Postnatal Depression can affect anyone. Postnatal depression or anxiety can affect mothers or fathers in the first 12 months after the birth of a child. While I knew I might have been more at risk due to previous depression, I thought I knew how to handle it. This was not true – I waited too… Continue reading Monday Morning Musings VII
I believe depression is likely to hit when the amount of losses in your life outweight the gains. As you become a parent there can be a lot of loss. Here’s an example of how my losses vs gains looked at around 1 month postpartum. I felt overwhelmingly sad over all my losses – a… Continue reading Parenting – Losses vs Gains: getting back a healthy balance
Warning: uncensored thoughts being unleashed below. I’d like to show other mums that it’s not strange to feel threatened or angered by ‘well meaning’ advice givers. Here are some examples of advice I’ve been given or heard others given and what I was thinking in my mind. (I was polite at the time & nodded… Continue reading A few words back to that advice you’d rather not have got
I know you don’t want to read this, but you have to. You have to know you will get through this moment. I know it feels like the end of the world and that nothing’s worth fighting this hard for but it’s not going to feel this way forever. Try and take a moment to… Continue reading An open letter to myself for my dark days
I was recently asked by TwoHandsStrong to create an artwork for a blog post she had written. The post is called I am a good mother and it’s about her experience of a psychotic episode after the birth of her son. It was a huge honor to be asked to create an artwork for someone’s… Continue reading My first ‘commission’
When times are tough, we sometimes forget what good we have around us. In the blackness of depression it’s easy to be blind to how much there is for us to be grateful for. I’ve started a nightime ritual with my son to remind us each day that we have so much to be thankful… Continue reading A grateful end to the day
I never thought I enjoyed writing, it always seemed like a chore. I’m not sure why. I wasn’t a fan of English at school – maybe this was because we’d get asked to read out loud to the class. I was shy enough without the fear of embarrassing myself because when I read I find… Continue reading Writing
I found seeing my son very sick for the first time was a huge emotional struggle for me. With the additional sleep deprivation, from being up all night, it culminated into an emotional breakdown. It happened a few weeks before I was diagnosed with PND. I don’t think that was a coincidence. It’s heartbreaking to… Continue reading Seeing your baby sick for the first time
A technique I learnt early on, to help manage my depressing thoughts, was to simply – talk to my baby. Sounds too easy and like common sense but for me, someone of little words, it was something quite new. However, I found that by talking through my day, I would concentrate on the here and… Continue reading Baby talk
Phah! What joker came up with that line? Sleep is something I knew I’d get less of when I had a baby. The thing I didn’t know was how much sleep deprivation would mentally and physically effect me. I have always been a person that needs a lot of sleep. Pre-baby I used to always get at least… Continue reading I slept like a baby…
PND Recovery 