Conquering Postpartum Depression: A Mother’s Inspiring Journey

0:066 secondshey barbara how are you today i'm good how are you i'm great uh we just had a little bit of 0:1313 secondsconversation before this recording and i am just so overwhelmed with the story that you 0:2020 secondsshared first of all you told me that you suffered from from postpartum depression can you share a little bit about what 0:2929 secondsyour symptoms were well i was very depressed 0:3737 secondshaving trouble sleeping and my mind sort of went into a fog 0:4545 secondsand i couldn't sleep and then um after some time i became a suicidal because i thought i was just a burden to 0:5353 secondsmy family yeah they'd be better off without me and i had this brand new baby who was perfect and a a 1:021 minute, 2 secondswonderful husband a great job good home to live in know all those advantages and yet i was desperately unhappy 1:111 minute, 11 secondsand and then when i finally you know after i became suicidal i was hospitalized in our local 1:201 minute, 20 secondspsychiatric uh hospital and they diagnosed postpartum depression you know that that's what i had 1:281 minute, 28 secondsso and then you said then your dad also sort of told you that yeah yeah yeah my dad said 1:361 minute, 36 secondsyou know mom had that and i said what you know what yes my mother um 1:431 minute, 43 secondsuh went through postpartum depression on the birth of my uh youngest brother douglas yeah and 1:511 minute, 51 secondsi was uh six years old at the time and my mother actually spent a year and a half looking for 1:581 minute, 58 secondssome kind of help and went from doctor to doctor to doctor to doctor this was in the early 1950s and 2:072 minutes, 7 secondsshe finally found a doctor that prescribed thorazine which was the first psychiatric medication that had been 2:152 minutes, 15 secondsdeveloped and within just a matter of days it pulled her out of her funk that she was in she was 2:242 minutes, 24 secondsyou know very desperately unhappy and crying every day and that kind of thing 2:312 minutes, 31 secondseven moved my family for a time back to her mother's home and stayed with her mother for a while to see if that would help and it 2:392 minutes, 39 secondsdidn't help her but the psychiatric men helped her so uh so she was so grateful and and happy 2:472 minutes, 47 secondsbut you know me being six years old i did not know what was going on and they didn't talk about it yeah 2:542 minutes, 54 secondsand uh and so i didn't find out until i went through that experience myself yeah 3:023 minutes, 2 secondsand i think you also told me that because you shared your story it helped your daughter right yes i had my daughter when my daughter was 3:103 minutes, 10 secondsum she has two boys uh now and she was pregnant having the boys she knew 3:183 minutes, 18 secondsshe knew that i had gone through postpartum depression and she knew that sometimes there is a hereditary link there certainly was in 3:263 minutes, 26 secondsmy case and and she um got 3:333 minutes, 33 secondstherapy for herself while she was still pregnant so that she would be able to handle it if if a problem 3:413 minutes, 41 secondscame up after the birth and and she did in both cases she had sort of a 3:483 minutes, 48 secondsa rough time for a few weeks but she was in right away in therapy and and she was able to handle it in 3:583 minutes, 58 secondsuh whereas i went into you know uh suicidal depression and was hospitalized in a psychiatric ward for 4:074 minutes, 7 secondsfor three weeks and whereas she was able to just with therapy on the outside handle it you know so i'm glad that i was open with 4:164 minutes, 16 secondsher you know so that she could understand um that she she might need help too and she was 4:244 minutes, 24 secondsgoing to get help ahead of time and i wasn't i wasn't shy about letting her know that i was getting help you 4:314 minutes, 31 secondsknow psychiatric help so i think i'm glad i told her about that yeah i know barbara this is so important 4:384 minutes, 38 secondsthat you're talking about it and i'm hoping that you know your story about being open about postpartum depression this is such a big taboo 4:474 minutes, 47 secondstopic people don't want to talk about it they want to like they almost feel bad that you know yeah and baby right yeah they have this 4:554 minutes, 55 secondsbeautiful child and why am i so desperately unhappy you know yeah your hormones are going like this and 5:035 minutes, 3 secondsthen you happen to have a uh genetic predisposition like me then you're just set up for something like 5:115 minutes, 11 secondsthat you know yeah so talking about this is going to help your daughter and i'm hoping that you know once people listen to your story 5:195 minutes, 19 secondsthey won't feel like you know they are suffering right this is like it's real like it happens and 5:265 minutes, 26 secondsit's real and even in the best of circumstances which i think i had i mean i had a beautiful child um 5:345 minutes, 34 secondsa wonderful husband a great job you know supportive family all of those things uh that 5:415 minutes, 41 secondsthat you need you know but and still i had you know very severe depression 5:495 minutes, 49 secondsand um and not a circumstance that i would wish on anybody you know but it does happen yeah 5:585 minutes, 58 secondsyou know and it is possible to get help i mean i got help and i got better you know so it it's possible to get help yeah 6:076 minutes, 7 secondsthank you barbara i appreciate your sharing your story uh you know thank you for opening up and talking 6:146 minutes, 14 secondsabout it happy to do so and then what um 6:226 minutes, 22 secondsmy experience actually in in uh with postpartum depression is 6:306 minutes, 30 secondsis something that eventually uh led me um you know i started a depression support group at 6:386 minutes, 38 secondschurch after i i had shared my story at church and there were so many women that came up with me and resisted me too me too me too yeah not all of them were 6:476 minutes, 47 secondspostpartum but a lot of them were just you know depression of various kinds and so i started a depression support group and then i 6:556 minutes, 55 secondsrealized how important it was to get to be open about a story you know being able to to tell it you know and 7:047 minutes, 4 secondseven though you know i was telling you earlier that the first time that i wanted to tell my story you know i'd set up something 7:147 minutes, 14 secondssituation for me to tell my story and then at the last minute i chickened out because i was so i just can't do this very hard 7:217 minutes, 21 secondsyeah and and so i just you know sort of put it on the shelf and then 7:297 minutes, 29 secondsseveral years later i was able to just go back to it with no problem at all you know so you just sometimes just have to be ready yeah 7:367 minutes, 36 secondsand also i think once you've spoken at once it becomes really easier yeah and especially when you see that 7:457 minutes, 45 secondsother people are being helped because of that you know and and that um you know 7:537 minutes, 53 secondssort of changed my whole outlook on what i what was important for me to be doing in the world you know so 8:018 minutes, 1 secondnow i'm not shy at all about telling people what i've been through yeah exactly yeah and you've not even fearing judging 8:098 minutes, 9 secondsright from people because really you're making a difference thank you thank you again barbara appreciate your 8:168 minutes, 16 secondstime with us today okay