PPD* Posts

A few things that are on my mind that I would love to write about soon:

1. Asking for and accepting help. Why do we shy away from it? Why is it so hard? I've been asking for a lot of help lately, and am amazed at how difficult it is both to ask for it, and to receive the help graciously. 
2. The "shame" of talking about PPD. I just read an article by a woman who's son just turned one. She's been struggling with PPD the entire time. She said that publishing this article would be the first that her family and closest friends even knew that she had been struggling. WHY? Why is it so wrong to talk about it, especially while it is going on?
3. An update on me--a lot of people have been asking how I am doing--thanks! The summary is that it is still up and down, but I am in counselling that is going really well and I have gotten help from a number of awesome people. But I'd love to write a more detailed assessment of my life right now.

These few sentences don't do justice to all of the thoughts swirling through my mind as I work through all of this. Not only am I working to get out of this and figure myself out, but I am so aware of how HIDDEN this struggle is expected to be. I am determined to not hide. I want to talk openly about this, and I don't want to wait until after it is over. I'd love to set a precedent, if only for a few people, that it is GOOD to talk about things like this and accept the support of the community around you. Facing it alone only makes it worse.

Stay tuned for three long posts on the topics above. Sometime. Meanwhile, any readers out there want to chime in on any of this?

*PPD stands for Postpartum-Depression, which is the fancy term for the depression that plagues many women after the birth of a child. That said, I think these topics are applicable to ALL forms of depression.