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Mending Motherhood
Mending Motherhood

Mending Motherhood

End the stigma. Stop the shame. Support the mommas.

Brianne Herrman

Postpartum Anxiety and Depression: My Experience with Fear and Sadness

  • Posted on 30 April 2019
    • Postpartum Anxiety
    • Postpartum Depression
This post was originally featured on https://tobetotallyhonestdotcom.wordpress.com/ Today is the start of Maternal Mental Health Week, a cause that is so personal to me after having experiences with both Postpartum Anxiety and Postpartum Depression. This is an issue that is so huge in this…

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@mendingmotherhood

I’m a writer. I’m usually full of profound words and lots of them. Today I fall short. My website is live. It’s up. Please go click the link in my bio ❤️
It’s me. Popping in to say that this week I will be getting back on board with regular posting because the website is SO CLOSE TO LAUNCHING. And it’s beautiful. It’s going to be everything I ever dreamed of, my friends. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Photo Credit : @amandamegphoto
I shared on my personal page that I finally feel like I’m getting my head up from under the water and I am finally starting to feel like myself again after a hard past month. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Here’s the best part! We are getting closer and closer to the launch of the Mending Motherhood website and the setbacks that have recently put me in such a low place mentally have really done something great for me in regards to Mending Motherhood. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ I have always believed in what this project can do but now I’m expanding just exactly what that could look like for my entire future and I feel more motivated than ever to see this seed grow into something beautiful! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ My wheels are turning, brainstorming is happening and conversations are being had. Things are happening over here in MM land and I can’t wait to see them all unfold. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Click on the new link in my profile to then click to join our e-mail mailing list to stay updated on all of this good stuff happening!
If you follow my personal page over at @mended_momma then you know I've had a rough couple of weeks on the home front. Today I'm working really hard on coming up from underneath the water. I have continued to share peeks into the low points of my life after postpartum depression because just as I think it's important that women know that it DOES GET BETTER, I also think that it's important to be realistic that you will still face trials and that with mental illness there may be days that sneak up on you out of nowhere that you have to learn how to combat. So I share glimpses of those hard days and the hard times and with that I try to share how I get through and to the other side of it. This week I was dealt a major blow when I was passed up for a major promotion at my job; something I've been working toward for a long time. There's no point in pretending that it doesn't hurt and that I'm not disappointed...it's important to me to feel it, work through it and get to the other side of it because guys, that's where all of the growth happens. I've seen that time and time again and it's no different this time. I'm not out of the hurt yet but I can see small glimpses of that other side already and one of the biggest things is that the Mending Motherhood website should be up and running within just a few weeks! I can feel it building in my soul that the time is NOW for me to put all of my heart into this project and to open my mind to the endless possibilities in front of me. Photo Credit : @greystorylinephotography
If you follow me on my personal page, @mended_momma or on Facebook then you will know that I’m in Arizona on our first family vacation. First, you cannot honestly call these things vacations with toddlers so let’s be clear about that. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ After a blowout thanks to his antibiotics, I popped him in the tub. I turned around for two minutes to do my hair in the mirror and when I turned back around he was holding a disposable razor up to his face. I couldn’t tell if the guard was off but stayed extremely calm so I didn’t freak him out and make him slice himself but I was already too late. He held the razor away like it had bitten him (it had) and started crying. His lip started dripping blood. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ So...the summary of that part is that in the end, it wasn’t that bad of an injury and he didn’t cry long at all but there was a LOT of blood and I cried for a very long time after he finally fell asleep on my chest. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ BUT the reason I share this with you is because I reached out on Facebook and basically said “I’m a horrible mom, please make me feel better about this” and you guys...did the moms ever come through. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ 23. That’s how many moms stepped up and told me about their worst mom moment. There were bloody stories, broken bones story, too much medicine stories...and all of them had the same storyline; mom turned her attention away for a moment and then had to deal with the guilt. The same thing that I did. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Wow! I am NOT ALONE. My mistake was a mistake and I will certainly not make it again but it was a mistake. What followed though, these moms sharing their stories, that’s what motherhood is about, right? Having each other’s backs. Lifting each other up. Telling the other that they are NOT a bad mom. No shaming. No guilt. Just LIFTING the other. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ You are not a bad mom. You are so good. If you’re up for sharing your worst mom fail, please share in the comments. I guarantee you that another mom needs to hear it today.
I’m on vacation this week in Phoenix but guess what? I’m going to start loading content into the backend of the website on Monday! YAY! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Photo Credit : @greystorylinephotography
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