Sometimes women experience depression immediately after childbirth, and this depression is known as postpartum depression. There are five types
Sometimes women experience depression immediately after childbirth, and this depression is known as postpartum depression. There are five types of postpartum depression, any of which can occur after delivery; however, a similar depression can also occur before or during pregnancy.
Postpartum depression patients who have had other types of depression in their lives report that this depression feels very different from any other type of depression they have faced in their lives. To know more about Defining Postpartum Depression | What Is It? I suggest you visit this website: https://primetherapist.com/postpartum-depression
What are the different types of postpartum depression and how can you identify postpartum depression?
There are five main types of postpartum depression or postpartum mood disorders, as they are also known, and women who have given birth can suffer from any of these. Here is a brief overview of these so you can see the current news about postpartum depression:
1. Baby Blues: This is a type of depression that is not considered a disorder at all and up to 80% of mothers experience it.
- Its symptoms are detailed below:
- Instability of your mood or mood swings, as they are commonly called
- Sadness and crying
- Anxiety
- A strong sense of dependence on those around you.
- Inability to concentrate
2. Depression and anxiety: This is postpartum depression that begins gradually and can occur at any time during the first year of labor and is characterized by the following characteristics:
- Depression and anxiety translate into excessive worry
- Having a hard time making decisions because you are overwhelmed by circumstances all the time.
- Feelings of guilt and phobias.
- Despair
- Having trouble sleeping could mean not being able to sleep properly or, on the other hand, sleeping excessively.
- Physical pain or discomfort with no apparent cause
- Lack of comfort around the baby.
- Decreased libido and loss of interest in pleasure.
- Becoming short-tempered and irritable
3. Obsessive-compulsive disorder: This is a postpartum disorder that between 3 and 5% of mothers struggle with and can be recognized with the following symptoms:
- Intrusive and repetitive thoughts and mental images
- These thoughts are often violent and about hurting the baby.
- There is also at the same time a sense of disgust in these thoughts and horror about them.
- It would accompany such behavior that it would suggest actions to reduce these thoughts. For example, you can try to hide all the pointed or sharp objects with which the baby can be hurt.
- Repetitive behavior such as counting often or cleaning over and over again.
4. Panic disorder: This postpartum disorder is found in approximately 10% of pregnant women. Symptoms of it are listed below:
- Extreme anxiety in phases
- Dizziness, shortness of breath, chest pain, and a feeling of suffocation or suffocation
- Tremors, throbbing, numbness, or tingling.
- Restlessness, agitation, or irritability.
- During such attacks, women feel like they are going crazy, losing control, or even dying.
- Excessive worry or fear
- There will be no triggers for these panics and they will happen suddenly.
5. Psychosis: This is the rarest form and what can also be called the worst form of postpartum depression. In such a state, the mother goes through tremendous stress to such an extent that she has a suicide rate of 5% and an infanticide rate of 4%. However, psychosis is quite rare and will only occur in one or two per thousand.
- The following are the symptoms of psychosis:
- Visual or sound hallucinations
- Delusional thinking (for example, it could be about the death of the baby or even killing the baby)
- Delirium or mania
- Can I get help fighting postpartum depression?
It is a normal situation in the sense that many women suffer from it and can be treated effectively through talks with psychologists or medication. However, very often women who suffer from them also tend to be guilty of having such thoughts and feel that it will be a shame to tell other people that they are actually sad when they should be having the happiest time of their life. And so they end up hiding the problem that aggravates it even more.