Cathy Shares How She Coped With Her Scary PPD Thoughts (VIDEO)

By Cathy R

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More Videos from Cathy R 3 videos in this series

Cathy Shares What Triggered Her PPD Symptoms (VIDEO)

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Cathy Shares How Her Husband Found Help For Her PPD Symptoms (VIDEO)

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Cathy Shares How She Coped With Her Scary PPD Thoughts (VIDEO)

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Cathy describes how she coped with her scary postpartum depression/PPD thoughts and provides advice for women suffering with this condition.

Cathy:
Well, I guess the first thing I would ask her is, what do you mean by scary thoughts? Scary thoughts for yourself, or scary thoughts regarding your baby? For me, the scary thoughts that I had was the fact that I thought that my children and my husband would be better off without me here on Earth, that I was just basically worthless to them, that I wasn’t a good mom, and I wasn’t being a good wife, and for me, I was thinking maybe they are better off without me. And that’s a scary thought because for me, I have such a great zest and love for life.

And the thought of me thinking that maybe I would be better off if I wasn’t here on this Earth, for me, that’s a very scary thought. And I think a lot of women have that, that they feel that they just can’t endure the pain of the postpartum depression just one more day, that they are not sure what to do. They feel hopeless.

And my advice to them is that you do belong here, that you are a good mom, that you are doing everything right, that right now is a temporary period of what you are feeling, and it’s, you are not going to feel that way forever. And if you go and you seek out some help, there are wonderful Web sites on Postpartum Support International, their Web site PSI. They offer all kinds of materials that you can, or in resources that you can look at. There are great books that you can read from some wonderful authors that speak about their experience.

Brooke Shields has “Down Came the Rain”, which is a wonderful book that I read and that chronicles her whole experience with postpartum depression, and that’s one amongst many. There are also wonderful Web sites to turn to and many cities have support groups where you, many of them are free, especially here in Arizona. In Tucson there’s several at almost all the hospitals, and you get to be around other moms and other women who understand, who feel exactly what you are feeling and you don’t feel alone, and you realize that, that you are not crazy. That this is an illness and with treatment and with rest and with education that you will be well again.

My name is Cathy, and I am speaking to you today because my hope is that you will perhaps see yourself in my story or parts of yourself in my story, and that you will understand that this is something that isn’t permanent, that for me, this was something I had to do so that others wouldn’t go through what I went through. I couldn’t just go through postpartum depression, recover from it, and then just forget about it, sweep it under the rug like it didn’t happen.

If it happened to me, I know that there are hundreds and thousands of other women going through it as well. And my hope is that you will see that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, that, that there’s hope, that you will be well again, that you will be right back to yourself again, that you can be the mom like you always thought you could be or that you wanted to be, and that, just by clicking on this Web site and listening to this story, that shows already so much that you are willing to do, showing what a great mom you are, and just please, please don’t ever give up.

View More Videos On Postpartum Depression:
https://www.empowher.com/condition/postpartum-depression