After an episode of PP is it usual to suffer with high anxiety afterwards?. I struggled for a year afterwards.

[heatherellen]

[HopeafterPP Volunteer]

Hi Heatherellen,

Nice to meet you on here!

I would say yes, it is very common for Mums to have either a phase of severe depression or anxiety after the psychotic stage. Most mums I have spoken to had one or the other or indeed a mixture of the two for many months after the psychosis had ended. In fact for some, that phase can be the hardest part. As I have been led to understand, it is almost expected as a second stage of PP. Not all women suffer in this way after the psychosis though.

I had a further 15 - 16 months of severe depression with anxiety. It was a really tough time, and I view it as all part and parcel of PP. I also ended up with PTSD and for me I think the depressive stage after the psychosis is a reaction that kind of makes sense considering how traumatic it all was.

You are certainly not alone in this. Did you find anything that helped with your anxiety? My psychologist used to work with me using CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy) techniques to help me get through the huge anxieties I had about caring for my baby on my own or taking him out in the pram on my own (there were a lot of anxieties to choose from!). At first I wasn't very receptive to the idea of working through the problems (I just wanted it all to go away) but in the end it really did help. Mainly, it was just good to have someone understand and give me a goal to work towards.

Thanks for posting this question, I am sure it will help others too. I only found out it was the usual pattern for PP once I had recovered and started talking to others online.

Take care

Natasha x

[HopeafterPP Volunteer]

Heatherellen, I thought this poll in our forum might be of interest to you:

app-network.healthunlocked....

54% of people say it took over a year to recover.

Natasha x

[orac]

I had rolling extreme debilitating anxiety for about a month, which then transited into deep depression, which lasted 6 weeks while the medicine kicked in, followed by many more months of feeling quite disrupted and out of it. I feel great now though (and did by about 2 years later). It was definitely worth hanging on and finding the light at the end of the tunnel.

I do wish a professional had warned me about the risk of the anxiety and depression after the psychosis-it came as quite a shock.

[andrea_at_app Volunteer APP in reply to orac]

Hi Orac, I also wish the professionals had told me about the chance of depression after the psychosis - it was a real shock for me too! I was happily thinking I was through the worst & getting back to normal, when they were waiting & almost expecting the depression to happen. I think if I'd have known, me & my family would've realised that it was still a very fragile time & would've taken extra care.

[Naomi_at_app Volunteer]

Hi Heatherellen

Just wondering how you are doing now? I hope the anxiety is less for you than it was in that first year?

It can definitely take a while for the anxiety and/or depression after PP to subside. I think part of it is just reeling from the shock of such an acute episode, and perhaps a bigger part is regaining confidence in yourself as a person and as a mum. I tended more towards depression after both my children, but was very anxious that I wasn't doing stuff properly with them and worried that I would delay their speech/development etc by not really knowing how to interact. I too agree with orac that a little bit of warning that being discharged from hospital may not mean that you are totally 'out of the woods' would be helpful. But it must be hard for professionals to get that right balance when they want to give you hope?

[heatherellen]

Hi Thank you for your answers very helpful for me. Despite all my reading and research I still find it a struggle to understand PP and why it might create anxiety.I have only started to look into it 6 months ago as I found it too painful to even think about. My episode happened 2 1/2 years ago after the birth of my son. I was sectioned and admitted into a general psychiatric ward for a week, and separated from my son. I was transferred out as I had developed a uterine infection following a caesarean. How much this contributed to the psychosis still remains unknown. I then spent 2 weeks in a MBU.

Once I returned home I was fine for a couple of months. The anxiety really started after I was tryng to come off Olanzapine. I found that I didn't want to be left alone, could barely go out of the front door and couldn't even have friends round. It was all very scary and I was finally given a diagnosis of post traumatic stress which I received treatment for. I have a history of anxiety so it was very difficult to know how much this contributed, plus all the usual worries about having a new baby.

I think I was so shocked and frightened by what happened it was not surprising I felt so terrible. I felt in that pschiatric ward that I was totally on my own like somebody had just thrown away the key and shut me away. I knew I was ill with an infection but nobody would listen to me. Amazingly I managed to appeal my section whilst I was in there, no mean feat when you brain is so very confused. The section was lifted a month later.

Sadly my husband and I received no information about why I was so ill and why I struggled so much afterwards. My friend descrbes PP like having a bad car crash and the brain takes time to recover which I found helpful. How my husband got through it I will never know as he had to hold down a very stressful job with a wife saying all the time please come home.

I am pleased to say that I have recovered well and I am back at work but at times still very sad about what happened. I am more anxious than I used to be but I hope as time goes on this will get better. I have a beautiful little boy who does not seem to be affected by it all which is such a relief. I have been reading the posts on the network over last few months and I have learnt so much as I felt so alone with what I had experienced.

Thank you for your replies.

[andrea_at_app Volunteer APP in reply to heatherellen]

Hi heatherellen, the sadness about what happened & the anxiousness does take quite some time getting over for all involved, but yes, I think it really does get easier with time. Feeling alone & isolated about what happened is just so hard too, you've been through so much! But I think being able to chat to others here, or elsewhere who fully understand, does help towards putting it behind you & moving on.

Take care loads x

[Naomi_at_app Volunteer]

Your recovery story is amazing heatherellen. Well done for getting your life back and I'm so glad you're now enjoying your gorgeous little boy!

I'm so sorry you and your husband were given such little information about PP and the course of recovery. At APP we will be using some of our Big Lottery money to make sure posters and leaflets with this forum and our website are available to all families affected by PP through Mother & Baby Units and perinatal mental health teams. Sounds like we also need to think about ensuring that general psychiatric wards are aware of us too.

Big hugs, N

[heatherellen in reply to Naomi_at_app]

Hello Naomi

If I can help in making sure that the inforrmation is distributed in my local area, please let me know. There is a local mental health service that might like the information as they work on the wards of psyhiatric units and they were pushing for me to have a mother and baby unit place. In the future I will also be involved in my local Healthwatch.