Valerie Bertinelli Says This Was the ‘Most Challenging’ Time for Her Mental Health
Valerie Bertinelli opened up about postmenopausal mental health.
She called the last eight years “the most challenging, difficult, heartbreaking” of her life.
“Nobody talks about how menopause could be harder to deal with than periods,” Drew Barrymore added.
Valerie Bertinelli has always shared openly about her life on social media, and that cadence is now extended to The Drew Barrymore Show, where she is a new lifestyle expert. In a recent episode, Bertinelli and Barrymore candidly discussed postmenopausal mental health—and how the difficulties don’t end when your menstrual cycle does.
When Barrymore asked where Bertinelli is “in the cycle,” Bertinelli replied: “Oh, I’m menodead,” with a laugh. “I probably stopped about eight years ago.” She added that her perimenopause and menopause symptoms lasted for “about 10 or 12 years.”
“The hot flashes? I totally got,” she said. “The brain fog, I would get on Hot in Cleveland... trying to memorize lines, all of the best bloopers are because Valerie was going through brain fog.”
When menopause ended, Bertinelli said she went on to really struggle mentally—which is something no one prepared her for. “I’m a little confused, which is why I’m so happy you have these doctors with us today, because I’m at a point now where I’m eight years out but I’ve also probably had the most challenging, difficult, heartbreaking eight years of my life, in my entire 64 years,” she said, adding that the feelings were “worse” than the range of heightened emotions she grappled with during pre-menstrual syndrome (PMS). “Now I’m like, ‘What is happening to my mental health?’” she concluded. (According to Cleveland Clinic, depression can be a symptom of postmenopause.)
Barrymore nodded and offered an affirming response. “Nobody talks about how menopause could be harder to deal with than periods,” she said.
Over the last few years, Bertinelli has shared snippets of her healing journey, and recently, she told People she feels “high on life” after making changes to support her happiness, including her choice to quit drinking and her new relationship with boyfriend Mike Goodnough.
“I think it’s important to really not numb emotional pain,” she told People in discussing her newfound sobriety. “Emotions are information. When I decided to really question why I was having a certain emotion, I was able to—most of the time—walk through it and get to the other side.”
Now, she said she finds that she “naturally hum[s] at happy.”
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