Parenting with mental health issues

[Tiredmama328]

Anyone else parenting young children while battling mental health issues? My children all have additional needs. I have very little support. Constantly trying my hardest. Feeling/ being judged. Masking all the time. Constantly drained. Exhausted - children need me in night. Feel very isolated. Would love to find others in same situation or to hear strategies that might help. Wish I could be fixed. :-(

I was in this position in January. My daughter is 4 and has severe silent reflux and many food allergies. We had had 5 months of hourly wake ups and only sleeping in my arms. I was completely frazzled and burnt out. We saw a new paediatrician who checked in with me and how I'm doing. I'm bipolar and we had a 10 week stay in a mother and baby unit when my daughter was 10 months old partly because of struggling to cope with my mental health and my daughters health and I expressed concerns about the impact on our current situation on my mental health.
She contacted my HV to arrange some support with managing my mental health and a child with needs. Our HV had recently trained as a counsellor so offered me some counselling which was very helpful. I also had my annual review with the smi nurse at my GP surgery and since then I have been seeing her every 3 months to have another person checking in on me. I only have access to the psychiatrist with the cmht.

I am also part of a parenting group for parents of allergy children in my local area and having the support from people that understand the needs my daughter has is really helpful for getting through the long days where there feels like no end in sight.

No one person has been the one that has changed everything but getting bits of support from lots of people has lifted my threshold for coping