Scheana Shay fromVanderpump Rules.Photo:River Callaway/Variety via Getty
River Callaway/Variety via Getty
Vanderpump RulesstarScheana Shayshared how she’s managing her OCD — which she says she was diagnosed with after the birth of daughterSummer Moon, now 2.
“I feel like, especially as a mom, postpartum OCD is something that’s not talked about,” Shay, 38, told PEOPLE exclusively at the red carpet premiere ofVanderpump Rulesseason 11.
“It’s misdiagnosed. A lot of people don’t know what’s wrong with them. And so once I figured this out, I was like, ‘Oh my God. Now it makes sense,’ " she said.
Vanderpump Rulesstar Scheana Shay with daughter Summer Moon.Scheana/Instagram
Scheana/Instagram
Postpartum OCD includes a hyper-focus on the child, often fraught with anxiety, according to theInternational OCD Foundation.
“I’ve since had a brain scan,” she told PEOPLE exclusively. ”I’m on a whole brain and power supplement pack. And I feel like those have been really helping my intrusive thoughts and just overall how I’m feeling.”
“But I mean, it is, you know, a battle every day in my brain.”
Shay — who hosts the podcast,Scheananigans— talked about her decision to gettreatment for her OCD in an episode last July, saying, “I did finally make an appointment with my doctor last week to get on some sort of medication, because my anxiety, OCD, everything, I mean — it’s been bad since I had her.”
“I obviously had a very traumatic labor,” Shay added about Summer’s birth, which she’d previously said was “really scary.”
This spiraled into HELLP syndrome, which theCleveland Clinicexplains stands for hemolysis, elevated liver, low platelet. Although it’s rarely life-threatening, it can cause “severe health complications” if it’s not treated.
“It was a lot of scares,” she contiuned. “She comes out. I see her. She’s just, like, blue. She’s not screaming.”
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“I’m terrified that I just delivered a stillborn,” Shay said, adding that her daughter eventually started crying and “everything was okay” since it was the magnesium making her drowsy and not another medical issue.
But the entire experience — along with amiscarriage she sufferedin 2020 — gave her PTSD.
During her podcast episode she said, “the only blessing” ofScandoval— the infamous scandal where costarTom Sandovalcheated onAriana Madixwith costarRachel Leviss— was that “my OCD took a back seat,” she said.
Shay added that that once “[the scandal] calmed down for me, personally, ‘My OCD’s like, ‘Hello! I’m still here!’”
But now, she tells PEOPLE, “I’m in a good place.”
source: people.com
