Whos got PND or PTSD?

Yeah I second that post from mummytobe - please do tell MMH about what is happening with your baby and how you are feeling about hurting yourself - it is really important information. Also, what are they doing with your medication... are they upping your dose or changing you to another dose?

I think I might be finally on the right dose! I didn't want to speak too soon because it's been weird lately. First week I had upped my dose I had DH home on sick leave, 2nd week I am sick so I am getting extra sleep at the moment. But I haven't yelled at DH at all even when he's been extremely unreasonable to me. I have walked away and stayed away from him until we've both calmed down instead of going into a full on argument. And I've even taken the baby away from the situation if I've needed to. In other words - I'm not losing my temper as much or losing the plot really at all! Of course it's early days but I just feel good about telling DH how I feel about something and then walking away and being calm about the whole thing and leaving it to him as to how he responds. People have always given me this advice but it feels like for the first time I've been able to carry it out.

So anyway back to you - just wondering about your medication because I'm thinking that it may be the reason why things are not well-managed in terms of your PND. (It annoys me that they just call it depression as if hormones and having a baby doesn't have an impact on your mental health!)

Oh I'm not on medication btw. I haven't found anything that works for me.

But thankx for all the lovely things you all said. It's nice to have some people to share this with, other then our poor DP's/DH's/DF's.

escadachic wrote: But it almost seems as if, because I don't take any action, she doesn't seem overly concerned. It's like she is sick of my negative mindset and not seeing me improving. ... It's like, though I had mentioned in the past how stressed I was and wanting to lash out at Sophie, she didn't take me seriously until I said I'd wanted to punch her.

Far out hun, that really, really sucks! It's hard enough telling anyone about those feelings but to have it downplayed must be really tough
I feel for you that you don't have a a support worker who seems like they get you. Feeling like they are getting sick of you is really not helpful! You certainly won't be one of the only ones who isn't totally better and for a lot of mums the journey gets worse before it gets better. Keep asking for help though hun and keep letting them know how you are feeling. Who knows maybe hearing how you felt like punching her actually helped cuz it sort of shows the support worker more how you are feeling?

Nathansmummy- really glad to hear that your meds are sorted I think for some people once the meds are sorted it is so much easier to do the other sort of 'self-help' things. It's like the meds can give you a step up so that you can start doing all the other good things that can help.

For me I would definitely not give that much credit to meds (except for the ones that make me sleep- they have been a life saver!) but medication lucky number 13 helped enough that I was able to exercise and make more of an effort to do something nice for myself each day and it felt like they gave me space enough in my head that I could work on making my thoughts more positive

Yeah I'm trying to get pregnant after 6mths so I think it will probably be too early but will wean off then too. SO hope I don't have a relapse!

Wee update from me: DH and I have been given the all clear to start TTC soon! Well, sort of. Not from the mental health side of things, but from the physical side of things with recovering from my little ones birth. So exciting! It'll be about 6 months til we can try **easily** but it's good news to us!

Thought we might have been super lucky this month as I'm almost a week late, but test was a big fat negative so I think it's the stress from the earthquake that has made AF disappear. Probably a good thing anyway because the Quake has made the PND/PTSD side of things heaps worse I hope any other chch mums who come in here are safe and sound and have somewhere warm and safe to live in!

that must be really tough mummytobesept08.

Awesome mummytobesept08, sounds like a lovely lovely day