ItJustIsntEasy I just wanted to answer the question you asked yesterday, because that is exactly what I kept asking myself. i.e. how do you know if it's PND, or just sleep deprivation combined with the difficulties of having a young baby?
My PND was undiagnosed for a long time. My reasoning for how I was feeling was that it could all be explained by lack of sleep and difficult circumstances (moving to a new area with two young children, recovering from a terrible pregnancy, etc, etc).
There were so many times that I did not feel capable of looking after my children. It was the most enormous undertaking to consider leaving the house. And when I did I would see other mums juggling small children with ease, while I couldn't even cope with the basics.
I felt like a failure all the time. I would dream of sleeping for a whole night with no children to wake me up.
I thought everyone else must be in on a secret that nobody had told me, because they could cope and I couldn't. I tried to be more organised, I tried to do the things I thought a SAHM should do. I would just end up crying and feeling like a failure in a spiral I couldn't get out of. And so, so tired, all the time.
One day everything just stopped. Frozen to the spot, crying and crying. DH came home from work to take the children off my hands and I finally went to the GP to ask what was wrong. It turned out I was way at the top of the PND questionnaire, and I didn't even know.
I had been going around in circles in my head for weeks thinking it was just the difficult external circumstances that were making me feel I couldn't cope, not anything in my head. The thing is, it's nearly always a combination of external circumstances and head chemicals.
My advice would be, if you are questioning whether it's PND, ask. The questionnaire is really helpful to get things in perspective. The SSRIs turned out to be exactly what I needed. At the start I saw the GP every couple of weeks and re-did the questionnaire each time. Seering my score gradually come down each time was so satisfying, like proof that I was getting control back.
Sorry I have written so much, but I can't believe the difference from what I've written to where I am now. It's like I have crossed over to the other side of this fuzzy wall that I was banging my fists against before.
That was seven months ago. Now I'm back in a serious, kick-arse job I wouldn't have believed I was capable of, the kids are brilliantly happy, I'm even buying funky stylish work clothes that I would never have had the confidence to wear before. And having sex with my husband! I'm so happy! Still tired, but actually happy. And the best part is the happiness for the whole family.
I really hope this helps someone.