Brooke Shields counters Tom Cruise

NEW YORK, July 1 (UPI) -- Brooke Shields has fired back at Tom Cruise, who recently criticized Shields publicly for using prescription drugs to treat postpartum depression.

Cruise told NBC's Matt Lauer that neither Lauer nor Shields, who has written a book about postpartum depression, knew anything about the history psychiatry. Cruise, whose religion, Scientology, disapproves of psychiatry, said he knows the history of psychiatry and questioned Shields' use of drugs to deal with postpartum depression.

"I feel compelled to speak not just for myself but also for the hundreds of thousands of women who have suffered from postpartum depression," said Shields in an op-ed piece in Friday's New York Times. "I'm going to take a wild guess and say that Mr. Cruise has never suffered from postpartum depression."

Shields said she thought her postpartum depression was from fatigue, but it worsened to the point where she wanted to jump out of a window. Shields said her depression diagnosis, treatment with the antidepressant Paxil and weekly therapy sessions, saved her and her family, People reported.

"If any good can come of Mr. Cruise's ridiculous rant," said Shields, "let's hope that it gives much-needed attention to a serious disease."