I have recently starting reading a book called "women's moods" -believe it's by two women doctors, and was utterly floored by the info in it. It talks a lot about ppd, pms etc. and how they relate to brain chemistry being more sensitive due to genetics, and mjor life events and that something like childbirth with the hormonal fluctuations can trigger predispositions to illnesses like depression and bipolar. Not sure if I am explaining this well, they explain it great.
They decsribe bipolar 2 in it which I had never heard of...and my mother fit almost all of the symptoms, so I looked it up and again it sounds like they are decsribing her. She also had sever ppd which went unrecognized after all three children -doctors didn't really notice and she realized later after reading up on it and once she wasn't in it. She also has extreme PMS...she has had fairly violent mood swings my entire life which scared me, but not the super mania described in bp 1 so I kept dismissing it... anyway, not that I am diagnosing her, she has actually become mroe stable as she moves out of childbearing and takes high doses of fish oil etc. but it really scared me. It does run in my family on my father's side. Maybe I am being silly but... he definitely seems to have the same kind of crazy moodiness to the point where both parents were rarely calm -always super excited talkign fast could take on the world.hyper or depressed and despondent with my mom throwing rage and extreme irritability in there.
In any case, I am now pregnant with my first child and looking at many things about my upbringing and realizing that that may have been what all the chaos was about...I also can see that I have many similar symptoms (and have had one major depression as a teenager and several shorter ones that were milder as well) I manage fairly well, and am pretty aware of my "sensitive/moody" nature, yet assumed I was more than ok given how chaotic my parents were. I am wondering a few things
1.) has anyone else come to a realization of this sort about one or both parents? What did you do? Given that my parents seem "better" -i.e. more and more stable and would probably totally dispute this idea...but they do have two teenagers still at home...
2.) I am scared because of what I know about ppd and my own mom having it as well as my own big mood swings at times with pms that I will get ppd...I know it is chemical/biological, but I wonder if extra support of friends and not getting isolated would help or certain supplements (fish oil?) to prevent it or lessen severity. My midwives know of the depression I had and my mom's ppd.
3.) Should I go to a counselor or therapist? Should I even bring it up with them if I do? I don't feel I NEED meds at this point or even that I have bp but have lived around it so much that it seems more normal to be super "up" and then super "down" and I have taken on some of that behavior but gotten more and more stable since being with my husband and away from that environment. Has anyone else been through this? I feel so overwhelmed...
They decsribe bipolar 2 in it which I had never heard of...and my mother fit almost all of the symptoms, so I looked it up and again it sounds like they are decsribing her. She also had sever ppd which went unrecognized after all three children -doctors didn't really notice and she realized later after reading up on it and once she wasn't in it. She also has extreme PMS...she has had fairly violent mood swings my entire life which scared me, but not the super mania described in bp 1 so I kept dismissing it... anyway, not that I am diagnosing her, she has actually become mroe stable as she moves out of childbearing and takes high doses of fish oil etc. but it really scared me. It does run in my family on my father's side. Maybe I am being silly but... he definitely seems to have the same kind of crazy moodiness to the point where both parents were rarely calm -always super excited talkign fast could take on the world.hyper or depressed and despondent with my mom throwing rage and extreme irritability in there.
In any case, I am now pregnant with my first child and looking at many things about my upbringing and realizing that that may have been what all the chaos was about...I also can see that I have many similar symptoms (and have had one major depression as a teenager and several shorter ones that were milder as well) I manage fairly well, and am pretty aware of my "sensitive/moody" nature, yet assumed I was more than ok given how chaotic my parents were. I am wondering a few things
1.) has anyone else come to a realization of this sort about one or both parents? What did you do? Given that my parents seem "better" -i.e. more and more stable and would probably totally dispute this idea...but they do have two teenagers still at home...
2.) I am scared because of what I know about ppd and my own mom having it as well as my own big mood swings at times with pms that I will get ppd...I know it is chemical/biological, but I wonder if extra support of friends and not getting isolated would help or certain supplements (fish oil?) to prevent it or lessen severity. My midwives know of the depression I had and my mom's ppd.
3.) Should I go to a counselor or therapist? Should I even bring it up with them if I do? I don't feel I NEED meds at this point or even that I have bp but have lived around it so much that it seems more normal to be super "up" and then super "down" and I have taken on some of that behavior but gotten more and more stable since being with my husband and away from that environment. Has anyone else been through this? I feel so overwhelmed...
)
Follow Mothering