Hayden Panettiere says postpartum depression led her to be stuck on 'hamster wheel' of alcohol abuse

foxnews.com:

Hayden Panettiere opened up about her postpartum depression and seeking treatment in a new interview. Panettiere, who gave birth to her daughter Kaya in 2014, used alcohol to numb her depression, the actress revealed during an interview with "Red Table Talk." "Some people thought it was a personal choice, that being depressed at all was a personal choice, and that I could just snap my fingers and choose one day, ‘I’m not going to be depressed anymore.

I'm going to be happy,'" the "Nashville" actress told hosts Jada Pinkett Smith, Adrienne Banfield Norris and guest host Kelly Osbourne.

Jada Pinkett Smith, Adrienne Banfield Norris and Hayden Panettiere spoke about postpartum depression and struggles with alcohol during an interview on the "Red Table Talk." (Credit Jordan Fisher) "I felt like it was not something that people understood or talked about, and I didn't know how to ask for help." Panettiere claimed she learned how to use alcohol to cope with her issues by observing family and friends. "I did what I had seen family and the people around me do whenever they were depressed or stressed out or anything which was reach for a bottle," she explained. "Which made it that much worse." "It's a depressant, but that's what I feel like I learned growing up – how to change the way you're feeling just by having a glass of something," Panettiere said. "But then it flips on you and does the complete opposite and just adds to your depression and becomes that endless hamster wheel, that cycle." Hayden Panettiere suffered from postpartum depression after the birth of her daughter Kaya in 2014. (Photo by Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images) The "Nashville" actress went to treatment for alcohol abuse at the time.