I think I am making great strides with my depression. I have been seeing my therapist and I am taking medication. I believe the combination is helping significantly! I have good days and bad days, but the good out weigh the bad.
I had no clue that I was depressed. When I think of "Postpartum Depression", I think of that old woman who lies in bed all day long crying and wanting nothing to do with her baby! Seriously, that is what I thought! I am learning that postpartum depression has a wide range of symptoms! They call them "mood disorders". I found this great video on either you tube or yahoo videos that explained a few different mood disorders. I felt so much more "normal" after watching that as well as speaking to others who have gone through this before. I felt CRAZY!
My therapist has verified that I am not crazy and that my symptoms are very much a part of postpartum depression. She explained it like this...She says I am going through a "menopause state"..No, I am not in menopause, but that my estrogen was really high (during pregnancy) and then dropped off very low. Most of the symptoms I am experiencing are an effect of the low estrogen. Everything from having little energy, fatigued, headaches, loss of appetite (well, that isn't a symptom of menopause; it is the opposite), no libido, night sweats (I am very warm at night..not in a puddle of sweat when I wake up though..Another thing that has happened to me is not being able to remember how to spell! Or that a word is on the tip of my tongue and I cannot think of it for the life of me! I just think to myself, "what the hell is WRONG with me?"! I have been reassured that I am normal.
The Video:
http://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play?p=postpartum+depression&b=22&ei=UTF-8&fr=yfp-t-501&tnr=21&vid=000162627844
I just take one day at a time. Stay in the moment. I think that is good advice for all of us!
2 comments:
My darling, you are making great progress. I am very proud of you for being proactive and taking the time to work through your depression. I am very lucky to be married to you and Javier is lucky to have you as a mom.
Medication is a great thing and so is therapy. It helps to be able to talk about things and get it all out. Time is the key. I went through a a period of panic disorder in my early 20's and took klonopin for a while. It helped a lot. This puts some things into perspetive for me lol I cant seem to remember anything! :-) Toni will ask me something and it takes me 20 minutes to think of it. I have Luca on the brain as I call it. The other day I was writing a paper for school and typed his name three times. Javier will appreciate all your effort. We go through a lot for our children. :-)
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