Hi,
When my little girl got to 12 weeks, I became a gibbering wreck overnight. Up to that point I was coping well, getting on the train to visit friends on my own with the baby, sleeping for 8 hours a night (my DD slept from 10-6 from 8 weeks old!) and all was well. Then suddenly, when she was about 12 weeks old I became very anxious and depressed. I didn't want to get dressed, I constantly had a crushing feeling of dread and I just wanted to hide in a hole and cry. I eventually went to the doctor who sent out a health visitor to see me to fill in a 'how mental are you' form, and she didn't class me as having postnatal depression, but she acknowledged that I was suffering from some kind of acute anxiety. The symptoms came and went over the next 2/3 weeks and disappeared as quickly as they arrived. Personally, I think it had something to do with my pregnancy hormones leaving me. It felt like incredibly intense PMT, like my body was very out of balance. I look back and I don't even recognise the person that felt that way, and at the time I felt like I didn't 'know' myself anymore - as if I'd turned into some kind of stranger. Since then, I've talked to every one of my girl friends about it, and they have all admitted that at some stage around the 10-14 week point, they went a little bit weird one way or another. I've also warned friends who are about to have babies - and ALL of them, every single one, has called me about three months after giving birth to talk to me about how depressed and anxious they're feeling all of a sudden. I think a lot of people go through this and think it's just sleeplessness that causes it, but because I was getting plenty of rest, I noticed the changes in me more accutely.
And the reason I'm posting this is to ask whether or nor anyone else has gone through the same thing. And if you have (and like me, you got better), can you help me reassure those people who are going through it at the moment, because no one tells you about it. It's the scariest thing that's ever happened to me, and at the time, I thought that I was the only person in the world to feel the way I did. I wish someone had told me about this in advance, and reassured me that it wouldn't last forever. And I know that PND comes in all shapes and sizes, and not everyone recovers on their own (or at all), so I'm not trying to offer some kind of diagnosis - you should always go to your GP if you feel like this.
The one thing my health visitor did suggest to help was to get some excersise outside (which helped) and to have a night/afternoon off where you're physically separated from your baby (which REALLY helped). You might feel like you get time alone when the baby is asleep, but the truth is, you're always on duty if you're with them. If you did any other job for three months solid, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week without a break, you'd definitely go crazy, so take some time out - even if it's for a couple of hours.
Thoughts please...