Strollerderby : PPD

Turns Out Men Can Get Postpartum Depression, Too

Jen Chaney — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 12:02:00 GMT

Women obviously suffer from the more severe hormonal changes after their children are born. But that doesn't mean dads are immune to postpartum depression.

According to this story from Newsweek, plenty of men experience the baby blues even if we don't always recognize it as such. Dr. Will Courtenay, a psychotherapist quoted extensively in the article, says that some studies indicate that as many as one in four new fathers wind up with PPD.

Honestly, this probably isn't a huge surprise to anyone. Having a child causes tectonic shifts in the ground beneath anyone's feet, regardless of their gender. The sleeplessness, the additional demands on our time, the sense that we're not living up to our spouse's or partner's expectations -- it can cause anyone to break, as father and one-time PPD sufferer Joel Schwartzberg writes in this essay, also in Newsweek.

The symptons he describes -- sadness, lack of communication with his spouse, a desire to flee from the situation -- are emotions I am sure many of us have felt at one point or another. In case there was any doubt, I think it's perfectly legitimate for guys to feel this way and to call it PPD.

What strikes me as a little strange, though, is this comment from Dr. Courtenay, in response to a reporter's question about whether postpartum depression manifests itself differently in men than in women. "When we think of a depressed person, we usually picture someone who's sad and crying," he says. "But if we picture instead a guy who's working 60 hours a week, is a little short-tempered, drinks a couple of beers at lunch, slips out of the office to have an affair, then speeds home to his wife, that's not what we picture when we think of depression, but those are some of the signs of men's depression, which can often look different."

Drinking on the job? Leaving the office to have an affair? That sounds a little extreme and perhaps like evidence of even more complex problems, doesn't it? I realize men and women are different -- I learned this primarily from years of hilarious stand-up comedy routines --and that the issues they confront as new parents vary in many ways, but I suspect that the feelings they struggle with have more in common than that statement suggests. Based on Schwartzberg's essay, which really resonated with me even though my chromosomes are definitely of the XX variety, that certainly seems true.

But you tell me. Are you a dad who has suffered from PPD, or do you suspect your husband/partner may have? What were the symptoms that reared their heads? And what advice can you offer to other parents in the same challenging situation?

Image: guardian.co.uk

Congress Looks at Postpartum Depression Support

JeanneSager — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 21:37:00 GMT

Unless you're Tom Cruise, you probably have some sense that postpartum depression is very real and moms could use a heck of a lot more support.

A bill winding its way through both houses of Congress could finally make postpartum depression awareness a priority in the country, along with making it easier for mothers to apply for and access treatment.

The Melanie Blocker Stokes Act, named for a new mother who took her life eight years ago, was introduced in the House of Representatives last year but floundered. Now it's back, with bills reintroduced in the House AND the Senate in 2009. According to a group stumping for supporters who will write to their Congressman begging for passage, the act "would mandate research on the benefits of screening for PPD, and it would also create programs to deliver outpatient, inpatient and home-based health and support services, including services that would promote earlier diagnosis and treatment."

Estimates put the numbers of women who suffer from postpartum depression at one in ten, but as this post from the Perinatal Pro blog correctly points out, women are often hesitant to ask for help - as much because they don't understand the true symptoms as because of a fear of looking like a bad mother. Less than two tenths of a percent of women suffer from a postpartum psychosis (think Susan Smith or Andrea Yates), but because of the intense media attention, many women think their symptoms have to be that extreme to be diagnosed with PPD.

In reality, the symptoms can be as simple as an inability to sleep even when the baby is sleeping, uncontrollable crying, massive changes in appetite or feelings of guilt. They sound like the symptoms of a lot of new moms - the issue is the degree to which they appear. Women need to know there's a way out - and getting proper treatment and support services is a big part of that. Take it from a mom who knows.

Want to help get it passed? All it takes is your name, address and zip code, and the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance will send an e-mail directly to your Congressman asking him or her to vote yes on this bill.

Image: National Institutes of Health (for more information on PPD)

Depressed Mother. Nothing To See. Move Along.

Adrienne Martini — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 13:00:00 GMT

So here's the happy ending: Eventually, this depressed mom of a nine-month old was found on Baltimore's Skid Row and returned to safety in Rhode Island.

Unfortunately, the rest of the story will make you want to bite someone.

