How long did it take you to fully rec... - Action on Postpar...
How long did it take you to fully recover from PP?
I'd say it took me 2 years, although I didn't feel fully myself & back to normal again until I lost the weight I'd gained. This took another 6 months & was a time where I felt I had to reinvent myself somehow. Although I wasn't ill in years 2-3, I'd say I wasn't quite 'me' until 2.5 years.
I'm constantly reinventing the word recovery the further along the path I go. Initially I felt recovered by the time by son was 16 months old, I felt back to me in many ways but still had all the weight gain to lose. I'd never been that big before and was so used to my pre-PP size I needed to get it back to feel right again. Losing the 3.5 stone after I came off medication helped me feel more in control of my life again and added to my sense of recovery.
19 months in we made the difficult decision to have another baby and I became pregnant very quickly. We wouldn't have been able dare contemplate the possibility if I hadn't felt back to my old self. Having my second child and being well, experiencing being a mother of a new baby and not having PP was a huge part of the healing process from my PP episode 2 ½ years earlier.
It’s inevitable that we are all changed by our life experiences, especially the traumatic ones. Motherhood in itself is a change and as a friend of mine recently said “when we have PP on top of becoming a new mother our identity is hit by a double whammy.” I feel that one part of me, my christian faith, has not recovered fully from the impact of the PP, and 5 years on I am having to reconcile what happened to me with what I believed before the PP – I’m still working on it! So I am very much “me” again, but undeniably some things have changed. Still, the day I argued with my husband again and had opinions was celebrated by us – I’d come back! That was probably around the 16 month mark.
I love your comment about celebrating having opinions again. I was a strong, confident person previously and that was shattered. It's wonderful when you do stop being meek, scared to interact with others and start getting on with things properly again. Two years on and I'm still not sure I'm completely there.
I don't think that I completely recovered as the postpartum psychosis was the beginning of bi-polar II, which I'd never experienced before.
The experience of PP has changed my life forever & taken me on a completely different journey from the one I was planning i.e. Life is what happens when you're busy making plans - John Lennon. So rather than the goal of 'recovery', although this has its uses, what has really shaped my life is the ideas & attitudes that I have encountered on my quest for answers. PP opened a door that I had to go through, urging me to consider concepts beyond the conventional & reject a lot of traditional thinking & to challenge some of the standard medical & psychiatric approaches.
Even though I was diagnosed eventually I did not receive appropriate treatment for a female, who just gave birth to a son. There had been no mother and baby unit in the South West in 2010. I was sectioned to a psychiatric hospital. My traumatic experiences begun...
I had a similar experience ..... I was waiting for a Psychiatrist to visit me at my parents' home (my parents thought I would be safer there) when I hit a crisis and was sectioned to general psychiatric care. I was very ill at this point and without my son on and off for the first six months. I was transferred to other mental health units and eventually allowed home at weekends until I was fully discharged. I think it took me over two years to regain my confidence and place ...... then six years later PP struck again .......
All very frightening with delusions and voices again. I didn't recognise the woman I had become. Eventually I found the inner strength all PP mums have to fight my fears and slowly recovered.
I had no idea I was Bipolar before I suffered PP aged 30. Struggled with various key 'life events' since including one manic relapse. Currently taking medication but unclear whether it's right for me.
6 years ago I was diagnosed with PP, and I still suffer terribly with psychosis. It has drastically changed my life. I am now being reviewed for schizophrenia.
Hello MrsN91
Welcome to the forum and thank you for replying to a post from some years ago. I wonder if you would like to start your own post so that you can find support and shared experiences of other mums here?
I am so sorry that you still suffer terribly with psychosis six years on from being diagnosed with PP which has had such an impact on your life. It is such a frightening experience. I hope you have good professional support around to help you through this difficult time.
Take care and please write again if we can help in any way.
Hello MrsN91,
me, too! I would like to offer our support. We just listen and do not judge,-we exchange our experiences here on this forum. I am so sorry for your continuous struggle.
I have received a tremendous amount of support via APP. I felt so very deeply lonely inside my head and so completely misunderstood. After 5 yrs. I found this forum and somehow recovery was not such a rocky path anymore.
You will find a good back up of professionals within the field of peri and postnatal subject matters, some good guidance and information on this social site etc...I have been continuously learning by sharing and exchanging...
I hope you will be able to channel in, because deep down I know it is so important not to feel isolated, and journalising and connecting with some of these amazing mums really does help-it is like talking therapy...
Wishing you well and do not fear...only through this APP site did I gain strengths to ask for a second opinion...this March 2018...I have bi-polar 1.
Look after yourself,
sending you a 
I need your kind of experience now, as I am too struggling, but as you are hidden. I'm not sure how I can contact you, and I'm not sure what to title a thread if I do a new post. Perhaps you can anonymously reach out to me and have a look at my recent post. Thank you.
Hi Jlou84
I hope you’re doing ok. I’ve been reading some of your experience, I’m so sorry you’ve had such a tough time.
I noticed this reply and wanted to let you know that when a user shows as ‘hidden’ I think it can mean the account has been deactivated.
Hopefully you’ve found the other replies helpful. I had PP in 2012 and reading other people’s experiences here played a really important role in my recovery. I wanted to let you know that as well as the peer support forum, APP offers one to one support and also has cafe groups (currently taking place virtually) - you can read more here if this might be of interest: app-network.org/peer-support/
Take care and keep writing, we’re all here to listen and share our experiences.
Best wishes,
Jenny x
