December 19, 2000

Dr. Irene,

You’ve probably heard my story before, back when I was in a state of constant anger.  After working through my “stuff”, I feel like sharing with the rest the lessons that have come from my experiences with my verbally abusive husband.

For background–I met D (for “Dear Husband”) 11 years ago, when I was merely 18 years old.  He seemed to know how to take care of everything, while I knew nothing.  Plus he was outgoing, which I admired, as I was deathly shy. We fell in love on the first date.  Things were great the first few months–he helped me make it through the tough transition of living on my own for the first time.  When he moved back to his home state, halfway across the country, I followed him.  My parents cut me off financially as a result.

D and I came together in a struggle “against the world”.  Unfortunately, he returned to his old friends and his old pot-smoking addiction (behind my back at first).  When he did so, he became a different person.

The abuse he began to dole out on me started out as a shock, then became more and more atrocious.  I never did enough around the house to please him.  He called me an idiot (along with many other horrifying words I can’t say here), and said he would “Beat me in the head.”  But in the next instant, he would be loving and caring, the way I remembered him.  I couldn’t leave (so I thought)–I would be admitting failure to my family. Things only got worse.

He told me I looked like crap, I couldn’t dress myself, I had no friends, I never did anything for “us”, I was selfish.  He put down the friends I did have.  I went to school, got my bachelor’s degree.  In the meantime, he lost his job.  He talked me into working in go-go bars as an exotic dancer.  He didn’t make a dime in 3 and a half years (and didn’t go to school either).

Meanwhile, I was going to school full-time (sometimes more than full-time), and working at night as a dancer.  It still wasn’t enough.  I didn’t make enough money.  I didn’t spend enough time with him.  I didn’t have sex with him enough.  I came home for a few hours of sleep to hear his complaints.

Eventually he went to school for six months and became a computer programmer.

There were times when we fought every day.  I SCREAMED at him.  What was WRONG with him?  I lost it, became enraged, slammed things around.  There were days I just wanted to end it all–and kill myself.

Still, I graduated.  When I couldn’t find a job paying enough money to satisfy him, I went on to graduate school and got my Master’s degree.  Still unable to please him, I started looking at law school.  I got a full-tuition scholarship to a top-twenty law school, halfway across the country.  He was infuriated, but he went with me.  I heard all about his unhappiness, over and over again, for an entire year.

We got married before we moved.  Big mistake.  I knew at the time I was unhappy.  I had lied to him the entire time we were together about getting satisfaction from sex.  Basically, I had been “faking it” for years.

Skip to last year (1999).  I started going to church.  Stopped drinking. Stopped smoking pot (a daily event for us).  Stopped yelling at him. Convinced HIM to go to church (a miracle!, I thought).  I thought things were finally okay.  He was still a jerk, still controlling, still yelled at me, criticized everything I did.  I gave into temptation–I had an affair, in early 2000.  Finally somebody treated me the way I deserved! I put my foot down with D.  Gave him ultimatums.  He had to treat me better, get a job (he became unemployed again, for about ten months), stop smoking pot. He tried, but just didn’t get it.  We went to marriage counseling.  I went to therapy.

I moved out in August 2000, after quietly telling D I wanted out.  Soon after, I realized the affair was not going to solve my problems, and I had become too attached to the other man, who was also married.  I gave up the affair.  Talk about loneliness!  I had to start taking antidepressants, and I became suicidal a couple of times.  My therapy intensified.

In September 2000, I decided that if D and I were going to begin anew with a healthy relationship, we had to be honest with each other.  I told him about the affair and about “faking it”, shortly after D read all about it on the yak boards (and didn’t tell me).  He was furious, but he held it in.  Didn’t want to lose me.  He threatened to sue, hurt, and otherwise pester every guy he suspected of the affair (it wasn’t MY fault, after all, I was too stupid to turn down anyone who charmed their way into my life).  He called me constantly, asking, “Where WERE you?”   He used his newfound religion against me.  I had a problem.  I wasn’t right with God.

