Recovery

[Zebrawhite]

How long did it take you to recover from ppp?

I am 3 weeks after my 2nd episode and still waking up anxious and scared. What helped you get better?

[Maria_at_APP Moderator]

Dear Zebrawhite,

Are you in an MBU at the moment? In the very early days my recovery consisted of being able to sleep, eat and taking my meds. I know you are having trouble with the first due to medication side effects, I hope those resolve very soon for you, sleep is so important for us.

I started doing therapy in the MBU and that was hugely helpful as well. It helped to start making sense of the world again and slowly building my confidence which was so shattered. Mindfulness helped with my anxiety too, it's a bit of finding out what works for you. It could be taking walks when you get leave or doing some gentle exercise.

Jenny shared the recovery guides and they were also so helpful to me. Take very good care, we are here for whatever you need

[Zebrawhite in reply to Maria_at_APP]

Thank you Maria, I am at home now and do find walks help. I will take a look at the guides too.

Sorry for my short responses, my right arm is weak so typing difficult. I appreciate all your advice though x

[Maria_at_APP Moderator in reply to Zebrawhite]

There is no need to reply dear Zebrawhite, just rest. I am glad that the walks are helping I found them very grounding and its my rebooting time. Take good care, we are all here for you

Maria

[Survivedwithcolor]

I'm sorry to hear you are experiencing PP again. I only experienced it with my second child and had no more children after that. Assuming you received treatment after the first child, your recovery time with that child is probably the best indicator of how long the recovery time will be with your second. However, any mother knows that children and births can all be very different, so that's probably not a good guide either.

In the reading I've done, and from what I've seen on this forum, some women recover quickly, within 6-8 weeks, and others don't recover for many years. It seems to vary widely and depends on your circumstances, your access to care, your previous mental health history, and other things. I unfortunately fell into the "many years" category, but I also went undiagnosed and untreated for ten months before being hospitalized, and then I was misdiagnosed and treated incorrectly. If I had PP now, it might have been different. Mine was 20+ years ago. The important thing to know is that even with all that, I did eventually get better and recover, and so do most other women.

Things that helped me during the time I was very ill were family support, having someone to talk to, and keeping myself busy (I was actually working at the time and while this in some ways made it worse, it also kept my thoughts at bay much of the time), and drawing and writing. My forum name is "survivedwithcolor" because drawing was what I did to survive. Somehow my colored pencils made much more sense to me than a lot of other things. It got me through. I did not exercise much but I now think that exercise can be really powerful if you can do it, even just walking. Exercise has changed my life in the last two years. If you can find any kind of physical activity you like to do, that will be very good for you.

If you are musical, that can also be very therapeutic. Music reaches parts of your brain that nothing else does. Singing or playing an instrument is still excellent therapy for me. If you always wanted to learn an instrument, maybe try it now. Learn a language on one of those online apps. Do Sudoku or crossword puzzles. Keeping your brain activated can be helpful for healing and take your mind off anxious or repetitive thoughts.

[The_Wes_Anderson_Fan Volunteer]

Hi Zebrawhite,

My recovery wasn't fast. I had psychosis at age 20 and 37.

Each time I spent 3 months in hospital. The latter in an MBU. I believe that the typical stay is 100 days (approx 3 months). I didn't return to work for quite a long time.

I no longer had psychosis when I was discharged.

What helped me?

Definitely all of the medication that I was given got me well.

I lost confidence after my hospital stays and retrained myself to be sociable by asking open questions e.g. hairdresser talk, where are you going on holiday etc? It took some effort and application but I got back to being me.

The other thing that helped me get better, was keeping a sketch book and drawing magazine pictures that I liked. The distraction really helped me. X

[EquineBeauty in reply to The_Wes_Anderson_Fan]

Forgive my curiosity (and please don’t feel obligated to answer if it’s too personal) Were both of your psychoses related to childbirth? When it happened to you the second time - were you able to catch some warning signs early? Did it feel similar to the first time?

[The_Wes_Anderson_Fan Volunteer in reply to EquineBeauty]

Not at all, I love the chance to be able to talk openly as I rarely talk openly in my every day life.The psychosis at age 20 was not related to childbirth. (Although I sometimes wonder if I had a very early miscarriage).

It was quite similar both times. I met my husband at age 27 and I told him about my mental health history of being on a ward for 3 months, so thankfully he recognised the signs postpartum. I am lucky that my husband and the male GP at the time, were both so intuitive.

I was admitted 9 days after pregnancy. I didn't recognise the signs, but once it was suggested I go to hospital, I was in full agreement.

I felt fortunate to go to the MBU at age 37 and say it's ok, I had this at age 20 and recovered. Everything was less frightening, so it was a blessing in a weird way.

Thank you for asking.

I hope things are well with you 💛

[EquineBeauty in reply to The_Wes_Anderson_Fan]

Thanks so much for your reply! Glad to hear that you have recovered well after both times! I hope that if I ever do relapse that there will be some early warning signs that I would notice but it’s helpful to know that your husband noticed even if you didn’t. My husband went through PPP with me last year and it was frightening for us both. But I know he would definitely pick up on something. Luckily I have recovered only after a month so that was a blessing too. I am currently well and of course hope to stay that way.

Hormones can do wicked stuff huh? 😅

Thank you and take care 🤗

[The_Wes_Anderson_Fan Volunteer in reply to EquineBeauty]

It's a strange thing, I don't know if the link to hormones has been proved or not. I think sleep deprivation is more likely.All the best. Keep well xxx

[EquineBeauty in reply to The_Wes_Anderson_Fan]

Happy to talk openly on here as well. It’s hard to share these kind of stories with people we meet in our everyday lives (outside of those closest to us of course). I mistakenly shared what happened to me (PP) with some women in my prenatal yoga classes (after giving birth) - partly because I think it was so fresh on my mind - and some of them have distanced themselves from me. It’s alright, not everyone feels comfortable discussing mental health. But I’m lucky to have great close friends and family and happy to have found this forum - where we can openly discuss our unfortunate shared experience.

[The_Wes_Anderson_Fan Volunteer in reply to EquineBeauty]

I tell trusted people about my bipolar diagnosis but going into detail about how I behaved on the MBU is a totally different thing. However, back in 2002, at age 37, many friends visited me on the ward and they are all still as close, no-one distanced themselves.

However at age 20, (1985) my friends probably found it frightening to deal with.

We had a break, but many years later - my friend said they thought I wanted the distance.

I still see them now and we are planning a weekend to celebrate our 60ths.

Time and maturity heals...

Hopefully...

[EquineBeauty in reply to The_Wes_Anderson_Fan]

Happy almost birthday! Have a fabulous time celebrating 🥳

And thank you for sharing once again