That is idiotic of them to say. They should know better. When you have an underlying medical condition (PPD IS NOT A MEDICAL CONDITION IT IS A LABEL used when they can't use their medical brains to figure out what the hell is going on, or an EXCUSE to drug you when what you might need is some real health care and counseling) such as thyroid problems you are more likely to get postpartum thyroiditis. That can be hyperthyroid to hypothyroid and back to your normal state, or it can be one or the other. If you have a family history of people committing suicide it is highly likely that they were either not getting counseling, or they had some sort of trauma, or they were put on drugs that induced the suicides. Suicide is not genetic, and it certainly shouldn't worry you any more than you would have been before those doctors tried to freak you out.
When you have a medical condition that explains what is going on, they cannot label you with anything in the DSM. That is one of the rules of the game.
I had hypothyroidism and I did get hyperthyroidism right after birth but my doc refused to test it and when I had problems he just put me on Zoloft. I was very stupid and naive and popped the pill without taking the time to learn more about it.
I wish Mothering would go ahead and do their article on this. I was emailing Peggy O'Mara and she gave me a link to an organization that found that "PPD" was caused by copper and zinc imbalances.
When you give birth you do have hormonal changes that affect your mood, but they are not solved by antidepressants. Often they are made worse.
To prevent problems you could try some natural nutritional supplements now, and continue them and have good nutrition after the birth. You should find a doctor who is willing to test your thyroid a few days after birth. My doc refused but when I wound up in the psych ward for the Zoloft reaction, they did a blood test (I was only 10 days postpartum) and confirmed that I had thryoid imbalances.
Watch out for beta blockers, and just go the approach of managing your thyroid problem by backing off of your synthroid dose. Beta blockers also cause depression.
After you give birth your estrogen and progesterone plummet because they have been building up throughout the pregnancy. In addition your body is very worn out from the strain of pregnancy. You WILL lose a lot of weight the first several days and weeks, which is another excuse of the doctors to claim you have depression. But when your blood volume and fluid retention goes up by 40-50% you can't expect anything other than a lot of weight loss at first.
please see
www.doctoryourself.com and don't let anyone scare you into "aggressive treatment" of some mysterious PPD chemical imbalance that they can never confirm. Sometimes they even give drugs to "prevent" things from happening. That is ridiculous. Go to a holistic doctor who will give you nutrition advice, or read up on how to help yourself. I did therapy for months because of Zoloft, but once I got off of it I no longer needed therapy.
I will go find the other two threads where I have talked about this and paste that info here. I will see if I can find the website that Peggy sent me.
