dieting and depression

[supertownie]

My ds has just turned one year old and for the first time since his birth, I am finding myself feeling quite low, and worried about PND. I thought it would be too late for this to happen, but from looking at other people's messages, maybe not. I wondered if it related to the fact that I have lost quite a lot of weight in the last few months (nearly 2 stones). Has anyone else found themselves becoming depressed after losing weight? I have only been dieting for two days every week, and certainly not starving myself, so I thought I would still be getting all my required nutrients. Any advice pls????

Can't help but bumping for you. Take care.

are you exercising? getting out and about? is your diet too low fat? are there other issues?

hope you ok, do you have people to talk to? other mums? friends outside mums iyswim

I mean exercise helps with mood

Thanks, you are right - i try to walk as much as possible, with the buggy, and I do always feel better for it. I think it is partly the exercise, and partly just having some time to think. I do spend a lot of time with other mums, which I think has helped a lot over the last year, and which is partly why I am struggling to understand why this is happening to me now. Spending time with non-mums is more tricky, as they are all at work and I am not. Maybe that's the problem - I'm losing touch with the world outside

are you afraid of feeling low? have you suffered from depression before? am sorry about the personal questions but I do recognise some of what you are saying.

I found it quite hard adjusting to motherhood, dd was much wanted and came at the 'right time' we were in a position to have choices but I felt dealing with the new reality quite difficult particularly after the more intense baby bit was out of the way, I felt I had to redefine myself iyswim both personally and in a wider context then try and work out 'what next?'

sorry if am talking nonsense feel free to ignore

I had one bout of depression a few years ago after my dad died (I think quite mild considering how these things can be), and I had AD's which did sort it out - but I definitely don't want to go back onto those if it can be avoided as they made me feel really strange.

Maybe it is to do with re-defining myself - after all, I have given up, or at least postponed, my career because of staying at home with ds, so my life is now totally different from how it was before. While I am happy that that was the right decision for me/us, it does still mean that I am, like you, now trying to work out "what next?"

Thanks - v helpful to "talk" about these things.

I really understand that, in my early 20's I was clinically depressed for a while, dd arrived in my late 30's and despite choosing to become a SAHM it did all sorts of things to my head.
dh understands all of that and has been a proper partner but I needed to sort out a few things by myself

speaking to friends I have come to realise this is far from unusual, a few of us have gone through similar difficult periods

I hope you start feeling like yourself again soon,take care

I have suffered with depression over the years and definitely felt pretty low after my kids were born, actually i found a really useful link which gave loads of natural ways of helping with depression. the first is advice from a nutritionist wp.me/pFWj1-pB and the second is a load of natural remedies for depression
mumszine.wordpress.com/2010/01/27/postnatal-depression-treated-naturally-2/

Hope it helps, they did me. Take care xx

What you're describing is not PND so much as struggling with your new lifestyle. Many new mothers are misdiagnosed as having PND when really they need to be told that what they're experiencing is pretty normal. Everyone finds babies/small children and the restrictions they place on us difficult at some point or other. It doesn't mean you're abnormal.

I wonder as well if you were expecting more from your weight-loss? It's easy to attribute low feelings to being overweight and think that being slimmer will make us happier. But if there's something a little more fundamentally wrong... loneliness or lack of direction, for example... then being slimmer can seem like an anticlimax