Filed under: Infant / First year, Celebrity babies, Celebrity parentsI always believed that post-partum depression came adorned with some pretty strong warning signs: constant weepiness, contempt for the newborn baby, deeply wracked guilt about that contempt. But apparently, post-partum depression is not always immediately evident, as displayed via Gwyneth Paltrow's recent confession that she had post-partum depression after baby number two, and didn't even know it. Gwyneth told Vogue magazine about her post-natal state of being: "I felt really out of my body. I felt really disconnected. I felt really down...I felt pessimistic." It wasn't until after she was through the fog, Gwyneth says, that she began to see that the disconnectedness and pessimism was post-partum depression.This article really struck me. I was sad after I had Nolan, I felt hopeless and disconnected from friends and family. I felt a perpetual hollow in my stomach, but since I never felt any resentment toward my baby, I figured that all those feelings were simply a combined result of sleepless nights, a shattered lifestyle, and a new view on the world.In all honesty, I'm still not sure whether I had post-partum depression or just a wee shock at the way my life had changed. OK, OK: I think I probably had post partum depression. It's just not a fun thing to say, you know: hey, I was temporarily a little bit crazy, after my baby came out of my body. But I am OK now!Google "How do I know if I have post partum depression?" and you will find hundreds of articles listing various symptoms of the condition. But since so many of those symptoms are synonymous with the normal reality of new motherhood (diminished interest in sex, anxiety, weight loss), it's really difficult to make a self-diagnosis.If I could do it over again, I would have admitted to my Doctor that I was crying to much. And perhaps asked for help a little more than I did. Perhaps the number one key to understanding post-partum depression is in admitting that it's not a shameful thing. Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments



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