Postpartum Depression? No. I’m not weak.

The postnatal period as the most critical and yet the most neglected phase in the lives of mothers and babies – it’s then that they are at their weakest. Since when did we get this lie in our heads that when we are weak, we are less than we should be? That we have to do it all on our own?

Planning on Having Kids

You’ve heard people say that they’re “planning on having kids”, right? Generally what they’re referring to is that they’ve made a decision to forgo birth control methods or they’ve perhaps saved up some money to be able to afford the expenses of a child.  But when a control freak says that, it’s likely a lot more intense than just that.

Those plans might also include making sure they’re at the absolute “perfect” place in their life for children, that they’ve visualized caring for a little version of themselves, or that they’ve already determined what colors they’re going to paint the nursery and have picked out the theme for their child’s first birthday. There’s a lot of reading and researching that’s involved in determining if or when they’re “planning on having kids”. That was me. I’m a control freak.

Those “Rougher Waters” I Mentioned…

Anxiety is not fun. Anxiety brought on by medicine or drugs? For me, it was horrific and terrible – far worse than what I had experienced so far.

When I first started coming down with it, it was much like a common cold. It’d creep up every now and then, sometimes at inopportune times, but ultimately was just more of an annoyance that meant I couldn’t go to some places because I felt sick.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to minimize the way that anxiety made me feel initially – it was just so much easier to handle back when it all started. When it got really bad…well, that became the new ruler against all my anxiety was measured and those first several years with it didn’t compare to what came later.

The Beast Known as Anxiety

Google describes anxiety as:

a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome.

In fact, in looking up anxiety on Google, you can find out some very interesting tidbits about it. The word’s origin comes from early 16th century French/Latin and it’s peak usages include right around 1825 and then in 2010 and beyond. So it’s apparently not something new that has afflicted us. It’s been here for quite some time. Nowadays it’s considered very common and afflicts over 3 million people, hitting every age bracket but especially those who are 14-60 years old. Wow.

Anxiety has not only been around for well past a century, but has afflicted many people with little discretion of age.