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Perinatal mental health and medication

2 replies

Ami5555 · 09/08/2024 16:27

Hello, im just looking for a bit of advice.
My 2nd child was born in Feb 2023. We had a lot of life stress going on related to my mother in law dying when my baby was a few weeks old, my son having difficulties in school and only in 1 hour a day due to his autism and being in a mainstream school.
Anyway I started getting panic attacks and intrusive thoughts (at the time I didn’t know it was intrusive thoughts and I thought I was potentially going to develop psychosis if I didn’t sort this out, which left me too scared to tell anyone about this part).
anyway I went to the GP who referred me to perinatal team (who rejected me due to not being bad enough) and the GP gave me 20mg fluoxetine.
the intrusive thoughts continued and I began to wrongly think it was the medication when it was actually just a continuation of the postnatal anxiety/OCD I was experiencing, the medication hadn’t had time to work yet. So I ended up not realising that at the time and became furious and obsessed the doctor had given me medication and not ‘warned’ me.
a few weeks later I stopped being able to sleep and was constantly thinking and talking about fluoxetine 24/7 and began to experience derealisation.
I knew this wasn’t right and at the time was too scared to go back to the GP. So I ended up calling 999 who said the crisis team wouldn’t see me due to me not being suicidal. I knew I desperately needed help and so lied and said I had made a plan. This got me into the crisis team and then transferred to the perinatal team.

this was over a year ago and I still daily think about it all for 9-10 hours a day. I’m on setraline 75mg a day as of 2 months ago and will increase it again.

but I’m just so stressed that I will never get over what has happened. I just go over and over what has happened obsessively. Then feel angry the GP wasn’t more helpful, that the perinatal team firstly rejected me. I also have such anxiety and almost guilt and shame that I ended up calling the crisis team.

it’s really hard to get my head around how I went to the GP for help and ended up like this.

i have a cbt therapist as of a few months ago and i am also going to a private ocd clinic Next week.

Just feel like this has ‘ruined’ my newborn experience and I’ve let myself down. I don’t mind feeling like this now but I get in such a panic it’s been a year and I’m still constantly going over it and what I’ve experienced.

thanks so much for reading. Just wondering if anyone has any thoughts over my being terrified of getting over this/healing/moving onxx

OP posts:
Treetops12 · 15/12/2024 21:05

Hey, I know this is an old thread but I just wanted to say I hope you are ok and I know how hard it is.
I had severe pnd and for a very long time. I’m still not right but so so much better than I was at the beginning. I had that feeling of shame, panic and embarrassment about how ill I was and it went round in my head non stop all day everyday.
i was unable to function and look after my baby at different points and was suicidal. I still get pangs of panic about that. But generally I don’t feel that same shame I had about it all anymore and I don’t relive it constantly. Therapy really helped with that.
These thoughts will go for you too. I hope the therapy you are having is helping.
please don’t feel ashamed. You had an illness, you didn’t do anything to ruin the newborn stage. I can’t tell you how many times I saw the crisis team. I even begged to go into hospital at one point !
sorry for the long post but I really do hope your doing okay x

Ami5555 · 15/12/2024 23:27

Aw thank you for replying. Yeah getting there thanks. I’m seeing an OCD specialist as of about a month ago. Also really appreciate you giving your personal story. Honestly I love hearing another mum saw a team like that it makes me feel better so thank you! And really appreciate what you said about not feeling shame. We are both doing a great job! Keep in touch on here if you ever want to chat xx

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