Postnatal depression: what you need to know about it
The symptoms: How do you know if you have post-natal illness?
Do you feel that something just isn't right...that you just don't feel yourself? Could post-natal depression be a possibility? If you are suffering from 2 or 3 of the following you may have post-natal depression
- Constantly feeling tired. No energy
- Sleeping problems - can't get to sleep or waking in the early hours and not being able to get back to sleep
- Crying a lot, often over the smallest things or for no reason at all
- Can't eat or over-eating
- Feeling emotionally disconnected from or even rejected by the baby or
- Overly anxious and over protective of the baby
- Lack of motivation to get up and do anything
- A constant underlying sense of anxiety maybe escalating into panic attacks. Easily "set off" and difficult to calm down
- Difficulty concentrating, say on a book or film or even on a conversation*
- Putting on a front. Feeling like you are playing out a role rather than just living the moment
- Strange, frightening thoughts or visions popping into your head about harming yourself or the baby or awful things happening
- Feeling lonely and isolated. Perhaps feeling rejected by friends, family, even your partner and your baby or children
- Sense of feeling overwhelmed and unable to cope read more
