Whitney Cummings Says Drew Barrymore Helped Her with Postpartum Depression

Whitney Cummings is feeling grateful for how her friend Drew Barrymore helped her through a tough time.

On the Thursday, Jan. 16 episode of The Drew Barrymore Show, Cummings shared that she was in “deep throes of postpartum depression,” when she was offered to appear on the revival game show Hollywood Squares alongside Barrymore.

However, after finding out Barrymore was involved with the show, Cummings decided to go through with the episode, which she said “snapped me out of it” and “really helped me a lot.”

“I needed to see other moms, like working and having fun, and that was a big healing moment for me,” Cummings shared. “I think I was just putting so much pressure on myself and that really helped me just like release it.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. 

Cummings, who welcomed her son in December 2023, said that Barrymore made her feel “safe.”

“I knew that even if I did suck, we’d make it funny and we’d figure it out,” she said. “Then, I was safe enough to be able to just feel like, ‘You can do this, and if you can’t do this, that’s also fine.”

Cummings said that moment helped her realize the pressure she was putting on herself was the thing that was blocking her.

“I realized how much I defined myself through my ability to make people laugh or be smart or say the thing in the moment or remember the thing the fastest, and my brain was not working,” Cummings admitted. “I was so scared.”

Barrymore, who’s a mother to daughters Olive and Frankie, with her ex-husband Will Kopelman, also opened up about her postpartum experience. She said that she felt “isolated” and “didn’t know what was happening with me chemically.”

“I felt so confused in the most profound and beautiful ways after I had my kids,” Barrymore shared. “I didn’t know who I was supposed to be, and so I didn’t know how to work. I felt like I didn’t necessarily relate to my friends the same way anymore.”

The Blended actress first struggled with postpartum depression when she had her younger daughter, Frankie, in 2014.

“It was just really challenging and I felt overwhelmed,” the actress told PEOPLE in a 2015 interview. “I made a lot of decisions and I definitely changed my work life to suit my parenthood.”