Elyse Myers Shares How Her Postpartum Struggles Led to Her First Video

You might know Elyse Myers from her viral TikTok videos on everything from how she got stuck buying 100 taco bell tacos on a first date to her obsession with Lance Bass. But what you may not know is the story behind her first video.

In the December 7th episode of her new podcast Funny Cuz It’s True with Elyse Myers entitled Stressing in My Flesh Suit, Myers opens up about why she loves telling stories.

At first, she talks about how she always loved telling stories when she was younger because they were the easier way to talk to and learn more about people. “Stories are a monologue. I don’t have to make eye contact. I don’t have to go back and forth. It’s a lot easier than pinging and ponging small talk,” Myers said.

But her tone shifts as the story progresses.

“I began sharing true stories about my life on the internet when my son was like six months old-ish. At the time, there was this gigantic valley that lived between the person I was before having my son August and the person I am after August,” said Myers.

Myers goes on to admit she didn’t quite understand postpartum depression at first or the shape it would take. “I was experiencing postpartum depression, and literally up until the night we took August home from the hospital, I had no clue what postpartum depression even was," she said.

"I thought that postpartum was like a timestamp, the time in which this kind of depression happens. Not the type. I had it all wrong.”

Like many parents, though, by the time the new mom realized what was happening, she was already deep into the fight of just getting up every morning and making it through the day. The content creator shared a poignant time when, after getting out of bed to feed her baby at 3:30am, she struggled deeply to reconcile her past and current self.

“I went straight to my kitchen and made myself a coffee, and then out of nowhere, I just started trying to mentally connect the person I was in college and this person now who is grabbing a cup out of my cupboard. Who’s the person that is grabbing ice trays out of the freezer? Who’s grabbing almond milk out of the fridge? These hands I am looking at are the same hands that took notes at school. They played viola in high school, they zipped up a wedding dress, they held my husband’s hand, typed on my keyboard for work.Why don’t these hands feel like my hands,” she said.

In this heartbreaking moment, Myers recalls looking down at her sweatshirt sleeves rolled twice—”the classic Elyse double roll,” and trying to remember why she did that in the first place. This act of recalling the reasoning behind this simple part of her identity would end up making all the difference.

To explain herself, Myers took out her phone and recorded her first-ever video describing how she had discovered the sweatshirt and the Elyse double roll in Australia when she was 18 and had believed it was “the pinnacle of fashion” ever since.

That one silly and short video would not only begin Myer’s launch to TikTok superstardom, where she currently has nearly 6 million followers, but it also would spark Myer’s healing journey.

“It was like my current self and my past self shook hands and met in that very moment…It meant so much to me that my brain recognized me in that memory. Telling stories went from being an escape from conversation to a bridge over that gigantic valley of who I was and who I now am. And as luck would have it, those stories were also a bridge straight to you. Listening to this story right now. Thank you.”

If you’re struggling with postpartum depression, know you aren’t alone. Learn more about the warning signs of postpartum depression, how to ask for help and what resources are available to you here.