the birth of her second child, in August 2015, RaeAnn Pickett—a tall brunette with a fondness for the F word—found herself consumed by anxiety. “I started to feel so freaked out, sad, and overwhelmed,” she says. “I’d stay awake all night, obsessively counting the windowpanes or the individual slats on each miniblind. I told my doctor, and she was like, ‘Yeah, you don’t have to do that. There are drugs for that.'”

Pickett gratefully took the meds, but that wasn’t enough. In her search for other moms experiencing postpartum issues, the 32-year-old communications professional eventually…