Vanderpump Rules Star Scheana Shay Opens Up About Postpartum OCD Has Affected Her

As Vanderpump Rules wraps up Season 11, Scheana Shay is sharing more about her experience with postpartum obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) after the birth of her now 3-year-old daughter, Summer Moon. During the first part of this season’s three-part reunion special, the reality star and mom of one talked about how living with the anxiety disorder has affected her and impacts her thoughts.

“I’ve never heard of postpartum OCD,” Bravo host Andy Cohen says to Shay at the reunion.

“Right? I hadn’t either,” she tells Cohen. “So many women are told they have postpartum depression when it’s actually postpartum OCD. There are similar symptoms, but [postpartum OCD is] more intrusive thoughts, more me seeing a worst case scenario play out in my mind.”

In unseen footage from the season, Shay discusses an intrusive thought she had about her husband Brock Davies. “I don’t know if it’s an intrusive thought or more of a fear, but I don’t think you and I are going to be together forever because I feel like one of us is just gonna die,” she tells Davies, who acknowledges it’s a “scary” thought, but it’s also “part of living” and why he wants to “enjoy every minute” he has with his kids.

“I do,” she replies through tears, “and that joy makes me sad.”

The International OCD Foundation notes that those with postpartum or perinatal OCD usually have obsessions and compulsions that primarily focus of their baby or unborn child during pregnancy. “While OCD typically begins gradually, pOCD tends to begin somewhat rapidly, coinciding with feelings of being responsible for the newborn,” the foundation explains.

As Shay touched on during the reunion, Cedars-Sinai notes that “perinatal OCD amplifies unwanted, irrational thoughts,” adding, “Most sufferers dread accidentally or purposefully hurting their baby, whether by contamination, dropping them, drowning, choking or inappropriate touch. These intense fears can cause visual images where the person might even see their child dying.”

Throughout Season 11 and on her podcast, Scheananigans, the “Good as Gold” singer has talked candidly about her diagnosis. In one episode that aired in February, Shay talked about her fears of leaving her daughter with a babysitter. “Since having Summer, I knew there was something wrong with me,” she said. “It took me a little over a year to open up to anyone about that, but postpartum OCD attaches to your worst fears and it shows you them in your head. It took me almost a year to be able to do anything alone with my daughter, so outside of my immediate family, we haven’t really let anyone watch Summer on their own yet.”

On her podcast last July, Shay shared that she eventually reached out to her doctor for help. “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,” she said at the time. “I obviously had a very traumatic labor. I think still do have PTSD from not only the miscarriage, but from the traumatic birth.” Shay was diagnosed with HELLP syndrome, a rare and life-threatening pregnancy complication that affects a mother’s blood and liver, after giving birth to Summer in 2021.

In an April interview with Bustle, Shay shared that, right now, she has no plans or desire have another baby. “If I do, I would have to get a surrogate because of the HELLP syndrome that I got postpartum.”

If you or someone you know is experiencing depression or anxiety during pregnancy or in the postpartum period, contact the Postpartum Health Alliance warmline at 1-888-724-7240 or Postpartum Support International at 1-800-944-4773. If you are thinking of harming yourself or your baby, get help right away by calling or texting 988 to contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, or dialing 911. For more resources, you can visit Postpartum Support International.