Postpartum Depression

I have suffered with depression and anxiety for as long as I can remember.  I've tried many natural alternatives and supplements to alleviate my symptoms with moderate success.  But during pregnancy I discontinued their use due to a lack of research on safety.  And then I got pregnancy induced hypertension.  Hypertension or high blood pressure and anxiety are like the chicken and the egg, which came first?  I was incredibly stressed out and high strung during my pregnancy.  I had lots of irrational thoughts, some of them were rational but hyped up to the extreme.  I couldn't wait to have this baby just so I could feel better.

Guess what?  I didn't feel better.  I felt worse.  Aside from developing Postpartum Preeclampsia, even now almost 6 months postpartum I still have prehypertension.  And I'm still dealing with broken sleep.  I was so worried about the baby and every little thing, I couldn't relax.  I didn't sleep well, when I did get to sleep, and I would have nightmares.  I cried multiple times a day.  And to top it all off, we were thrown off our farm (the family farm that was for life) with no means for income and all our savings sunk into that business.

Postpartum depression is nothing to be ashamed of, it is a real medical condition.  Your body is working hard to get itself back to "normal."  Your hormones are haywire, you aren't getting enough sleep, and your sleep cycles are broken, you aren't eating properly, you aren't getting out of the house as much, and you are probably freaking out about what to do with this little person.  It is stressful!  But, postpartum depression doesn't always strike right away.  It can take months before you may have any symptoms.  A friends doctor told her it could take up to 2 years before her body is back to normal.

When my symptoms lasted more than the first two weeks after birth, I decided to go to a postpartum specialist.  She prescribed me an SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor), appointments to monitor my progress, and I was on my way.  I soon found out that SSRIs weren't the magic pill I wanted them to be.  While my anxiety was tamed for about 3 weeks, I had a slew of side effects that almost cancelled out the benefits.  So when my anxiety returned I decided to taper off the SSRI, under my nurse practitioners supervision.  I remembered about my old tried and true supplements.

I've been back to the supplements now for over a month and while they help, I'm still having anxiety and depression problems partly due to my new lifestyle of staying at home with the baby.  But the other day I bought facial tissues for the first time in months because I'm not crying much anymore.  It felt like a victory.

I realized that I neglected to differentiate between Postpartum Depression and Postpartum Psychosis.  The former is what I and many women suffer from after giving birth for a variety of reasons but typically related to hormone changes and what I call new baby isolation.  Postpartum Psychosis presents a very serious situation where the person suffering may want to hurt herself and/or her baby AND this seems like a logical or reasonable solution.  Please get help.  You can visit Postpartum Support International to find help near you.