do people act weird when they find out

[icare4much]

When you have shared that you have ppd with your friends or family do they suddenly become weird or avoid you? How do you deal with the loss of a support system when you need it the most?

~Lonely and Blue

[Jish]

Literally half of my friends are on some sort of antidepressant right now for either clinical depression or PPD. I'm guessing if you asked around, quite a few people you know would fess up to depression. My friends and family were so happy when I finally had a diagnosis for what was wrong with me they wanted to jump for joy. They are all just so happy that I am happy and healthy again. One in ten people suffer from depression any given year. That's a pretty startling statistic, but it shows that you are definitely not alone. PPD or depression is not a personality or charactor flaw, it is a chemical imbalance in the brain.

[mama2girls]

Mine were quite the opposite--they were so concerned that they practically stiffled me! In fact way back when I was first diagnosed (10/00), my mom would insist on coming over every time my dh had a late meeting (at least twice a month). I don't know what they thought I would do if I were alone in the evening. I mean, I had her to myself quite a few days at that time (grad school). Now I have two to myself all the time and haven't had evening help for the meetings in months.. it's been nice.

The same is true for many of my friends. They were just thrilled that I had identified why I felt so strange and that I was able to be a better mom, wife, friend after I started on meds.

Are you able to discuss your ppd with your family?

[mamaduck]

Yes, people acted weird toward me. Suddenly it seemed like calling me was something people had to FORCE themselves to do, because they felt like they needed to be something for me they didn't know how to be. There was some people in my life who I knew better than to even tell.

But with the ones I did tell, I tried hard to be very open and very casual about it. Its hard, because being depressed makes it difficult to be "light" about anything. But I tried to make it clear that people didn't need to walk on egg shells.

Hmmm. I wonder if I succeeded.

Anyway -- ((((((hugs)))))) -- it is so hard!

[JesseMomme]

My experience was pretty hidden. I didn't tell anyone, and when my mother asked and I said "I don't know" she just said to "snap out of it" - two differnet times. I may well have lived under a rock, for all anyone knew. I was isolated from friends (heck, still am to this day) who truly care about me, and nearby family wasn't really nearby. I was in the same town my mom lived in during the worst of it, and well you can tell her attitude see above lol. She was a support system a lot of other ways, but I didn't want to aproach her about PPD, as she would have been highly pro-med and I didn't want to go that route.

[JesseMomme]

Wanted to reply back that I tried talking to Dh three times about it over the weekend. The first two times he compltetely would change the subject and the thrid time I got him to admit he was doing that on purpose. He "just wants me to be happy" so in his lil ol mind by changing the subject and not talking about it makes it go away and I'm happy. Ugh.

[Foobar]

the people I told were very understanding. In fact most people were more comfortable with my PPD than they were with my infertility