At first I talked to him, saw him constantly.  He didn’t listen to what I had to say.  I saw him less and less, and my (female) therapist more and more.  The loneliness was hard to take.  But soon I realized it was the only reason I was staying.  Every time I thought of going back, my body screamed at me, “NOOOOO!!!!”  I finally listened. Good! I told him just before Thanksgiving that I wanted a divorce.  He tried to convince me I was wrong, I should stay.  I told him I should have listened to myself sooner, that I should never have married him.  I told him I didn’t want to be around him then, and I don’t want to be around him now.  He tried to convince me that God wanted us to give it another chance.  I said God was telling me something different.  I didn’t tell him he was wrong.  He’s not.  His reality is his reality, and I don’t want to change it.  I just don’t want to be a part of it.  Good attitude.

That’s the best thing I learned in therapy. Leave him alone–let him play out his own drama.  No need to be a part of it.  I also realized that our relationship was not a waste, despite the fact that D said it was.  Because of it, I realized how I DON’T want to be treated.  I learned how to deal with a person who is not living up to the high standard of integrity to which I was held accountable.  I learned how to keep my own integrity.  But most of all, I learned to love myself, rather than trying to hold onto someone who I thought would love me.  I was not treating myself in a loving way–I was allowing another person to control me, manipulate me, have enormous power over me.

I am beginning to like living on my own.

I’m sorry this e-mail was so long.  I’m not. Even if you don’t post it on your site, it felt good to say it. Are you kidding or modest? I wish lots of love to others going through the same thing. And I wish same to you. Great success story. Bless you… Dr. Irene

Love,
Stimpy

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Effects of Domestic Violence

Long-term effects of domestic violence on women who have been abused may include:

• anxiety
• chronic depression
• chronic pain
• death
• dehydration
• dissociative states
• drug and alcohol dependence
• eating disorders
• emotional “over-reactions” to stimuli
• general emotional numbing
• health problems
• malnutrition
• panic attacks
• poor adherence to medical recommendations
• poverty
• repeated self-injury
• self neglect
• sexual dysfunction
• sleep disorders
• somatization disorders
• strained family relationships
• suicide attempts
• an inability to adequately respond to the needs of their children.

In a 1999 study from Johns Hopkins, it was reported that abused women are at higher risk of miscarriages, stillbirths, and infant deaths, and are more likely to give birth to low birth weight children, a risk factor for neonatal and infant deaths.  In addition, children of abused women were more likely to be malnourished and were more likely to have had a recent untreated case of diarrhea and less likely to have been immunized against childhood diseases. ¹⁰

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Hi,

I`m a 24yr old mother of three who for the past 19 years have been tortured by the visions of my 4th birthday, I came from a big family with abusive alcoholic parents who would leave us to fend for ourselves but hey it was my birthday I had a new dress,new shoes and I felt good for once….a friend of the family was saying all day how lovely the dress looked on me and I went out to play while my father went out for more drink and my mother finished the vodka she had hidden while he was away well…she passed out on the sofa but I was used to that and the `friend` asked me if I wanted to see his newpuppy, I loved animals so ofcourse I went along with him, he took me to a flat straight across from my home locked the door and raped me I can still remember the colour of the lightshade which I stared at I was crying and he told me I was a big girl and this is what happens to `good girls`afterwards he fixed himself and my hair had been up in pigtails so he pulled them tight and fixed my hair he also put my ripped pants into my cardigan and give me 20pence and told me to get sweets with it my neightbour saw me coming out of the flat and brought me to my mother`s house of course she sobered up pretty quickly and she started screaming……………I thought she was cross because I had money…… I remember telling her that I didn`t steal it but she sent me up to wash my face the neightbour followed me up to the bathroom and helped fix my hair and wash my face she was crying and I could not understand why I was brought to the police station and examined but my parent`s dropped the charges against him and he was left to get on with his life I on the other hand had horrifying nightmares and was told that nothing happened even when I asked my parents did he rape me they told me i was an attention seeker.. still as the nightmares continued….. I met my husband to be at 15 and fell pregnant shortly after and again the nightmare`s continued so I went to the solicitor`s, i just wanted some closure but the solicitor dug up more than I had expected you see my older brother also raped me infront of my younger brother this I have only known about for a couple of months and to be honest with you it`s tearing me apart I don`t want to be the victim they tell you that there is always a light at the end of the tunnel but I can`t see any light.

