I love this story from Elma Placeres Dieppa about her experience with postpartum depression (PPD). There is certainly a strong stigma against acknowledging and treating mental illness in the Latin community, so I really appreciate her bravery in sharing her story at the blog Latino Amerigringa. I also really appreciate how much she talked about having uncontainable anger as one of her symptoms.

Elma shares a lot about her anger during PPD:

“I know my temper was off the charts, which with an infant and a toddler is a scary place to be … I was mad! I was furious! Nothing the kids did was cute, or fun, or interesting. I just wanted to be left alone … Slowly, I became more active, but the anger stayed with me, and there was no, no…verve. I have a great life, but I couldn’t really appreciate it, which of course made me feel worse. I’ve always been a believer of natural remedies, so I went to my naturopath and got some help, or better yet I sought help. And things changed slightly, but not the rage.” She calls herself “banshee mommy” during that period.

Rage. It’s one of the surprising symptoms of postpartum depression, one that many websites don’t even list, but one that is still quite common and that I wish more women knew might be a sign of PPD.

Eventually Elma sought the help of a physician and found a treatment plan that worked for her. To read her entire story, click here.

For more stories on anger and rage during PPD, try:

The Rage of Postpartum Depression

Uncontrollable Anger Can Be Part Of PPD

Photo credit: © Paul Hakimata – Fotolia.com