Jena Malone shares honest message about 'motherhood, depression, and self-worth': 'This struggle is real'

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"I don't have anything beautiful to say. Except that this struggle is real. The sharp edges are too much to hold without compassion." — Jena Malone, opening up about motherhood, depression and self-worth, on Instagram

Parenthood isn’t always easy — which is something Jena Malone can attest to.

The 32-year-old mother of one got super honest on Instagram Wednesday, writing a caption about “motherhood, depression and self worth” to accompany an artistic, blurry photo of herself and son Ode Mountain, 14 months.

“I don’t have anything beautiful to say. Except that this struggle is real,” wrote the Sucker Punch actress. “The sharp edges are too much to hold without compassion.”

“I’m struggling with this. Compassion for myself and this moment of growth in my life,” she adds. “I know I am not alone in this. I guess I just needed to share, in hopes of being seen and feeling not so very much alone.”

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Motherhood , depression and self worth. I don't have anything beautiful to say. Except that this struggle is real. The sharp edges are too much to hold without compassion. I'm struggling with this . Compassion for myself and this moment of growth in my life. I know I am not alone in this. I guess I just needed to share, in hopes of being seen and feeling not so very much alone.

A post shared by Jena Malone (@jenamalone) on Aug 23, 2017 at 4:09pm PDT

The prayer position is one he naturally commands from me. Children are such great leaders/ teachers. I see all of humanity in his joy and in his impatience . His size demands tender care and kneeling in awe and assistance. Yes they grow fast. But we grow so slow it's nice to be reminded that everything is passing...into something else constantly. That there is no constant with children except that they will always change. And oh what an amazing lesson. To love what is there not what was.

A post shared by Jena Malone (@jenamalone) on Jun 12, 2017 at 4:09pm PDT

Malone has been largely out of the spotlight since welcoming Ode in May with fiancé Ethan DeLorenzo. She has written about some of her parenting journey on Instagram, as well as her blog Our Mountain Family.

“I have been very inactive on social media since the birth of my son,” she blogged in November. “It was not a conscious break. I simply didn’t have time to post as much. The things that seemed important to me before my son came into the world just didn’t feel as important now. ”

For you I will make my skin impenetrable against the wind and the blackberry bramble. I will let it tear and bleed with grace and strength. I will take your pain and your fear and your skin bruised soft by falls and kiss them over and over again until you find your courage . I can not give you courage. I can only show you mine. You will decide for yourself how you will grow. I can only hold you in my arms for so long until they too become unnecessary to demonstrate what safety is . You will hold the imprint of our life together in your skin. You will lead me to my chair. And carry the weight of the world on your shoulders. You will carry my groceries. You will protect me from the wind and the sharp edges of your heartbreaks. You will be alone in a world full of chaos. It will be your choice who to love, how to love and how to let go of fear. All I can do is show you , my dear boy, what it is to be a human , in the long history of being human , on a planet at the edge of another collapse ,during the fall of an empire convoluted with so much hate. I can only lead by example one step at a time. I can only show you how our history lives in our skin, the good and the bad and the ugly of it. I can only teach you rituals of gratitude and love and hope that the millionth time we greet the sun in awe, it sticks. There's only so much I can do for you until you must do it for yourself. I must let you go, as one day you must let me go. I believe in our story here on earth and here together. I believe in you. And I believe in the oldest thread of revolutionary truth, LOVE. #heatherheyer #magnifytruth #magnifylove #raisingthenextgenerationOfhealers #mothersunite

A post shared by Jena Malone (@jenamalone) on Aug 16, 2017 at 12:06pm PDT

We love you.

A post shared by Jena Malone (@jenamalone) on Aug 17, 2017 at 11:21am PDT

Earlier this month, the Donnie Darko star wrote a lengthy message to her son, assuring him of her belief in him and promising to be there to teach him everything she can.

“All I can do is show you, my dear boy, what it is to be a human, in the long history of being human, on a planet at the edge of another collapse, during the fall of an empire convoluted with so much hate,” Malone wrote. “I can only lead by example one step at a time. I can only show you how our history lives in our skin, the good and the bad and the ugly of it.”

“I can only teach you rituals of gratitude and love and hope that the millionth time we greet the sun in awe, it sticks,” she added. “There’s only so much I can do for you until you must do it for yourself.”