Last week many of you commented on your own postpartum anxiety after reading Stephanie’s guest post. Whether it’s manifested in the form of postpartum OCD or postpartum panic attacks or general anxiety, for a lot of you your symptoms are more about fears and worries than sadness and lack of interest in things you used to enjoy.
I think you will all be interested in this in-depth story from Glamour, currently appearing on the MSNBC website, on why anxiety disorders are on the rise among women in general, including postpartum anxiety.
It’s well-written and balanced, with input from serious experts. If you have or think you have postpartum anxiety, or treat women who do, I really would go read it. One interesting highlight for me:
Ironically, despite the condition’s seeming ubiquity, experts Glamour spoke to agree that anxiety is actually underdiagnosed among women. “The average length of time between the onset of symptoms—the time a woman starts feeling bad—and when she gets actual diagnosis is between nine and 12 years,” says Robert Leahy, Ph.D., a clinical professor of psychology and psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York. “And of those who are diagnosed, only a very small percentage get adequate help.”
Part of the problem, say doctors, is that a woman with anxiety may fail to seek help quickly, even if she’s seriously on edge. “To her, that is normal,” says Richard A. Friedman, M.D., a professor of clinical psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College. “If you’re a healthy woman and you come down with the flu, you know you’re sick. You know what it’s like to feel good, and you know you feel worse now. But if you have this sickness that’s been hanging on since you were 5, that’s your baseline. You believe it’s normal, and that everyone else must feel this way too.”
The last line of the section you highlighted hit me like a ton of bricks:
"But if you have this sickness that’s been hanging on since you were 5, that’s your baseline. You believe it’s normal, and that everyone else must feel this way too.”
When I had what I thought was my 1st major bout of depression & anxiety @ 32, my therapist and I (slowly, but surely) unraveled my life and discovered that I had mostly likely been dealing with some level of depression (or anxiety) since I was at least 12, if not earlier. What a shock to me!
That last line, talking about how you don't realize you're sick b/c it's become your baseline…. my teens and 20s in a nutshell. If only I'd known…or someone had noticed… I sometimes wonder what I missed–how my life would have been different– if I'd not been diagnosed 20 years after it all began.
Hi – This is a great article as it points out the causes of the rise of anxiety (and depressive) disorders is on the rise in correlation to the materialistic pressures of our society. I just got back form Europe, the places we stayed had adequate public places for socialization, less emphasis on status and material gain (altho this is changing) and more emphasis on people, community support, tradition. I like to try to create my own oasis of anti-materialistic sanity in the world by changing my mind-set when I start to work too much, by reaching out to my friends and family to socialize, by taking a walk in nature. I love Andrew Weil's idea of a news fast and I have done it for many years. i don;t think humans can absorb all of the crime around the world on a daily basis without reacting emotionally! No need to be super mom or to have the house clean all the time! Or to have all new stuff!
Hi all, i am 38 years old and suffer from panic disorder since 8 years now. With cipralex i feel better, but when i decide to do not use medication anymore i relapse. Its the third time. I am also a mother of 5 years old girl. When i had her i thought that this illness could be ovecomed but it is not like this. Now i am terrified by the idea that she may inherit this condition by me. I would have preferred for my doctor to have explained the severity of illness, so i could have a choice of not getting married and have children. I am terrified by the idea that my daughter may suffer like i do. How do you deal with this feeling?
Hi Adi – A lot of these illnesses do have a genetic competent so it’s completely normal to wonder and be worried by the fact that our children might also suffer in similar ways we do. However, just like other genetic illnesses, there’s no guarantee your daughter will get panic disorder. If your daughter does struggle, she will have you to help her. That is so incredibly powerful. You can give her hope and share all you’ve learned. Hugs to you, mama.