Katie Corcoran had been missing for nine weeks after she walked out of Providence, R.I., hospital where she was getting treatment for post-partum depression. Through some stroke of providence, a shopkeeper in Baltimore found a website about Katie set up by her husband Rob and this mom-of-two made it home.

I'm still surprised at how little coverage this story has gotten, however. Corcoran's disappearance and discovery all happened at the end of last year and few major news outlets covered it.

You'd think this would have been a cause the Nancy Grace's of the media would have been hyping the heck out of. Pretty, fairly young, white woman goes missing. Oh, but she's a mom who is depressed. Right. Not nearly as sexy as a sorority girl on a tropical island. Or am I too cynical?

At least it ends well.

Photo credit: ABC news

They Say: Depression Is Merely a Failure to Count Your Blessings

Adrienne Martini — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 18:00:00 GMT

James Gordon, the author of Unstuck: Your Guide for the Seven Stage Journey Out of Depression, can bite me. Oprah Magazine's Cathryn Jakobson Ramin can also bite me.

This may be a sign that I have amorphous unresolved anger issues. I don't. My anger is very specific and resolved. Currently, it is directed at the folks who insist that severe depression is simply a failure of will and that all that it needed to combat it is a cheerful attitude. Each and every one of you can bite me. Line forms to the left.

Blogger Terese J. Borchard sums up both Gordon and Ramin's arguments. Borchard is a much kinder woman than I -- but we (and the NYT's Judith Warner) agree that taking meds is not the "lazy way out." Nor is it a failure of character. Depression is a biochemical disorder, not a sickness of willpower.

Something finally became very clear when I read Borchard's post: women with depression are such easy marks for people like Gordon and Ramin because they are disinclined to trust their own brains and bodies and will easily hand authority over to Oprah Magazine.

Stop it.

They can bite you, too. Say it out loud a few times, if you need to, just to get the hang of it.

Bite. Me.

(If you are looking for a way to move anger into action, click over here. But only if you want to...)

Climbing on my Soapbox

Adrienne Martini — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:00:00 GMT

With my first baby, I dropped into a depression so deep that something tragic probably would have happened had I waited 24 more hours before going to the ER. I am one of the lucky ones. Not every mom with postpartum depression has as many options as I did. But how wonderful it would be if there were at least a couple more choices?

Thanks to a bill that has just been introduced into the U.S. Senate by Harry Reid, there is the possibility that more cash can be spent on research into motherhood-related mood disorders. Blogger Katherine Stone explains succinctly why everyone should care about these health issues: "We know from research that untreated perinatal mood disorders are a serious public health threat -- they can lead to chronic depression in the mother, behavioral problems in the child and stress-related health problems in both -- yet 90 percent of all women who suffer are never treated."

Can you imagine another condition that has a 10 percent treatment rate? Yeah, me neither.

So take a minute and send a letter, write a blog post or otherwise spread the word. Thousands of crazy moms -- and I write this as one -- will thank you.

Drugging Mommy Up

Adrienne Martini — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 18:30:00 GMT

Like the working mom debate, the antidepressants during pregnancy debate is one of those that hits close to home for me. With my first baby, I was locked on a psych ward weeks after her birth. With my second baby, I took Zoloft throughout my pregnancy. While I'd love to be an expert in cute bunnies and duckies, instead clinically crazy moms are my area of expertise.

Which is why Bruce E. Levine's alternet piece on "Paxil babies" ruffles every last feather I have. Levine managed to take a few nuggets of what we know to be true and make an argument that isn't false, exactly, but does get the wrong end of the stick.

He claims that because SSRI use does increase the incidence of certain birth defects and because there's one case where post-natal SSRIs didn't stop one woman from killing herself, then we should change the entire way that society now operates. Women who want to have children, he argues, should model their communities after traditional African and Chinese family structures where maternal depression is unreported.

Um, OK.

I'll be the first to admit that I don't have the answers, but I do know that there is just something about Levine's approach that won't do dick to change anything. But I'm also not sure that advocacy is his main focus. Or have I gotten the wrong end of the stick, too?

Photo credit: Inky Circus (and for a more level-headed take, read this)

Mad Moms Make For Sad Moms

Adrienne Martini — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 18:30:00 GMT

I've always been amazed that it takes a scientific study to point out something that seems obvious. Like this one, just completed by the University of Haifa in Israel.

One hundred and sixty moms-to-be were interviewed about their expectations of motherhood. The pregnant ladies who had unresolved conflicts with their own parents envisioned parenting to be challenging. Those who had warm relationships with their folks figured their relationship with their infants would be warm.

