wife's PND

[jmtalire]

Hi

My wife had our second child in July last year. Since then she has given up work to be a full time mum. She has been diagnosed with a second bout of PND. She had PND with our first. This time, combined with giving up a job she loved with a good career opportunity , her depression is worse. She is on her second lot of anti depressants as the first kept her from sleeping at night. The ones she is on now (I don’t know the name) is making her paranoid. She is convinced that people are talking about her. We live on a busy road and at night when people walk past she says she can hear them talking about her and how she is a bad parent. Prior to her going on AD’s she took out her frustration on me and our little girl. Nothing drastic just snapping and being very short with us. It’s nowhere near as bad now she is on AD’s. But she thinks she is a bad parent and thinks everybody else thinks she is.
Her paranoia on these second tablets is very worrying. She says she hears things when I don’t think she does. She was in the garden the other day and said that a woman walked past and said how are the voices? She can’t walk down the road without thinking people are talking about her. She has said that she feels she needs sectioning. Hearing your wife say things like this is heart breaking, scarey and is making me anxious. Last night she woke up in the middle of the night and was convinced that someone was living up in the loft. I am trying to get her to go to the doctors to try and change the tablets and to explain what she is feeling.
I try to be as understanding as I can. Sometimes she says she wants to leave me because I forced her to give up work. I didn’t . It was a joint decision. After she has calmed down she admits that she is just taking her frustration out on me. In a way I don’t mind. That’s what I’m here for. And if she needs an outlet then I’m here. But it hurts a d scares me when she says things like that. I make a concious effort to extra loving and cuddly. How else can I help her through this?
She has asked me not to tell anyone and I haven’t . I am posting this because no one on here knows me. I feel guilty for posting this but I am starting to get really worried about her.
Has anyone gone through similar? How did you get through it and how did your spouse help?

Thanks for reading.

She actually needs to see a doctor quite urgently.

Very urgently.

I'd call 111 and tell them this.

She needs to see someone urgently - it's possible she's showing signs of postpartum psychosis. This is very treatable but it needs immediate attention. As in today.
Reassure her that she will not be sectioned. She may need inpatient treatment at a mum and baby unit but it's really important that she sees somebody immediately. This isn't something that will be dealt with by a GP changing her antidepressants. She should also not stop or change her medication with medical assessment

Please seek urgent help, she may well be developing postpartum psychosis.

I concur with postpartum psychosis. Get her seen ASAP.

You're doing great being supportive, get her the help and then carry on with the support. She'll come through it. for you and her

Op it sounds very serious. If she doesn't go to see someone could you arrange the doctor to visit her.

I wouldn't ring the police instead call your GP surgery and see if there answer phone has a number for the out of hours GP and take it from there

Discuss with your wife this course of action but if she tries to resist then I'm afraid you will have to go ahead anyway

Op you really need to get urgent medical help for her, even though she's told you not to. It could peurperal psychosis - treatable but she will need help.

What about seeing a psychiatrist. It might help her to talk to someone about how she feels. They will help her make sense of it all.

I agree with everyone else. This isn't something you can can handle by yourself. It is classed as an emergency so you should definitely seek medical advice immediately. Please do not leave it. If it is postpartum psychosis it can worsen very suddenly so it's best to take immediate action. Make sure who ever you contact knows about paranoia and the voices.

She needs to see a doctor. You need to try and convince her to talk to someone. Does she have family or friends nearby she could start by talking to who may be able to encourage her to speak to a doctor? Or the samaritans? Talking to people will help her paranoia, its very easy when you are sufferring from depression to become paranoid especially if she is at home all day and not working any more, because of the isolation. When you are not interacting with people like you used to be its quite easy to start thinking negative things about how they feel about you. Its not so easy to do that when you are talking to them and hearing them express how they feel about you. Its very important she starts talking to someone about how she feels.
I experienced hearing things that werent there and thinking people were judging me when i went outside after the birth of my son. It didnt last as long as your wifes issues but what i found really helpful was being visited by the crisis team each day to talk about how i was feeling. Its easy to become lost in your illness when you are isolated. Having someone external that you dont know come and speak to you just to bring you back to reality was something i found very helpful.
I hope things improve for you and your wife xxxxx

Although the gp can't discuss your wife's medical info with you, you can tell them what's going on so they can take it from there. She really needs help asap. My best friend was admitted for a mother and baby unit for a few weeks where she got wonderful care and treatment.

I can only agree with the others. I had a second child last August and developed PND, well mainly anxiety really. I had wonderful treatment in the community with a community psychiatric nurse from the perinatal psychiatric service. I am much better now and life is good. I visited the mother and baby unit a couple of times (not as an impatient) and if that's what she needs then it's really not as scary as she and you might be thinking. There is treatment available and she can get better but her medical team need to know the truth about what she's experiencing. Good luck.