2 years postpartum and still not myself…

[FTM47]

Not sure if this counts as postnatal health but emotionally and mentally I am still not right after having my first baby 2 years ago … is anyone else the same?

My lovely little boy brings me so much joy and love but it’s everything else that leaves me overwhelmed, stressed, feeling down and emotionally and mentally drained. Being a working parent is tough. Being away from your little ones is tough.
But I’m so emotional. My hormones are all over the place still and my brain is scrambled. It makes everyday things harder. I’ve been back to work for nearly a year now and I still cry deeply most working days.

I just want to get strong again but I don’t know where to start or what will help.
Not sure if this makes sense to anyone else or has anything that helped get them back on track … x

I just listened to a webinar about this on Instagram - it is on Kimberley Nixon's page, talking about perinatal mental illness. Highly recommend as it specifically addresses this issue re perinatal mental illness continuing longer than the 1 year "perinatal period".

I was like this and then finally realised it was because I was anemic. I got put on high dose iron supplements and within a couple of months I was so so much better it was remarkable.

I didn't seem to have ordinary depression so I couldn't see it - I still seemed chirpy and chatty a lot of the time, but constantly ruminated about death and fearing death or my loved ones dying. Turns out I had really low iron. Only other symptoms were faintness/dizziness and low BP.

[More recently I've started talking about it again, like worrying about what happens after we die or how our kids would cope if we died and dh said... get back on your iron supplements!]

Ps obviously don't self medicate because you might not be anemic - but it can't hurt to ask to get your blood count checked.