I GUESS THAT'S WHY THEY CALL IT THE BLUES
What is the most powerful means to understand the importance of something? Personal experience.
My battle with post-partum depression started about 5 days after my cesaerean. I had gone first into shock in the operating room and was fully awake, hearing my newborns cry while my body convulsed uncontrollably. My ex-husband and obstetrician laid over my torso; the latter kept talking to me so I would stay concious. My recovery was slow. My disability returned with a vengenance and I bled out for many months after the delivery.
It didn't help that my ex-husband returned almost 2 months later to a full schedule. Work I would understand. However, all his other activities resumed without so much as a blip. I would get calls during the day from his buddies from these outside activities saying "why is he back? isn't he helping you? do you have help?" The answers were 'I don't know' and 'NO.' Coupled with relentless verbal & emotional hurt from my abusive parent, I lost all self-esteem and ego. He would disappear for days. The only thing that kept me going, and often still does, is my children.
Almost immediately the non-stop verbal and emotional abuse started again. It was early winter in NYC and I would stare out the window of our home at the gray sky. Fall & Early Winter are my favorite times of year, but I was figuring out how I could kill myself and still make sure my new children were taken care of and would have a good life. I was agorophobic and didn't leave my house for over a month after my kids were born and then, only once in a great while when absolutely necessary. My brain chemistry had changed severely, yet my ex-husband was screaming at me to "get a grip!" My affect was flat and my interactions with anyone robotic.
This PPD snowballed along with my depression from the pain and disability into a dark wave that almost overcame me. Two of my dear friends saw what was going on and stopped in frequently, sometimes just to take me for a walk outside. I developed one opportunistic infection after another and pushed through excruicating pain and illness to make sure my kids were O.K. Days, weeks, months and then years bled into one another and I am still unable to differentiate those first few years of my children's lives because I barely remember my own experiences. I have blocked a lot of the psychosis out.
When my children were 4 1/2 I was still swimming in this soup of depression and suicidal thoughts. The only ones who knew were my closest friends. Even my husband didn't care and by then I knew my marriage had been over for quite a while. Abuse was non-stop. Only a wrongful relationship with someone who preyed on my vulnerability and good nature drove me back to therapy and then medication. I started to get better but then that relationship exploded and went down in a firestorm of my being exploited, lied about and preyed on, which drove me to trauma counseling and more medication. Only in this past year have I actually felt somewhat like myself again. Still struggling with PTSD but past the danger of doing myself harm.
PPD is nothing to sneeze at. We tend to minimize what we don't understand or what to deal with. God bless Congressmen Rush and others who are pushing to get this Bill passed.
Let your Congresspeople know you want to support this Bill!
A vote for not only those who are suffering, but for all women
This was a vote for Brooke Shields, for Mary Jo Codey, and even Andrea Yates.
This was a vote for people who have suffered with postpartum depression, but felt isolated and alone in their struggle.
In particular, it was a vote for Melanie Blocker-Stokes, a Chicago native and pharmaceutical sales manager who, after the birth of her daughter, developed a psychosis that ultimately caused her to jump from a 12-story window ledge to her death on June 11, 2001, according to the Office of Legislative Policy and Analysis.
Along the way, people like Blocker-Stokes were treated with skepticism when their stories were told. They were mocked and treated as though their illness was nothing more than "the baby blues." All they've been told over the years is to "get over it."
On Monday, at 4:15 PM, what was described by supporters as "perinatal mental health history" took place when the House of Representatives, by a 382-3 vote, passed the "Melanie Blocker Stokes Postpartum Depression Research and Care Act."
The bill, if enacted, would require the secretary of Health and Human Services to expand and intensify research activities regarding postpartum depression and psychosis. The bill would also require additional support for basic and clinical research, epidemiological studies, diagnostic techniques and educational programs, according to the OLPA.
Susan Stone, president of Postpartum Support International, said the bill's vote came as the result of "seven years of steadfast advocacy."
"It was a thrill to watch from the Congressional Gallery as Congressman Bobby Rush made his final, victorious push for American women, children and families," she said.
Now the bill will proceed to the Senate where Stone hopes that success will follow, and then to President Bush's desk.
Let's hope that the president remembers the people who are suffering.
H/T & SOURCE - Tom Davis
PLEASE CLICK HERE TO JBLOG ME
Comments