Like sisters Jill Duggar and Jessa Duggar, Joy-Anna Duggar has been deconstructing her faith after walking away from the cult-like religion that their oversized family was raised in, but the process hasn’t been easy for her. During an appearance on this week’s episode of The Unplanned Podcast, Joy broke down into tears talking about feeling like her life was “crumbling” as she grappled with her faith and battled postpartum depression while her family continued to make headlines.
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Joy opened up about a particularly difficult time in her life.
After Joy and husband Austin Forsyth welcomed their youngest child, Gunner, in May 2023, Joy faced postpartum depression.
“We had a stillbirth after Gideon, and after I delivered her, Annabelle, I had baby blues for probably about six months. But it wasn’t as extreme as this time,” she told podcast hosts Matt and Abby Howard. “But this one, I think a lot of it was not taking very good care of myself during pregnancy. My body was depleted. I felt exhausted all the time. It compiled with all the other things.”
At that point in her life, she felt like her family was 'falling apart.'
Joy broke down into tears as she spoke about confronting her religious belief system during that time and the way it rocked her world.
“We grew up with so many standards and I was great at keeping all of these standards and my parents never preached one time that it was, you do all these things and then God will accept you, but that’s how I took it personally, and so, my whole life, I was like doing all these things and … my whole Christianity was always a checklist,” she admitted.
Her sisters' books coming out made her search for what she truly believed in even more crucial.
But after big sister Jinger published her book Becoming Free Indeed, Joy said they were able to talk out her feelings together, and she also enlisted the help of a mental health counselor.
“I had a lot of really good counselors in my life and I went and actually saw a counselor for these issues, and that was really good,” she said.
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Austin was also there to support her.
“I really appreciate that about Austin because I know not everybody has such a supportive of husband but he never made me feel like, ‘I can’t believe you’re going through this,’ and, ‘I can’t believe you’re questioning God,'” she said. “He was constantly there supporting me, wanting me to grow, become a better person and encouraging me to search stuff out from myself.”
Joy is doing better these days.
Though she did say that she’s still “on a journey” to find the answers to all of her questions, it sounds like she has come out of the dark place she was in less than a year ago.
Good for Joy for facing such a tough time in her life head on. There’s no doubt that her speaking up about her own experience will help others who are going through something similar themselves.
