PND

[whoneedsashoweranyway]

Hi everyone,
I'm just wondering what people's signs of PND were? I'm currently 3 months postpartum and feel like I might be suffering.
I have constant anxiety and I worry about stuff that happened years ago. I just don't feel myself. Can anyone else relate? I will go to the GP but just need a sanity check. Thanks

Is there anyone at all who can help? Tonight is a bad one.

I had PND that went undiagnosed for months as I just put it down to having a newborn, but my symptoms were severe anxiety, feeling generally lethargic and just not quite present, exhaustion during day to day activities such as supermarket shops, driving etc. The exhaustion was quite subtle as I expected to be tired but in hindsight I didn't see friends and family much as just wanted to be on my sofa or in bed. Overall I'd say I found it quite constantly draining. Once I got it diagnosed, had my doctor's support and started seeing a counsellor I felt like I could unravel the spaghetti in my brain, so even though it took a while to feel my normal self again I definitely felt more positive quite quickly. Hard to describe but I suspect if you think you have it then you quite possibly do. Hoping you can get some support in place and start the road back to normality soon x

Not feeling yourself resonates hugely with my experiences of PND. Hard to pinpoint why but you're just not right somehow. The silver lining is that you can recognise what it is. My doc was fantastic about it as well, they make it seem so much easier to handle

Thank you, I really appreciate this and the time it took you to put it together. I'm literally just trying to take it minute by minute tonight and I signed up for online counselling until I got to the payment part and realised that wasn't an option because it was too expensive. But even having someone take the time to respond is a help x

I was referred to IAPT through my doctors which might be worth a look as some of it is self referral. If there's anything else you want to ask, feel free, when I was going through it I felt quite lonely and didn't really know anyone who had experienced it recently. I had it about a year ago so it's fairly fresh in my memory! And I feel for you enormously, it's indescribably quite a horrible experience that feels inescapable because it's not obvious what's wrong. As though the newborn stage wasn't hard enough, honestly!

Mine was anger- lots of it- because I felt like I was failing at everything (I had a child who just wouldn't sleep or settle or anything else and a husband who became very hands off because he couldn't cope so left it all to me).

@dottypencilcase

Mine was anger- lots of it- because I felt like I was failing at everything (I had a child who just wouldn't sleep or settle or anything else and a husband who became very hands off because he couldn't cope so left it all to me).

Yes I have bouts of this too, but it's then quickly followed by extreme guilt and then anxiety. It's so hard to explain because you are to some extent in denial and have periods where everything is fine but it really creeps up fast. I just think MH is everywhere these days and there's a fear that I'm hopping on the bandwagon. But it's so so real.

Not bonding with baby 'going through the motions'
Not sleeping worrying they would stop breathing
Anxiety about facing the day
Being relieved when someone was there to take over/not having to look after baby
Anxiety about facing the night/no sleep
Crying alot

You can have post natal anxiety without depression. Just speak to your health visitor. Mine was literally amazing, they've heard it all before, I blubbed my way through the phonecall and she got me in with the gp straight away. You also get fast tracked for support from the peri/post natalental health team and should be seen within two weeks. It's alot different to normal mental health services.

Also three months is the known peak which is why you normally get a visit from the health visitor to do the mental health questionnaire, Peak sleep depravation, the newness has long gone and it's drudgery!

I was also obsessed with SIDS. I couldn't sleep because I was scared something would happen in those rare instances DC would actually sleep. It took over everything. All bedding had to go (we coslept) and I used to freeze for fear that I'd accidentally smother DC with a light blanket/sheet. I was obsessed with constantly checking Dcs temperature to make sure they wouldn't overheat. It was relentless. I only came out the worst of it when DC was 13 months. I do have relapses even now though. Get some help. Paid counselling is what you need. It's long term and useful instead of the tick box iapt sessions which I found useless.