Postpartum Depression or Just Overwhelmed?

Motherhood is hard enough without having to deal with postpartum depression. Everything that makes being a mother so wonderful can also make it the most stressful and difficult job on the planet. And, for those of you who say motherhood is not a job, you are probably not a mother. Women with postpartum depression have the usual feelings of soreness and tiredness of just having a baby plus feelings of extreme anxiety, worthlessness, guilt, sadness, and even suicidal thoughts. But, how do you know whether you have postpartum depression or are just stressed out from the usual new mother activities and hormonal fluctuations?

Symptoms of Postpartum Depression

Up to 20% of new mothers experience postpartum depression. That is approximately 900,000 women in the United States every year. According to the American Psychological Association, about one out of every seven women experience postpartum depression at some point in their lives. There are serious differences between postpartum depression and normal stress or anxiety. Some of the most common symptoms of postpartum depression include:

• Feelings of sadness, hopelessness, and being overwhelmed

• Bouts of aggression or crying for no apparent reason

• Sleeping less or more than usual, unable to stay asleep

• Extreme fatigue or no energy at all

• Difficulty concentrating

• Memory loss

• Trouble making decisions

• Loss of interest in things that you usually enjoy

• Vague aches, pains, and digestive disturbances

• Loss of appetite or eating more than usual

• Avoiding people or public places

• Inability to bond with your baby

• Afraid to be alone with your baby

• Thinking you are not a good mother

• Periods of rage or anger for no reason

• Not wanting to care for your baby

• Thinking about hurting yourself or your baby

Get Some Help

You do not have to face this alone. Talk to someone right away even if it is a stranger. Some women feel so guilty about feeling this way that they are unable to talk to anyone about it. However, you should not feel guilty since this is not your fault. Postpartum depression is usually caused by an imbalance in your hormones or chemical imbalance in the brain. It is a common occurrence that often goes overlooked unless something tragic happens. Do not wait until something horrible happens. Talk to someone now to get the help you need. If you do not want to talk to someone you know, you can speak to a professional online who can help you. Online therapy is easy, very affordable, and you do not even need to leave your home. You can talk to someone today and do not even need an appointment. 

If you or someone you love has thoughts of suicide or harming someone else, you can call the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention at 1-888-333-2377 or the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.




About the Author

Marie Miguel has been a writing and research expert for nearly a decade, covering a variety of health- related topics. Currently, she is contributing to the expansion and growth of a free online mental health resource with BetterHelp.com. With an interest and dedication to addressing stigmas associated with mental health, she continues to specifically target subjects related to anxiety and depression.

A Long Time

Wow its been a while since the last time I blogged. I decided to take a step back and focus on the twins.  A lot has happened in that time.

Torticollis 
So our son was diagnosed with torticollis and required PT. Basically what happened is he ran out of room and was unable to move his head and neck a lot so his muscles in his neck and trunk were not strong.  We had pt once a week for about 7 months. Boy was that a long 7 months. There were times where we all thought he wasn't getting better, then one day it all clicked and everything fell into place.

Seizure 
In September our daughter had a seizure out of nowhere. It was single handedly the scariest moments of my life!!!!! She was rushed to the hospital for monitoring. Ultimately it was determined to be a fluke. She hasn't had one since and we are so beyond grateful that it hasn't happened again.

Brand Rep
Since I am now a SAHM and the twins are so beyond adorable, I decided to get the into brand repping. What is brand repping? Well we are on teams for small shops/handmade shops, we help them promote their business by taking pictures of the twins in their items and help spread their name on all social media fronts. I will start doing reviews and posts about brands we rep for. We are currently on 5 teams at the moment.

Vacation
We went on our first family vacation. We went to Disney World.  We had an amazing time.  It was also the twins' first time on an air plane and they did amazing. We are lucky enough to be able to have Military rates for Disney, making our trip affordable. We got the military rate rooms (they have select number of rooms at each resort for the military rate, so book fast), we stayed at All Star Movies. It's one of the value resorts, but don't let that fool you it was really nice, the cast members were all so amazing. We also were able to get the Salute The Troops Hopper Tickets, these are multi-day passes at a very discounted price. If we weren't able to get these there would have been no way that this vacation would have been affordable for us. We also purchased Disney gift cards, we used these for anything we wanted to buy while there, this made it so we knew what we were spending as well as not using our credit cards. Lets face it things add up and you don't realize until its too late so we wanted to be able to spend freely and not have to worry.