What resolved your post natal depression?

[ParentalGuidances]

Other than medicine?

Sleep training (and medication, but I had depression pre DC and had always intended to go back on the ADs)

@MolliciousIntent My 7mo wakes upto 3 times a night every single night, any tips? Could this be factoring into how crap I always feel

We did CC at 10m after hourly wakes since birth, and it made all the difference.

But really, if you've got PND, a vast amount of the cause is physiological. It's the one form of depression that has really concrete physical triggers, and is really successfully dealt with by medication, which is generally a short-term treatment. Why are you so against it?

Medication. Sleep helped but it was still there. I now know I have adhd and I’m sure it’s a relevant factor

Night weaning at 10 months
Going back to work at 12 month
Having a month dedicated to sorting out my own sleep at about 14 months (I was still an insomniac even though DS started sleeping much better post 10 months. He’s 2 now and I’m finally mostly ‘sleeping through’)

I didn’t cope well on maternity leave or with sleep deprivation. I think I was more depressed because of the situation (loneliness and exhaustion, mostly) as opposed to true PND to be honest. As someone has said, medication and talking therapy are the mainstays of treatment for that.

Honestly… leaving my husband.

Cliche...but time. And going back to work helped massively.

Time. Establishing a good routine which incorporated a lot of mother and baby groups. Lots of walks.

No medication.

Gina Ford. Going back to work at 6 months.

Sleep. My mother took the bay for one night a week. No matter how tired I was I knew I was never more than 6 days away from a 14 hour catch up sleep. It saved me.

Fluoxetine

Time. And DH changing job, at one stage I was by myself 10am - 10pm most days per week, it was horrendous.

I was never diagnosed but looking back now I was quite badly affected and really, really should have sought medical help.

Also while in the thick of it, getting out of the house as much as possible as often as possible certainly helped.

Time and medication, nothing else. We sleep trained at 6 months and his sleep got better, but I didn't start medication till he was 11 months old as I'd assumed more sleep would fix how shitty I felt. It didn't.

There's nothing wrong or weak about taking medication for any sort of depression.

Exercise helped a lot. Weirdly it gave me my energy back and I started to feel more like me again.

Going back to work at three months. Not sure I was truly depressed, but I certainly felt 1000% better.

Time. It took time to accept this was my new life. Sometimes I still resist it if I’m having a bad day. Also my baby’s colic going away and sleeping through was a big factor.

I find I have to go out and see friends/go to classes regularly to break up the day and stay sane. I have to drag myself out but feel better if I go.

I feel terrible about wishing the time away but I think I’ll feel a bit more normal when I go back to work, I still get really down during the day, mostly first thing when I’ve got the whole day ahead of me

Fluoxetine (saved my life) and time.

Time, sleep, citalopram

Counselling to accept my new identity
Going to uni at 14 months
Time

Making mummy friends saved me, having people I could complain too and build me up. My family weren’t very supportive so making my own support network helped me massively.

After that sleep, we did the pick up and put down technique which is more gentle than CC. Recommend to me by the HV.

I know you've said not medication but I was stuck in lockdown and I tried everything else I could - daily walks, mindfulness, online baby classes... 100mg sertraline and I felt back to my old self.

Citalopram saved me absolutely and my mother in law helping by having my baby overnight once a week.

I had postnatal OCD but 100% sleep training and sertraline for me.
Absolutely love love love being a mum now but it was horrifically hard at first.

9 months of sertraline. For me it was completely physiological and I don't think anything else would have helped. It wasn't forever, just until my body readjusted after two back to back pregnancies.