Which makes a certain intuitive sense, yes? But now that someone has been able to quantify the obvious, perhaps OBs will take an extra 30 seconds to ask a pregnant lady how her relationship with her parents has been and, I don't know, help her get some insight into those unresolved issues because they might have an effect on her future well-being. Seems a lot more helpful than just doing another check of her cervix, anyway.

Oh, and no word yet from those researchers working on the "water still wet" hypothesis.

Photo credit: www.evilbeetgossip.com

Mood, moms and anthropology

Adrienne Martini — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 18:56:00 GMT

While maternal mental illness doesn't seem like an uplifting new year's post, the woman who occasioned the link made life easier for me and every other depressed or bipolar mom out there. Her groundbreaking work isn't talked about much anymore. In fact, until the New York Times ran her obit on Sunday, I hadn't even heard of the theories that made it possible for my OB/GYN to even suggest that I might be a depressed.

Psychologist Dr. Marian Radke-Yarrow's 23-years of work in the middle of the last century was what made it possible to even begin to talk about the concept that all moms weren't blissfully happy every minute of every day. Radke-Yarrow went on to prove that moms' mood has a direct effect on the emotional health of her children, especially her daughters.

It doesn't seem as earthshattering now as it did when Dr. Radke-Yarrow first made her discoveries. Our casual acceptance that motherhood is occasionally a bowl of Zoloft rather than cherries might be her most important and enduring legacy.

Misery Loves Company: MOTHERS Act Day

aprilpeveteaux — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 16:15:00 GMT

As you are blogging away today in support of the MOTHERS Act, take a moment to check out Adrienne Martini’s personal essay, Misery, which will give you a startling look into the world of a mom battling postpartum depression. Hopefully Martini’s struggle is not a familiar one to you mom readers out there, but whether you’ve been there or not, her experience highlights the importance of keeping all of our family members’ safe after the addition of the newest and cutest one. Martini’s determination to have a second child after this time in hell is a brave one. Or an irresponsible one depending on your point of view, but also the greatest indication that life does not have to come to a standstill due to the treatable disease of PPD. Write your senator, write your own story, but write now to help pass a bill that will ensure mothers and families getting the resources they need to help fight this increasingly common and tragic health crisis.

Fathers Fight For Equality, In PPD

Melissa Summers — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 19:14:00 GMT

A new study from Eastern Virginia Medical School's Center for Pediatric Research found that nearly as many new dads suffered signs of depression as new mothers do. The study looked at 5,000 two-parent families and found around 14 percent of mothers and 10 percent of fathers suffered signs of moderate to severe postpartum depression.

Well, of course fathers suffer, what with the ripped vaginas, roller coaster hormone ride and leaking boobs....oh wait....

Researchers say this finding is important since it's been a long held belief that the moderate to severe postpartum depression experienced by women is a result of fluctuations in hormone levels following childbirth. This is obviously not the case for new fathers and doctors say there are "plausible" causes of postpartum depression. For example, sleep deprivation induced fatigue, the financial strain of a new baby and marital discord.

Doctors say the study points out an even more important link between maternal postpartum depression and paternal postpartum depression suggesting practitioners make sure to screen new dads for depression when a new mom is diagnosed.

Post Partum Depression: You Are Not Alone

Sarah, Goon Squad Sarah — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 16:24:00 GMT

Thordora isn't afraid to talk about it. She tells stories about her Post Partum depression on her blog, Spin Me I Pulsate, and she wants you to tell her your stories about PPD too. She is calling it the Post Partum Crazy Race.

Thordora mentions how PPD is such a common thing, but people just don't talk about it unless you bring it up first. I find this to be true of other kinds of depression too. It is amazing when I tell a group of people about my experience with depression how many other people have gone through it. Post Partum seems to be the worst. First, you are a wreck and expected to take care of this tiny person (or people) and second, everyone expects you to be radiant with the joy of your new child.

In her post, Thordora recommends the book "Hillbilly Gothic: A Memoir of Madness and Motherhood" by Adrienne Martini. You can visit Adrienne Martini's blog Martinimade here.

You really aren't alone, you know? There is another wonderful book about suffering from depression as a parent. It is by Tracy Thompson and it is called "The Ghost in the House: Motherhood, Raising Children, and Struggling with Depression". Tracy has a blog too, it is called Maternally Challenged.

Go tell Thordora your story. Let her know that she isn't the only one either.