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Overview:

Some spouses are trapped in a relationship where they are abused. Our suggestion is that they seriously consider asking the abusive spouse to enter long-term therapy or counseling. If this is not an option, then they should seriously consider separation.

A far larger number of spouses are in a degenerating marriage with excessive conflict, a lack of intimacy, or poor communication. They are faced with two obvious choices:

	To stay and work on their relationship in the hopes of restoring it to health, or
	To separate in the hopes of having a better life in the future, perhaps with someone else.

Unfortunately, no one seems to have examined the likely consequences of each option, until Linda Waite and a team of family specialists at the University of Chicago mounted a major study into “happiness” of people five years after making their choice to stay or quit. ₁ They found that the better option may be to remain and work on the marriage.

How happy are people five years after facing the divorce option?

The University of Chicago study was released on 2002-JUL-11, and can be ordered from their web site for $7.00. ₂

Their research was based on analysis of data from the National Survey of Family and Households. It measured both personal and marital happiness of 5,232 heterosexual married adults during the late 1980s; 645 or 12.3% reported being unhappily married. They were re-interviewed in the mid 1990s. Some of the findings of the University of Chicago analysis were:

	Spouses in a really bad marriage tend to separate. But among those bad marriages in which the spouses stayed together, two out of three reported that their marriages were “happy” five years later.
	Among those who rated their marriages as “very unhappy,” 80% of those who stuck it out reported themselves as happily married five years later.
	Those spouses who separated were, on average, no happier than those who stayed married.
	Those spouses who separated and remarried were also no happier than those who stayed married.
	Three out of four unhappily married adults were married to a spouse who is happy with the marriage.

The separation and divorce route may look like an attractive option. However, it has some disadvantages and stressors:

	The response of one’s ex-spouse to the divorce.
	The reaction of the children.
	Disappointments and aggravation in custody, child support and visitation.
	Financial or health stressors in one or both parents.
	Stressors associated with new relationships or marriages.

To this list may be added:

	Loneliness: some people who choose divorce are not able to find a new partner.
	Many who have difficulties in a marriage (e.g. because they have problems communicating) find that they bring these deficiencies to the new relationship.
	Many who are married to a spouse who is physically abusive, mentally abusive, or who has an alcoholic or other drug addiction find that they choose a new partner with similar problems.

The researchers conducted focus group interviews with 55 formerly unhappy spouses who had been able to save their relationships and who are now happily married. Many of them had experienced “extended periods of marital unhappiness, often for quite serious reasons, including alcoholism, infidelity, verbal abuse, emotional neglect, depression, illness, and work reversals.” The subjects often reported that:

	They were able to ride out the unhappiness. In time, some of the problems dissipated.
	They invested a lot of time working on their problems and improving their relationship. For example, they reorganized their schedules to spend more time together, they sought help from relatives or in-laws, they went to counseling, they threatened divorce and consulted divorce attorneys.
	They found ways of working on and improving their own personal happiness, even though they were in a mediocre marriage.
	Research team member Scott Stanley commented: “In most cases, a strong commitment to staying married not only helps couples avoid divorce, it helps more couples achieve a happier marriage.“ 3

USA Today quoted Linda Waite as saying that:

	Those who worked on their marriages rarely turned to counselors. When they did, they went to faith-based ones committed to marriage.
	Men, particularly, were ”very suspicious of anyone who wanted money to solve personal problems.”
	Those who stayed married also generally disapproved of divorce. They cited concerns about children, religious beliefs and a fear that divorce would bring its own set of problems. 3 To read on please click here

Want to learn more about getting the sex you want: Listen to author and sex therapist Tammy Nelson, Phd, as we discuss how to build sexual communication skills quickly and how to connect with your partner in a new way. We talk about easy-to-learn exercises that enable couples to communicate their sexual needs and desires, get past old issues, and revive passion in their relationship.

