Becky Lynch opens up.
Lynch gave birth to her daughter, Roux, in December 2022. The former Raw Women's Champion made her return at WWE SummerSlam 2021, where she beat Bianca Belair in an impromptu match to win the SmackDown Women's Championship. She has remained a prominent part of the roster ever since, though she missed a few weeks after Trish Stratus turned on her on the April 10 episode of WWE Raw.
Speaking with Corey Graves and Kevin Patrick on WWE After The Bell, Lynch was asked to describe what her biggest challenge was following the birth of her child and her return to the ring, and she revealed that she dealt with post-weaning depression.
“I suppose the biggest challenge was one that kind of came up recently, which I didn’t realize could happen, was, you know, people talk about postpartum depression, and I thought that’s what happens instantly. So I’d kind of scaled past it and been like, ‘Oh, I’m great. I’m fine. I survived it.’ I came back to work relatively, not too quickly, but relatively quickly, and put everything into that. So I kind of felt like I’d escaped it. Then I weaned her in January, and I didn’t realize that when you’re done nursing, that you can get kind of a postpartum depression then. So we’re over two years later, and so at first I didn’t realize what was happening. I didn’t realize why I was so on edge, and then it kind of got really, really dark for a few months, and I was in a really bad spot. It was kind of one of those things where you’re trying to pull yourself out of because I would know mentally, god I’ve got a great life. I’ve got a great life. I’ve got a great husband, I’ve got a great baby. I’m doing this thing at the highest level that I love. But no reasoning with yourself was able to overcome just that level of depression, and so thankfully, somebody that we all know, I won’t put her on the spot, but she told me what was happening because it had happened to her, and she had gone through that. She gave me some help, and she gave me some tips, and I kind of just kept thinking it was gonna pass, and then it really wasn’t passing," Lynch said.
Lynch then described how she injured her foot, and she had a precursor to a stress fracture, so WWE took her off the road for four weeks. Lynch detailed how having this time away was helpful, as it forced her to deal with her struggles without being distracted by her busy schedule as a WWE superstar. Lynch also noted that she found some ways to balance everything, and she finally felt like herself again.
"It was right after WrestleMania, just there, right after Trish turned on me and I hurt my foot in that match, I hurt it in the beginning, and it was like a precursor to a stress fracture, so they took me off for four weeks. It was such a blessing because I kind of really had to face everything that I was going through. When you’re go, go, go, you can be so distracted, but you realize that you’re getting quite explosive, but you just kind of get on with it. You’re just our, ‘Let me get on with it.’ So I really had to face it and learn how to deal with it, and a lot of it was meditation and that really didn’t, it made me understand my thoughts a bit better. So I was able to figure them out and stop them when they were getting too dark, and then just a crazy supplement routine, and then acupuncture really kind of balanced everything, and then I was like, ‘Oh, god, okay. Now I can appreciate everything again and get back to feeling like me.’ It lasted way longer than I thought it would, and I thought it was going to pass. So that was probably the biggest obstacle that I faced because I feel like, it’s kind of like the oxygen mask. When you don’t have your oxygen mask on, you can’t help anybody else, and I felt like that too. I felt like I didn’t want to be around people. I could feel this bad energy that I had bringing other people down. So now I’ve gotten back to feeling like myself and bring excited for everything. That was the biggest hurdle I had to overcome," she said.
Lynch continued by noting that she didn't know mothers could get post-weaning depression, and this lack of awareness was challenging as well. She described how she learned that it was something that others experience, she was on the road to recovery, as she could learn about the ways to treat it.
"I didn’t know you could get post-weaning depression. So not even knowing that that was a thing, I think also hurt me because ‘why am I feeling like this? Why am I acting like this,’ and not realizing that this is actually a common thing just happens, and there are ways that you can treat it. Once you figure out the cause of all of that, then you’re off to the races, and then you’re back, and then you can appreciate everything. But yeah, for a few months there, it was rough," Lynch said.
Lynch will compete in the Women's Money in the Bank Ladder Match at WWE Money in the Bank on July 1. Check out the card here.
Zoey Stark recently expressed her interest in facing Becky Lynch. Click here to see what she had to say.
If you or anyone you know is struggling with postpartum depression, help and other resources are available here.
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