How many women feel like this mom, who writes about her uncertainty as to whether she’s suffering from postpartum depression and the guilt she feels for even being sad when she is so blessed?
"Even hearing the words ‘postpartum depression’ pisses me off. What’s there to be depressed about? I have a beautiful healthy daughter, a very hands-on husband who does more than his fair share, we’re both employed in an economically uncertain time, and we have a roof overhead and food on our plate."
It makes me so sad that we blame ourselves for being depressed, and get mad at ourselves for not appreciating how good we have it, as though we’ve generated the depression ourselves. That’s just society talking, telling us that somehow or other we’re at fault for getting depression. Somewhere someone is starving, so what the hell is our problem, right?!! If we’d just learn to be more grateful for everything we have we wouldn’t have this problem, right?!!!! Wrong.
Even the most self-actualized, fully appreciative of us get postpartum mood disorders. It is an illness. Period. It’s a bad case of brain flu that clouds our perceptions and prevents us from experiencing joy.
One day I hope every man, woman and child who experiences depression in any form will no longer feel any guilt or shame.
