Coming Out of the Postpartum Depression Cloud
This week on Fit Bottomed Mamas, we’re raising awareness of postpartum depression. Today, Christie over at Average Moms Wear Capes shares her story about coming out of the other side of postpartum depression.
Postpartum depression isn’t something that’s easy for me to talk about, and I’d say partially because when you say that you’ve had it, you open yourself up to some criticism and not everyone really believes you. However, when you say you’ve had it, all the moms in your life miraculously come forward to say, “me, too.”
The topic is very much in the news here because a local woman in our area is accused of killing her son,and deputies say that she suffered from postpartum depression.
See, we talk about postpartum depression all the time and we know so many people who go through it, and yet we are always shocked when something terrible happens because of it.
Even worse, many people still don’t believe it is real. That it’s perhaps, “just an excuse.”
But I can assure you it is a very real thing.
The thing is, I wouldn’t have actually known it unless my doctor told me because I didn’t believe it either. That’s the funny thing about postpartum depression.
You feel sad and depressed, yes. But you don’t actually feel like anything’s wrong. You are still very much you; you just feel like it is just a sort of bad mood you’re in. A really long, drawn out bad mood. Sort of.
It’s a funk, but it’s a funk in which you can’t tell that there is something actually wrong. I cannot explain this except to show you what I mean through my own experience four years ago, with my second son.
For me, there were some feelings of claustrophobia—like I needed to escape my house for some reason, like the walls were closing in on me.
And it felt like I couldn’t get a grip on anything. Anything at all, no matter how simple it was, was overwhelming.
Making yams for a Christmas dinner side dish.
Finding an outfit to wear.
None of these seemingly simple tasks were easy. But if you told me it was postpartum depression, I would have said, no, I just haven’t had much sleep and I am pissed.