Personal Narrative: My Experience With Mommy Depression

I had moments of tears in the initial six weeks postpartum. It felt just like it did with my other two. I just had a baby and emotions are normal. Around weeks seven and eight postpartum, I began feeling an immense sense of fear. I was scared to take my three kids out in public because I felt like someone would try to take one of them. Anytime I did venture out, I was always on alert, thinking about my exit strategy or defense mechanism. Then, the fear grew in to fear with "mommy guilt" as I returned to work full time around week eight. My kids don't deserve this. I have to go see my son every day to feed him, but then I'm not seeing my girls, so they're neglected. Each little problem or worry was magnified at least 10 times and it became debilitating. I struggled to get out of bed. I cried every day. I couldn't get back in bed long enough. The only way to turn my mind off from the anxiety was to sleep, which then didn't help me from a depression standpoint.
Spending most of my time at work, working with mostly men, at the time, I felt like I would be judged for being too sensitive and, if I wasn't judged for that reason, surely my coworkers would view me as weak. However, as time progressed, it got to a …show more content…
Hence why I'm hoping to spread my message. I just want every woman to know her worth and not give up. Going through that emotional roller coaster plus having a baby really complicates healing. Friends and family are helpful when they express their support and reach out to check on you periodically. It also, honestly, helped me to find people who could relate. The one thing that was hard were the comments of "just get out of bed in the morning and it will help", or "but your son is so cute, what is there to be sad about", or "just get it together" to name a few. Most of these comments came prior to me sharing my problems with postpartum