One thing I’ve noticed on the talk show coverage of postpartum mood disorders is that they always only show sobbing, desperate mothers. I, of course, have been a sobbing, desperate mother, but now I am a smiling, confident and joyous mother! They never show the people who have recovered and are doing just fine — perhaps it just doesn’t make good television. That frustrates me, because it doesn’t show all of the women who are watching that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

To that end, I’ve decided to create a little photo album on Postpartum Progress of survivors of postpartum depression, postpartum OCD and postpartum psychosis.

If you’d like to be in the photo album, please email me a photo (jpeg would be the best format) using the following guidelines:

1) The photo needs to be of you with your child or children, since the subject of the album is happiness, survival and motherhood.

2) Include basic information in the email: For your name you can use first name only (Katherine) or first name and last initial (Katherine S.). For your location, just list your state (Georgia). For your illness, just tell me what you survived (PPD, PPOCD or PPP) and what year (2001). I don’t want to put too much information in there since this is the Internet after all.

This album will serve to remind those of us who have been through it and those who are going through it that it is possible not only to survive but to THRIVE.

Tags: postpartum depression postpartum psychosis post partum depression postpartum OCD