Treatments for PND advice please

[Em32]

Quick message on behalf of a friend who has had a prem baby (6 weeks early) Her HV has diagnosed her with PND and wants to start her on medication but she's not sure she wants to go down that route. I have said to her to consider it as no point carrying on the way she is feeling at the moment if that will sort it out but don't know much about treatments for PND myself - can anyone tell me/her a bit more? Are there any alternatives? Her partner is a bit freaked out by the idea of her going on meds - not sure if that is because he can't accept she is depressed and/or the stigma attached to it. She basically does what he says/wants but I will be talking to her about that...... Have been there myself and never got treatment and regretted it as 'lost' the first few months with my ds.

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there are alternatives (therapy etc), but in my personal experience it's far better to do meds AND therapy

i resisted anti depressants for years, and when i finally gave n i wished i had done it ages ago.

They will give her a boost and help her get on with her day to day life and allow her to do other things such as counselling or therapy to deal with the depression.

IMO it's very hard to cope with JUST therapy (or for that matter, JUST ad's)

Agree with you Em, she needs treatment, may take a while to get one to suit her but please God dont let her wait over a year like I did, It was a living hell and can destroy everything. It was such a relief that GP picked up on it and gave it a name which in itself took the pressure off. Within a couple of months I was feeling normal!!!!

I have recently been diagnosed with PND and am trying to get better without meds. I have been taking evening primrose oil and vitamin b6 and I am awaiting an appointment for counselling. You could reccomenf this to your friend.

Thanks - she's basically in tears all day every day and has been since her ds was born. She needs to do something, whatever that is. Going to visit her this week so hopefully I can sort her out with some baby groups to go to as she doesn't know anyone where she lives - no one warns you about the isolation factor with a small baby do they......

There is a book that doctors recommend called "overcoming depression". It's often best to read whilst taking ADs/some medicine, as this allows you to get out of the hole you're in to actually see what you are reading.

Sorry to hear about your friend, Em32.

I second starlovers advice, medication and therapy really helped me. Also going out to mum and baby groups with a friendly face really helps as they can seem utterly overwhelming when you are depressed.

What kind of support does she have?

Her DH sounds annoying.

I had been on antidepressants for severe PND for 6 months and I can say they did help and I could not have done without them. They did not solve the problem and progress was slow and painful, but they did help me get through the day during that horrendous and confusing time. In addition I started to get severe migraines so I went for accupunture to treat them. It did not help the migraines, but I noticed a dramatic improvement in my depression and wellbeing, so much so that after 12 treatments I came off the anti depressants. A word of caution with regard to mother and baby groups - early on I found these made me much worse, seeing everyone happy and cooing over thier babies, when all I wanted someone to do was to come and take mine away from me as I thnik it is very hard for new mothers who are not suffering from PND even begin to understand those that are and I know this from experience. Alternatively if you have SURESTART in your area, they sometimes run PND groups - a bit like alcoholics anonymous (if you know what I mean) and this helped me know I wasn't going crazy. In addition they also held YOGA sessions that were free and offered a free creche.

I'm on Lustral. Not as bad as first time round, so am gradually weaning off.

But I am SO glad I started taking them when I did.

They really, really help.