Karen Kleiman at the Postpartum Stress Center has created a guide for healthcare practitioners on integrating a one-question screen on intrusive thoughts into their practice for postpartum women. This one-page guide on "scary" thoughts may help you more comfortably discuss this with your patients.
For more from Postpartum Progress on intrusive thoughts, click here.
It'd be great to get this out through mass media for everyone to understand, particularly the idea that the thoughts themselves do NOT indicate psychosis.
This is FABULOUS. . .it is so hard when you hear that women have been sent to the psych ward when they in fact are NOT crazy. I just heard the story AGAIN from another mom in my PPD support group who just began suffering from PPD. How maddening it is that the public does not know that intrusive thoughts are unfortunately a part of the PPD experience.
Thanks for the post. I've been in treatment for PPD/ Anxiety with Intrusive Thoughts for 7 mos. now and the most difficult thing for me to grasp at the beginning was that it wasn't psychosis. It is encouraging to read again and to hear how common it really is.
will definitely post a link to this page on my site. I'm certain my followers will find this article really useful.