Sunday, October 10, 2010

Mental Health Week

Well today is the start of Mental Health Week and as I was a suffer of prenatal & postnatal depression I thought it would we worth blogging about and also it's worth noting postnatal depression awareness week this year starts from 14 November.

I suffered depression whilst I was pregnant with my first child and because of this I left work early.  I must admit I had always been bit depressive but this was overwhelming.  At the start I would cry all the time and over obsess about what would happen if my husband passed away.  It got to the stage where I wasn't able to sleep and a few times my husband found me crying in the middle of the night.  Then my eating started suffering and soon at one of my regular appointments to see my doctor I broke down crying and that is when we decided it was serious.  She put me on Zoloft (completely safe whilst pregnant) and I went and saw a psychologist.  This all helped until my daughter came along.........

I had problems breastfeeding and this was a total nightmare.  I combined breastfeeding and bottlefeeding up to she was about 3 months old.  Those three months were horrible and as I could not take it anymore I made the choice to exclusively bottlefeed.  This was a hard decision for me as I wanted to breastfeed and felt guilty about it and to be perfectly honest I still do but I know it was the best thing for all of us as she was a changed child after that.  My husband even agrees now as he was a bit hesitant at first about my choice.  Anyway when she was about 9 months I noticed that I was not feeling completely right.  I started not wanting to go out and would get panic attacks at just thinking about leaving the house.  Then my eating habits started to declined again and the emotional rollercoaster just wouldn't go away.  I sorted help again with the help of my child's health nurse in the way of group sessions.  This was the best money I have ever spent as this helped me a great deal.  Luckily for me this worked as I fell pregnant with number two soon after finishing the sessions (maybe this was the reason!) and was able to stop taking the medication under the guidance of my doctor.

Fortunately I didn't suffer prenatal or postnatal with my second and still feel good.  I do have some dark moments and I have to continually work on my moods but I quickly use the tools from what I have learnt and feel better.  This is just my story (so far) and I do know that it doesn't always work out this way but there is light at the end of a dark dark tunnel.

3 comments:

  1. so proud of you for writing this Nat...and i am glad you are feeling good now...The tools you have learnt will last you forever so that can only be a good thing, right?

    xo

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  2. Wow Nat, I had no idea....you are a Brave and Strong Woman for sharing your story, and I am proud of you. It takes a special kind of strength to publicly share these experiences. Big Ups to YOU!
    Nic xo

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  3. Great post Natalie, There is certainly a light and some days it can be dimmer than others but posts like these make it brighter. :)

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