When radio-marketing specialist Sandra Poulin first heard reports linking Britney Spears' recent erratic behavior to postpartum depression, she was skeptical.
The partying, the strip-club photo ops, the head shaving—none of that spoke to the experience of Poulin, who battled the disorder after the birth of her daughter, or to those of the women she interviewed for her book, The Mother-to-Mother Postpartum Depression Support Book.
"If she has the energy to party, that is very suspect to me that she in any way would have postpartum depression," says Poulin, who endured months of anxiety-driven sleepless nights.
But then Poulin did the math: Spears' youngest son, Jayden James, was born six months ago last September; postpartum depression is often diagnosed four to six months after the birth of a child.
"That's when it hits the hardest, because you are not sleeping well, and you really are not well," Poulin says. "People often think it's immediate, it hits you right away—no way."
According to Postpartum Support International, a California-based support and advocacy group, one in eight women will experience overwhelming helplessness, sadness or even anxiety after giving birth.
Brooke Shields and Marie Osmond belong to this not-at-all-exclusive club. Insiders in Spears' camp suggest she does, too.
Postpartum-depression experts don't disagree.
"I think it could definitely be a factor," says Susan Dowd Stone, a licensed clinical social worker and president of Postpartum Support International. "Quite frankly, I don't see how it could not be a factor."
"It isn't, 'Wow, isn't it weird Britney Spears had postpartum depression?' It's, 'Well, that's what was going on.' "
To Stone, Spears' acting out is in sync with a postpartum-disorder diagnosis, as well as potentially tied to classic risk factors such as marital problems and substance abuse.
Spears filed for divorce from husband Kevin Federline last November, en route to notching headlines for coast-to-coast clubbing, collapsing and vomiting.
"People think of depression as being in bed all day, or crying all day," Stone says. "But in manic states, [women] can engage in risk-taking behavior."
On Friday, and barring an early discharge, the 25-year-old Spears will mark her first full week in Promises, a Malibu clinic renowned for its alcohol- and drug-treatment programs.
Spears' camp has not expressly said what ails the singer—although paparazzi shots of Spears attending a not so anonymous Alcoholic Anonymous meeting on Wednesday night left a little less to the imagination.
Though short on public pronouncements, Spears' insiders are talking up reporters—and talking up postpartum depression, even if some incidents, such as her 55-hour marriage to Jason Allen Alexander, occurred prior to either of her pregnancies.
A source close to Federline told Tina Dirmann of E! Online's Planet Gossip show that Spears was "never the same after she had their kids," sons Jayden James and one-year-old Sean Preston.
"Even after the first baby, she had wild mood swings and her temper would go off at the drop of a hat," the source said. "After she came home the second time, she just seemed really unhappy all of the time."
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