Communication problems can and do erode relationships both in and out of the bedroom. Tammy explains how she has adapted a proven communication method, which has been used to counsel millions of couples, and applies it to sex. The Imago Relationship Therapy, which was pioneered by Harville Hendrix in the national bestseller and self-help classic Getting the Love You Want, explores how to understand and build trust between partners through a unique form of dialogue.

In addition to communication skills, I guarantee your understanding of sexual anatomy will be enhanced as we explore new findings about both male and female anatomy that will surprise you regardless of your sexual comfort and experience. This conversation is both powerful and enlightening about all the ways that we often don’t, but can communicate about what we are feeling and wanting in our sexual lives.

To read on please click here

A few years ago I visited my primary doctor because of chest pains and after a few tests he confirmed that I had ananxiety disorder and not heart disease. After the test he spoke to me for about 5 minutes, prescribed  Prozac , and told me to have a great day.

At first I really didn’t think much about this, but for reasons unknown to me, I stuck the little bottle of pills in my pocket and vowed to never ingest any of it. In retrospect it may have been my natural suspicion and anxiety about things I knew nothing about but over time it is clear that this was a good move on my part.

I won’t beat around the bush I don’t think that anxiety disorder(s) or any other mental illness is causedprimarily by a “chemical imbalance” in the brain and I’m also not convinced that antidepressants workas advertised ( I didn’t say that they don’t work for some). Nowadays it seems that people rely on buzz words as reference material and I think that this practice has lead to a warped view of what is and is not causing mental malfunction in people.

So what does cause anxiety disorder(s)? The jury is still out on this question, but suffice to say the causes are complex, multifaceted, and poorly understood by science as of today. The reason that this matters is because if the actual cause of anxiety disorder, OCD, social anxiety, panic disorder, agoraphobia, and PTSD are not known then why are doctors prescribing  psychotropic drugs to cure and or manage these conditions?

This I think is a fair question, which when reviewed carefully, will reveal that not only are the reasons not good, but border on the unethical. When this question is reviewed closely the very efficacy (effectiveness) of antidepressants can also be called into question.

You and I, and millions of others, have seen all the commercials before. Sad girl sitting at the base of a wall, lying in bed, hands plastered all over face, you can chose the sad position. The scene is usually shot in black and white until the voice over comes on and says “Are you sad? Nervous all the time?” And you perk up and say “yea, yes I am”.

The voice over than offers a solution in the form of a pill, Que bright colors and cheerful music, to make you happy. The ad, and by direct connection the pharmaceutical companies, argue that depression and anxiety disorders (among other mental conditions) may be related to a chemical imbalance in your brain. A  what?

The idea of a  chemical imbalance causing havoc in people’s brains all started in the 1950’s and culminated in a scientific paper written by Joseph Schildkraut in 1965. His paper called “The Catecholamine Hypothesis of Affective Disorders” basically argued that neurotransmitter imbalances in the brain (a.k.a. brain chemicals) were the main cause of psychiatric conditions, like anxiety disorder for example.

But was Schildkraut right? Are the drug companies using sound science when promoting their products? Let’s review a few bits of information and you can make up your own mind.

The principle argument made by the chemical imbalance theory is that if there is an imbalance of certain brain “chemicals” then things go array. However studies have shown that “depleting serotonin (brain chemical) levels in the brain reaped no consistent results” 1. In other words getting rid of serotonin from the brain did not cause anxiety, depression, etc on a consistent basis.

In addition, “contemporary neuroscience research has failed to confirm any serotonergic lesion (chemical based reason) for any mental disorder, and has in fact provided significant counter evidence to the explanation of a simple neurotransmitter deficiency” 1. As of today there is simply no solid scientific evidence to support the notion that anxiety and other mental conditions have anything to do with chemical imbalances.

