View Single Post
 
Old Dec 01, 2011, 10:44 AM
costello's Avatar
costello costello is offline
Wise Elder
 
Member Since: Dec 2010
Location: ???
Posts: 7,864
I'm not an expert, but it does sound like postpartum psychosis to me as well. You had psychotic experiences immediately after the birth of a child which resolved fairly quickly on their own. I don't think that violence is a necessary part of postpartum psychosis any more than it is of other psychoses. We tend to think of the violence aspect because those are the stories that make the newspaper.

I met a woman earlier this year who was living in mental health housing where my son was staying. She was about my age but had spent much of her adult life battling psychosis. She had been a journalist until the birth of her first child when she was 29 when she became psychotic. That was 19 years ago. She said she'd had periods of stability on medications, but the medications always stopped working eventually and she was thrown back into psychosis. She looked so tired when she was telling me about it.

Based on what it says at wikipedia, your experience is more typical - resolving within weeks or months. Wikipedia also says this:

Quote:
Suicide is rare, and infanticide extremely rare, during these episodes. It does occur, as illustrated by the famous cases summarized below. Infanticide after childbirth is usually due to profound postpartum depression (melancholic filicide) when it is often accompanied by suicide
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postpartum_psychosis
__________________
"Hear me, my Chiefs! I am tired; my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever."--Chief Joseph

Last edited by costello; Dec 01, 2011 at 12:15 PM.
Thanks for this!
lynn P., pgrundy