It’s easy to believe you’re stupid. Dense. I mean, how could you possibly not know you have PPD or anxiety right? Well, you’re not stupid at all. Not dense. Not even unusual. So many moms have no idea what’s wrong with them, and no idea that what they are feeling and experiencing could be symptoms of postpartum depression, anxiety, OCD, PTSD or psychosis.
I wanted to share this news story with you from Atlanta. It features Sarah Schwartz, who runs Mental Health America of Georgia. It’s a great story for a lot of reasons, but what I love most about it is that Sarah explains that even though she is a mental health expert she still had no idea what was wrong with her. It’s not just you. I didn’t know what was wrong with me, and Sarah didn’t either, so if you didn’t know, no you know you’re not alone!! That’s why we have so much more work to do to raise awareness about perinatal mood and anxiety disorders like PPD.
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MHA of Georgia is hosting an event called Move for Moms to raise money for Project Healthy Moms, a Georgia-centered campaign to raise awareness and train more physicians in our state to recognize and effectively treat perinatal mood and anxiety disorders. Go here to learn more!
I feel, as a mom who battled it internally and alone for 7 months until my husband spoke up, that it needs to be treated as a part of normal recovery after giving birth. I may have had it with my first son and not realized, but my husband was brave enough to draw my attention to it after my second son. I was ashamed, embarrassed and felt like a defect. I think it needs to be a bigger part of prenatal care. Explaaning the ppd to moms before it happens, may bring about recognition before it gets out of control! Thank you for sharing this!! Below is a link to my personal struggle.
really good to hear that a partner’s role in understanding these issues are recognised, he is likely to be the one who knows something is wrong, yet in many places, expecting dads are given no information on how to support their partner through pregnancy, what to look out for, or possibly how to avoid such issues…