So, if the existence of a chemical imbalance is questionable, how do antidepressants work? The answer is no one is absolutely certain, but again let’s take a closer look. Ever heard of broad spectrum antibiotics? Essentially these are antibiotics prescribed to battle a wide range of bacteria in the body. This sounds great but sometimes this type of antibiotic targets good bacteria and can also cause sickness.

It’s like carpet bombing. When loads of bombs are dropped from an aircraft and it’s hoped that the intended target gets hit. But this leads to collateral damage and this is a risk you take when shooting into the dark. You may hope to take an antidepressant to relieve depression but this can have unintended consequences.

In other words, if you target a wide range of chemicals in the brain you’re bound to hit something. But should serotonin really be the target? Or should it be some other chemical? This is simply unknown.

Some might argue that antidepressants helped them, even saved their life, possible. But there are also many other instances of people becoming more anxious, more depressed, more suicidal. This is what makes antidepressants problematic.

Moreover, “the fact that aspirin cures headaches does not prove that headaches are due to a low level of aspirin in the brain” 1. Recently I reviewed a blog that was thrashing anyone that contested the effectiveness of antidepressants. This caused me concern for a few reasons.

I wondered why these folks were so sure that antidepressants worked as advertised? That chemcial imbalances were the culprit. Were they basing it on commercials or scientific findings? Even the president of the American Psychiatric Association has stated that there is no test to determine if someone has a psychiatric condition 2. There is no blood test or other lab test to confirm that someone is “off balance”. Yet powerful drugs are administered to combat the ‘disease’.

So then, if you can’t test for it how can one treat it effectively? Again, some say that it has worked wonders for them but what of a  placebo effect? It is very possible that many people feel better because they feel like they are treating their condition and not necessarily because the drug is effective.

“using the freedom of information act researchers were able to gain access to all clinical trials of antidepressants submitted to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by the pharmaceuticals companies. When the published and unpublished trials were pooled (combined), the placebo duplicated about 80% of the antidepressant response.” 1

Ultimately, the scientific literature currently available simply does not confirm that chemical imbalances cause mental ailments nor does it confirm that anti depressants treat any brain imbalances.

In my view, the causes of mental ailments are most likely spread among biologic, genetic, social and environmental reasons. Being that mental ailments are so complex I find it hard to understand why some are so sure about chemical imbalances being the primary cause of mental disorders.

Furthermore, how can a single drug, whether it’s Prozac, Zoloft, Lexapro, etc., treat all six anxiety types and depression, and male sexual dysfunction?

I am not a fan of using drugs to treat anxiety, however, I also understand that they do help some people. The fact that this happens is great but that does not mean that it is ethical for any company to mislead people and make them believe that what they are selling is proven to work when it is not.

Just because a substance may help does not make it safe or well understood. Antidepressants can be harmful and even dangerous. You might ask well why do doctors prescribe such drugs? Doctors are smart, dedicated professionals, but this does not make them experts in what is yet to be completely understood.

The point of this article was to open the eyes of anxiety and depression sufferers. Make sure that you ask questions about what is prescribed to you. Make sure that you are properly diagnosed and not simply providing your own diagnosis visa via a 5 minute conversation with a family doctor.

Like all things we buy and consume, we should be as informed as possible, so we can also be empowered to make decisions based on facts and not be emotionally sold on something. Drugs are simply handed out too easily and not looked at with a critical eye by the general public.

And although drug therapy may help some people this does not excuse you from weighing your options and being well informed. Your attention to this matter is demanded because your health could be on the line.

Let me know what you think and don’t forget to check out the podcast that I included below.

Review:

1. It is not known if mental disorders are caused by chemical imbalances in the brain. This is an unfounded theory.

2. It is not yet known if or exactly how antidepressants work.

3. The media plays a large role in informing the public about ‘facts’ regarding mental illness and effective treatments.

4. Drug companies are misleading the public to believe that the chemical imbalance theory is fact and that antidepressants are safe and effective. These two things are yet to be fully known.

