Adele on postnatal depression

[flamencina]

www.vanityfair.com/culture/2016/10/adele-cover-story

I'm not sure how to make it a link but there's an interview in Vanity Fair with Adele and in it she talks about PND. Reading it, I just thought isn't that just what everyone feels like? I don't know if it's because she's not talking about the whole experience or if she actually thinks what she said equates to PND. Surely every parent has moments every day where they wish for their own space to do what they want? I love my daughter so much but still wish every day I had some freedom to do something totally different. Taking one afternoon a week or herself, that's hardly unusual. I don't get that myself, hardly get any time away from my child, but the way she's said it is like it is something exceptional that needed to be done.

I just feel like instead of normalising that experience as a mother, it labels it as abnormal and something that needs to be treated.

I'm not saying she didn't have it before anyone jumps on that, obviously Adele and her doctors know better than me but I feel the portrayal in the article might make mums who are struggling with the usual things feel like there's something wrong with them.

She's talking about her experience and going into as much depth as she is comfortable doing. It's not there for us to pick at. It's good to see it being talked about at all frankly. PND comes in many different forms. YABU.

I suffer from depression and it got really bad after my dd was born. The only person I was brave enough to talk about it to was my very closest friend (who is like a sister to me) who said "yeah but everyone feels like that when they have a young baby".
It broke me and I was too worried to speak to anyone else as I thought I was making a fuss for no reason.

It took me 4 years to seek help.

I would never down play someone's feelings. You know if what you're feeling is normal or not.

"I just feel like instead of normalising that experience as a mother, it labels it as abnormal and something that needs to be treated. "

This is massively minimising. There's a fine line between normal anxieties tipping over into debilitating and often life-threatening PND. It's not something you see coming and it can result in women throwing themselves off buildings or taking a stroll in the motorway. I have been there and I'm glad no-one told me that it's just a normal experience of being a mother. Things can escalate very quickly and IME it's far more important to speak out and be (hopefully) reassured that everything is fine, than to assume your feelings are just part and parcel of motherhood to the detriment of your health and possibly your life.

Hmmm, this is a tricky one.

I don't want to minimise Adele's experiences and it may be that she hasnt disclosed the full extent of her feelings.

But in the other hand all this seems to do is give them impression that PND is not much more than finding new motherhood really difficult and being a bit anxious about your baby.

To be fair to her, she probably didn't want to go into the nitty gritty with a journalist.

On the medication front, I have been struggling with PND for almost a year (diagnosed by a psychologist). As yet I am not on medication because that may not the the best treatment for how it has manifested in me.

You can't really judge someone based on a few lines in an interview. Even if you asked some of my closest friends about me, they would only know the 'headlines' so to speak.

How I feel or how she feels both of our feelings matter. I managed and still do with out anti depressants I just can't talk about it. I have been on them but I quickly came off because I felt they made me feel worse.

Adele is not a spokes woman for PND she is giving you an idea of how she feels.

I think what she's saying is not that wanting an afternoon to herself is why she thinks she had PND, but its how she dealt with it, its what made her feel better which i think is totally valid.

PND takes many forms. I was a hyper-vigilante, neurotic mess. I HAD to be perfect at everything and it didn't matter how exhausted I was. To other people, i probably looked the very opposite of depressed, i looked like Supermother. Inside though, I was falling apart.

Anything that gets us talking openly about pnd is a good thing.

There's a good chance that Adele has experienced much more than she was comfortable divulging. Hardly anyone outside of my immediate family knows truly what I experienced with severe pnd. It is definitely was a life threatening experience in my case. It does however come in very varying degrees and even mild cases can have a hugely negative impact on life.