Post by Veritee on Jul 6, 2005 14:30:17 GMT
Dear All
Over the 10 years of being a APNI volunteer and supporting women on this site and in other ways - it has began to seem to me that for many women PNI follows a similar pattern.
Of course it is not the same for every women - but there seems to me to be enough of a similarity for me to be able to write this pattern down.
This is only my opinion and I am not qualified in any way except by my experience of listening to others
and this probably does not apply at all to those who have P Psychosis ( although while this is supposed to happen withing days or weeks of the birth - quite a few I have talked to who were diagnosed with this did not get the psychotic symptoms until they had been ill with PNI for some months)
However here is a common pattern I believe I have noticed for PNI
_______________________________________
This is only my opinion from what I have observed.
I would be interested if others want to list the pattern of their illness or if their PNI experience differed from this
All the best
Veritee
Over the 10 years of being a APNI volunteer and supporting women on this site and in other ways - it has began to seem to me that for many women PNI follows a similar pattern.
Of course it is not the same for every women - but there seems to me to be enough of a similarity for me to be able to write this pattern down.
This is only my opinion and I am not qualified in any way except by my experience of listening to others
and this probably does not apply at all to those who have P Psychosis ( although while this is supposed to happen withing days or weeks of the birth - quite a few I have talked to who were diagnosed with this did not get the psychotic symptoms until they had been ill with PNI for some months)
However here is a common pattern I believe I have noticed for PNI
_______________________________________
- knowing something is quite wrong after the baby but not knowing what?
- Desperately fighting this feeling that you are unwell emotionally/physically/mentally
- getting increasingly severe symptoms over weeks or months until you can not avoid knowing something is wrong :see www.pni.org.uk/index.htm for a list of common symptoms,( my first ones were headaches, dizziness, blurred vision)
- accepting that something is wrong - perhaps going to your doctor and being diagnosed with PNI but still trying to fight it and expecting to be better within days or weeks-
Some who have good periods at this stage so much want to be well they assume they are and stop any medication and/or counseling, only to find they then hit rock bottom - finding that the prescribed medication or any alternative treatment - while it helps to deaden or cope with your symptoms it does not actually make you better! Being disappointed that this is the case.
- For some the symptoms escalate and become so acute you may reach crisis and feel that you can not go on - acute stage. While for most this is a time of being very anxious, others having very worrying or bazaar thoughts and/or panic attack - Some women get very acute symptoms at this stage that can be psychotic in nature ie hearing things, hallucinations visions , feelings that you are haunted or possessed, a feeling of dread or a feelign that you do not want to be near your children.
- begin to fully accept your illness and start ensuring you have the help you need, that your family/partner understand how ill you actually are and that you need considerable help just as you would with a broken leg etc.
Take any medication, use any counseling and support visits and concentrate on getting well above all else - Start to find that you do not feel so constantly and acutely ill, but your symptoms come and go in waves for some around their menstrual cycle - I call this 'the ups and the downs' - again some on an 'up' period will stop any medication only to tumble - always continue medication for at least 6 months
- At first these ups and downs can happen every hour of the day, but eventually the ups last a week and the downs the same and then months so that when you get a down you think your PNI has come back - but it has not - it is the same PNI but the downs are so rare and you are nearly better - but stress can bring on the downs again big time, so now you really do have to care for yourself!!
- gradually with the help of support and treatment you start to recover over a period of months and for some years ( although it is commonly believed that all women recover from PNI with time and what is needed is medication and support to get your through and relieve symptoms) - it is at this stage that many women find that resuming employment is helpful for them or for others to resume their hobbies of even try for another baby!
- PNI symptoms all but go away except just before a period or at times of acute stress
- full recovery - yippy!!!
This is only my opinion from what I have observed.
I would be interested if others want to list the pattern of their illness or if their PNI experience differed from this
All the best
Veritee