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Category: Postpartum Depression

  • Alanis Morissette Details Postpartum Depression On "Stop The Stigma"

    Alanis Morissette Details Postpartum Depression On "Stop The Stigma"

    “This time around, it’s less depression, it’s more anxiety and a little more of the compulsive, obsessive thoughts,” the “You Oughta Know” singer shared.

    With each birth of her three children, Alanis Morissette has shed light on postpartum depression (PPD) by sharing her personal experience with the “baby blues”—which can be more serious and longer lasting in some women.

    The singer-songwriter sat down with CBS This Morning’s Mireya Villarreal for the show’s Stop the Stigma segment on mental health challenges.

    Postpartum depression is a mood disorder suffered by some women after childbirth. Symptoms include extreme sadness, anxiety and exhaustion which affect the new mother’s ability to function.

    “This time around, it’s less depression, it’s more anxiety and a little more of the compulsive, obsessive thoughts,” the “You Oughta Know” singer shared. She would be consumed by “images that are horrifying, just a lot of times about safety about the people you love, your loved ones, your children,” she said. But having gone through it twice before the birth of her third child, Winter Mercy Morissette-Treadway, in August, Morissette had the presence of mind to stop and recognize the symptoms of PPD.

    Getting Help Instead Of Powering Through On Her Own

    Her first instinct was to overcome it on her own, but she was advised otherwise. “My survival strategy is to just push through,” she told Villarreal. “And then I spoke with a professional who knew all about postpartum depression, and I asked her, does this go away if I just white-knuckle through it? She said, no, it actually gets worse.”

    With the help of medication and the support of loved ones, Morissette has faced PPD with each birth, as she described in a recent essay.

    The singer detailed her most recent experience with PPD in a blog post published to her website in early October.

    “I have been here before. I know there is another side,” she wrote. “I saw how things got richer after I came through it the last two times.” With the birth of Winter, she was better prepared for the impending “postpartum tar-drenched trenches” that came with sleep deprivation, hormones, physical pain, isolation, anxiety, marriage and “all kinds of PTSD triggers,” she wrote.

    Stigma-Free Perception Is The Goal

    Sharing every detail of this experience is important, she explained. “There’s something about chronicling the experience in real time…If the goal is stigma-free perception of any mental illness or mental health conversation, understanding and giving the details of what it really looks like from the inside is important,” she told Villarreal.

    Morissette said that PPD would not deter her from doing it all over again. “Because I had experienced the other side of postpartum depression… I know that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. I’d be willing to go through it again. I know that sounds a little insane,” she said.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Alanis Morissette Describes Third Bout With Postpartum Depression

    Alanis Morissette Describes Third Bout With Postpartum Depression

    “I have been here before. I know there is another side. And the other side is greater than my PPD-riddled-temporarily-adjusted-brain could have ever imagined.”

    Singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette is in the midst of her third bout with postpartum depression—but she was better prepared for it this time around, she revealed in a recent blog post.

    “I wasn’t sure if I would have postpartum depression/anxiety this time around,” said Morissette, who gave birth to her third child, Winter Mercy Morissette-Treadway, on August 8.

    Morissette had previously shared that she struggled with depression after the births of her son Ever Imre in 2010 and daughter Onyx Solace in 2016.

    “I have been here before. I know there is another side. And the other side is greater than my PPD-riddled-temporarily-adjusted-brain could have ever imagined,” she wrote in her October 6 post on her website. “I saw how things got richer after I came through it the last two times.”

    Learning From Past Experiences

    This time around, the “Ironic” singer was better prepared for the impending “postpartum tar-drenched trenches” that came with sleep deprivation, hormones, physical pain, isolation, anxiety, marriage and “all kinds of PTSD triggers,” she wrote.

    “There is so much more support this time. I knew better so I set it up to win as much as I could beforehand,” she wrote. “Support. Food. Friends. Sun. Bio-identical hormones and SSRIs at the ready… PPD is still a sneaky monkey with a machete—working its way through my psyche and body and days and thoughts and blood work levels.”

    Morissette described the anticipation of PPD ahead of Winter’s birth in a previous interview with SELF from June. “I have said to my friends, I want you to not necessarily go by the words I’m saying and as best as I can, I’ll try to be honest, but I can’t personally rely on the degree of honesty if I reference the last two experiences.”

    History Of Depression

    She revealed in the same interview that she had a history of depression, so while PPD was no joke, it was a somewhat familiar experience for her.

    “For me I would just wake up and feel like I was covered in tar and it wasn’t the first time I’d experienced depression so I just thought ‘Oh well, this feels familiar, I’m depressed, I think.’ And then simultaneously, my personal history of depression where it was so normalized for me to be in the quicksand, as I call it, or in the tar. It does feel like tar, like everything feels heavy.”

    Morissette added that her nature of “over-giving, over-serving, over-do-ing, over-over-ing”—i.e. her “work addiction”—set an unsustainable standard for her after each birth.

    She also noted, “This culture is not set up to honor women properly after birth,” seemingly referencing the lack of priority given to allowing women a healthy period of recovery and bonding after giving birth in the United States.

    “I see it changing, which is so heartening,” she added, “but the general way is bereft of the honoring and tenderness and attunement and village-ness that postpartum deeply warrants.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Dad Details Personal Struggle With Postpartum Depression

    Dad Details Personal Struggle With Postpartum Depression

    Paternal post-natal depression affects around 10% of fathers. 

    Postpartum depression is commonly thought of as a women’s issue but a number of scientific studies have revealed that men can also be affected by the disorder. On recent episode of Today, one parent has come forward about his struggles with postpartum depression after his wife gave birth to their son.

    As Zavo Gabriel told Today, his wife Annie went through a difficult birth of their child. She was in labor for 36-hours, and the doctor had to use the forceps in the delivery.

    “It was really difficult for me seeing the look on her face when she was pushing the hardest,” he explains. “She was screaming and making these noises, which sounded like someone pushing for her life.”

    Once Gabriel’s son was born, he started having “multiple panic attacks a day,” and he had to distance himself from the family for some time.

    “I was a total wreck,” he confessed. “Annie’s mom had to step in and be the co-parent for those first few weeks.”

    According to research, about 10% of fathers can suffer from postpartum depression. As a source at Northwestern University explains, “The estimate is higher than depression in the normal population. A father’s depression has a direct link to the child. It definitely impacts the whole family’s health.”

    And the same factors that can cause postpartum depression in women can affect men as well, whether it’s a history of mental illness, more stress in your personal life, sleep deprivation, or changes in your hormonal chemistry. Men can experience a drop in their testosterone levels, which can lead to depression once they become fathers.

    As one source told Today, postpartum depression in men “shouldn’t be belittled. We need to change the culture of what masculinity is and be more inclusive about why fathers’ experiences matter.” Dads don’t get screened for postpartum depression as much as women, and they’re often afraid of the stigma surrounding the condition, which often prevents them from getting the help they need.

    Gabriel did finally seek help, completing six weeks of outpatient therapy, and he’s still attending therapy while raising his son. “All I wanted was to get back to Annie and start this life as a family,” he says.

    View the original article at thefix.com