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Post by Veritee on Nov 30, 2005 20:04:27 GMT
I wondered if you had all listened to the Womans hour interview with Elaine Hanzak and Margaret Oats - a leading Perenatal specialist?
I will try to put a link to it here:
<embed src="http://www.pni.org.uk/Elaineh2005_14_02.ram" height=0 width=0 autoplay="false" loop=1 />
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Post by lu on Dec 5, 2005 14:35:27 GMT
Dear Natalie,
Just wanted to give you some support, although I cannot relate to suffering from PP, as I have had PND, I can relate to the fear of mental illness. Luckily for me I did not get PP and I have just suffered very bad post natal depression for which I am getting over now, but when I was 14 I was actually hospitalized for anorexia and as I got so bad because my brain was starved from food, I think it was purely a chemical thing just like I heard PP is (correct me if I'm wrong), I too thought people were trying to kill me by injecting me and heard voices and I was totally gone, when I thought they were going to inject me I called out all night for my mum and dad and people just kept telling me to go back to bed but to me it was very real (I believe you had this symptom with PP). I too have lived with the fear since then of this happening again, although it never did, although the minute I started to feel bad after the baby I went straight for help and medication as I feared it could escalate to something bad again.
So I just want to offer support that all these years I have felt anxious about this but it never returned and I have managed to get on with my life, not sure if you will find that encouraging or not, but just wanted to share my experiences. Hope you are feeling well now
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Post by Veritee on Dec 5, 2005 22:08:15 GMT
Dear Lu
Your fears seem similar to mine and mine also stem from being hospitalized when a teenager ..
- abet for different reasons as you may have read above - unfortunately I did have some psychotic type symptoms with PNI, but thankfully I was not hospitalized.
Thank you for relating your experience to us - I am sure that women with PP will appreciate you telling your story and I would like to talk with you further as we do have some experiences to share
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Post by lu on Dec 6, 2005 9:50:18 GMT
Hi Veritee,
Thanks for the support, would be nice to talk further. I have heard people with PP mention that it took them years to talk about their experience and I really relate to that as I have to say that the psychotic episode I suffered 17 yrs ago I have never talked about the only people that know are my mum and dad and obviously the people in the hospital who will have long forgotten me ..even with my mum and dad I don't talk about it as I was in hospital when it happened and they weren't allowed to visit me and I was so ashamed...I think coming on this forum and seeing that other people have spoken about their experience with illness gave me the courage to admit to it after 17 years!!
I think after having pnd I have had a lot of support from HV and support groups that it has made me realise that all these years I was living with the shame of what happened to me 17 yrs ago and in with PND I faced up to my fears and dealt with them for the first time in years, I think probably PND was quite inevitable and having a baby makes you face up to all the things you are trying to hide deep within yourself as you feel such huge responsibility for such a tiny person which can be overwhelming and I felt i wasn't up to the job, but now I realise I am and I am enjoying being a mum.
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Post by natalie on Dec 6, 2005 20:33:29 GMT
Hi Lu I just wanted to say hi and thanks for sharing your story. I think what you said above, sums up alot for me, the expectations I put on myself were so high, no body could have met them I'm really glad you are well and enjoying motherhood, so am I ;D, Even with the terrible 2's Take care Natalie
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Post by twinmummy on Dec 7, 2005 11:14:25 GMT
I just want to say thank you! It is really nice to here that it is just a chemical thing. I try to tell myself that but at times I just feel i am plain crazy. I am sorry you had anorexia, but thank you for giving me a bit of hope that I will get better. k x
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Post by lu on Dec 8, 2005 22:04:25 GMT
hi k!, u will get better don't worry, one of the support groups i go to, a person there has/had pp and she is so much better now and returning to work soon in fact, we go to a lot of mother/baby groups together and she is so well now. One of the things that really helps recovery is getting out and meeting other mums I find...even if you start off with a PNI support group if you have one in your area, because there you will meet understanding people who have been through similar things and then possibly make a friend there and then you can go to the other mother and baby groups that are for everyone (not just pni ones) and because you are with someone you know if makes it so much easier to go to them. This is what worked for me anyway, going to all the groups really increased my confidence
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