Alyssa Milano details her stay in a psychiatric ward as she speaks out on postpartum struggles amid Lindsay Clancy trial

Alyssa Milano recalled suffering from 'debilitating' postpartum anxiety attacks which led to a psychiatric ward stay after welcoming her first child. 

The 53-year-old actress, who shares two children with husband David Bugliari, took to her Substack this week to repost an essay she penned for TIME Magazine back in 2018. 

It comes amid the high-profile trial of Lindsay Clancy, who is accused of murdering her three children Cora, five, Dawson, three, and eight-month-old Callan, at her home in Massachusetts in 2023. 

Clancy has admitted to killing her children, but her defense team have argued she was suffering from postpartum psychosis and did not know the consequences of her actions. 

'As the Lindsay Clancy trial forces a new national reckoning with postpartum mental illness and with what can happen when women ask for help but still fall through the cracks, it feels important to share it again,' Milano wrote on Tuesday. 

The Charmed alum also noted to readers that, 'Postpartum anxiety and postpartum psychosis are different conditions, and my experience is not Lindsay Clancy's. 

'But the trial has brought renewed attention to a truth that connects them: maternal mental-health symptoms must be recognized, believed and treated with urgency.' 

In the 2018 essay, Milano shared that her postpartum depression had most likely been triggered by Generalized Anxiety Disorder. 

She became pregnant with her first child Milo, now 14, back in 2011. It came two years after the actress suffered a miscarriage. 

The star welcomed her son via C-section and remembered the difficult first night home from the hospital when she 'suffered my first anxiety attack.'

She explained that she 'felt like I had already disappointed my child' and had 'failed as a mother' due to having Milo via C-section and not producing milk at the time. 

'My heart raced. My stomach seized up. I felt like I was dying.' 

When Milano began working again, she admitted to being 'overwhelmed by guilt for leaving my son.'

'And like many others who suffer from anxiety, my pain was not taken seriously,' she continued. 

While heading to work, Milano would 'think about all the ways that Milo could die in the hands of his caretakers. 

'Every night, after working 16-hour days, after I was finally able to hold my child and put him to sleep, my day's anxiety would culminate into a debilitating anxiety attack.' 

One night, Milano 'went to the emergency room at 2:00 AM, asked for a psychiatrist and got help. I felt as though I had no choice: I asked to be committed; I stayed in a public psychiatric ward for three days.'

She said that the journey of her pain being understood and recognized was 'not easy.'

Milano was then introduced to her psychiatrist and therapist, whom she called 'angels.'

When it comes to mental illness, the actress penned that solutions and answers are sometimes not immediately clear. 

'I was lucky enough to have the means and the insurance to get the help and support I needed. What happens to those mothers who don't have the kind of support I received?'

The Daily Mail has reached out to a rep for Milano for comment, but has yet to hear back.  

Clancy, who is a former labor and delivery nurse, has admitted to killing her three children but pleaded not guilty to murder by reason of insanity, citing postpartum psychosis.

She is also seeking to be committed to a state mental health facility rather than a prison sentence. 

After the death of her children, Clancy allegedly attempted to kill herself which has left her paralyzed and in a wheelchair for life. 

However, prosecutors have claimed that Clancy planned the 2023 killings and contrived to get her husband out of the house so she could carry them out. 

Female supporters of Clancy stood outside of the courthouse in Plymouth, Massachusetts this week wearing shades of pink. 

'The healthcare failed her, and that's just tragic. We're both mothers and both experienced postpartum anxiety and depression,' one supporter told the Daily Mail. 

'It's scary to speak out. You don't want to get judged and you don't want somebody to take your child.' 

Milano also took to Instagram this week to pay an emotional tribute to Hayden Panettiere following her tragic passing at age 36 on August 16. 

She wrote that the late actress 'understood something simple and difficult: visibility is not just something you are given, but something you can give away. 

'And she gave hers, again and again, in service of things larger than herself.'

Milano shared that Panettiere had been an activist for animal rights as well as global issues. 

'And perhaps most quietly powerful, she spoke openly about what so many are taught to hide: domestic violence, postpartum depression, addiction, recovery, and abuse.

'She did not share these things for ease or attention, but because she understood what her silence could cost others.' 

Milano called the late star's activism 'instinctive, human, sometimes messy, often vulnerable, and always sincere.'

She concluded with: 'Rest in peace, Hayden. You deserved so much more time and your courage deserves to be remembered.' 

If you or someone you know needs help, please call or text the confidential 24/7 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in the US on 988. There is also an online chat available at 988lifeline.org.