5. You should be an informed consumer and protect your health by educating yourself and asking questions when speaking to your doctor.

6. There is no test that can determine if someone is serotonin deficient or mentally ill.

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As a young child, my siblings and I would routinely turn on one another and resort to physical violence as a means of intimidation, punishment, and as a primal expression of untamed aggression. With your siblings, you never really knew what was coming, as physical aggression was about as random and unpredictable as childhood itself. However we were lucky, as our parents “spared the rod” (so to speak) and, while they yelled themselves blue, never laid a finger on us. This afforded us a great deal of emotional security (not quite appreciated at the time) in a household where slamming someone on the back of the head with a phonebook was considered a mode of disagreement.

So when I was unfortunate enough to witness friends being punished by their parents in a corporal way (spanking and slapping), it was both shocking and offensive to my pre-adolescent brain. With siblings it was war, sure, but with parents, no matter how insubordinate the behavior may have been, it was always as placid as Switzerland, at least it felt like it should have been.

According to data recently collected, approximately 72 percent of American parents think that corporal punishment is permissible when dealing with misbehaving children. Judging from this figure (along with supplemental supporting data) most children in this country, at one time or another, are on the receiving end of some form of corporal punishment. While many parents agree that a swift spanking will almost immediately curb and rein in some undesirable or unruly behavior, the lasting effect is proving to be much less desirable.

This month, in the Journal Pediatrics, a study led by Catherine Taylor of Tulane University revealed the strongest evidence yet against the use of spanking: of the nearly 2,500 youngsters in the study, those who were spanked more frequently at age 3 were more likely to be aggressive by age 5. “The odds of a child being more aggressive at age 5 if he had been spanked more than twice in the month before the study began increased by 50 percent,” says Taylor.

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A widely-reported analysis of clinical trial data for Prozac and related antidepressant drugs has claimed that the medicines work little better than chemically-inactive placebos in all but the most severely depressed patients. The study’s authors, led by Irving Kirsch at the University of Hull, UK, conclude that there is little benefit in prescribing such chemical treatments to depressed patients unless alternative treatments have failed to provide a benefit. Here, Chemistry World answers some of the big questions surrounding the study.

Which drugs were involved in the study?

Four of the six most widely prescribed antidepressants approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) between 1987 and 1999: Prozac (fluoxetine), Effexor (venlafaxine), Seroxat/Paxil (paroxetine), and Serzone (nefazodone). The drugs are made by some of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies – US firm Eli Lilly makes Prozac, and the UK’s GSK makes Seroxat.

The two other bestsellers, Zoloft/Lustral (sertraline) and citalopram, were not included in the analysis as the team were unable to obtain all the necessary data.

How do the drugs work?

They are all selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Serotonin (also known as 5-hydroxytryptamine) is a neurotransmitter that relays signals from one nerve cell to the next, across a small gap called a synapse, within the brain. SSRIs were developed based on the theory that depression is caused by a lack of neurotransmitter stimulation at the receiving neuron. Blocking the reuptake of serotonin by the body would leave more of the chemical in the brain, boosting its stimulatory effect.

What did the study actually find?

The team carried out a meta-analysis on clinical trial data that had compared patients’ responses to the drug with the effects of a placebo. Meta-analysis is a statistical method that combines the results from all the studies into one grand conclusion. Studying a large data set in this way can reveal overall trends not apparent from individual trials.

Kirsch and colleagues found that there was a statistically significant benefit in the use of SSRIs over placebo – but that the difference was smaller than the standard of ‘clinical significance’ set down by the UK’s National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) for all but the most depressed patients. NICE uses the data to form clinical recommendations, which among other inputs takes into account any particular treatment’s value-for-money for the National Health Service.

Interestingly, the team also found that patients’ response to placebo across all the trials was ‘exceptionally large’ – an indication of the complexity of the disorder. It was only the fact that the most severely depressed patients showed a much lower response to placebo that made the drug response clinically significant in this group of patients.

So did the study include any new data?

Not exactly. But Kirsch did combine published data with a number of unpublished studies which they obtained from the FDA using the Freedom of Information Act. These clinical trial studies had been sent to the regulator by the manufacturers when the drugs were originally submitted for approval. Kirsch says that by including this data, his meta-analysis avoids the data bias caused by pharmaceutical companies selectively reporting positive results.

While the trial data had all been filed with the FDA, some of the unpublished data had not been made available to NICE when the institute was deciding whether to recommend the drugs for the NHS. NICE says it cannot force companies to submit their unpublished data.

I bet the drug companies are hopping mad?

Absolutely. GSK, who make Seroxat, responded that they strongly believe the scientists’ interpretation is incorrect – and that only a small subset of the total clinical data on antidepressants had been included in their meta-analysis. The company also says that all its clinical trials data on Seroxat are freely available on their website.

Prozac manufacturer Eli Lilly have similarly defended their drug’s performance, stating that the Prozac is one of the world’s most-studied medicines, and that extensive scientific and medical experience has demonstrated it as an effective antidepressant.

The message was echoed by David Nutt, a psychopharmacologist at the University of Bristol. ‘There is good

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posted by Dr. Dean and Stephanie Raffelock

Is postpartum depression a symptom or disease? This is a question that does not have a black and white answer, and it is a question that is as important for the society in which we live as it is for healthcare practitioners, families, friends and mothers. Why? Because in societies where women have the most support, i.e. paid leave and automatic postnatal health and household chore support, the incidence of PPD (Postpartum Depression) is significantly lower.

PPD and PPA (Postpartum Anxiety) are experienced by many women after child birth and yet it’s been little more than a decade that we have been talking about the problem. We give a lot of credit to Marie Osmond, who 12 years ago went on the Oprah show and talked about her experience with PPD and shed some light on the issue. Up until that point, PPD and PPA did not have a face. It was not something discussed in polite company. The myth of “happy motherhood and perfect baby” was the picture most of us carried around. And that picture made it even more difficult for mothers to come forward and get the help that they needed.

When asking the question of PPD as a symptom or disease, several things come to mind:

1. Exhaustion or Depression: No other normal physiologic body process is as demanding as pregnancy and birth. Many women go home with a new baby and have other small children and a husband to care for as well. New babies have intense needs day and night. They require nursing and feeding , lots of body contact and soothing. That means that mother probably won’t besleeping through the night. Sleep deprivation contributes to negative mental states. Caring for a family and an infant can render mother exhausted. If a new mother has had a C-section, she is also recovering from surgery. Treatment for exhaustion is as important as treatment for depression, and it should be noted that exhaustion can mimic many of the symptoms of depression.

2. Nutritional Depletion: A baby’s body is made up entirely of nutrients that are donated by its mother’s body. The placenta is also made from nutrients donated by mother’s body. The placenta pulls nutrients from a mother’s bloodstream and gives it to the developing fetus. Nature has it wired that if one is going to do without; it will be the mother for the sake of new life. Some women lose a great deal of blood during childbirth and since blood is made from nutrients, this further depletes a mother’s nutritional reserves.

The research is clear that certain nutritional deficiencies, for example the DHA and EPA (as from fish oils) can cause depression and moods swings. So can a lack of certain B vitamins. All postpartum women can benefit from taking a good multiple vitamin and mineral, fish oils and supplementing calcium and magnesium.  Many health care professionals now recommend that mothers stay on their prenatal vitamins for several months after the baby is born.

3.Community: In the past when extended families lived together or close by, a new mother would be able to have her needs met while she rested for a number of weeks to regain her strength. Women relatives and close neighbors would prepare her family’s meals and they would also help soothe her tender emotions while her body recovered. These days many women no longer have that kind of support. In the 1950s a woman who had just given birth stayed in the maternity ward for an average of 2 weeks, resting and bonding with her newborn. Now she is out of the hospital in 48 hours.

To read on please click here