It may surprise you to hear that “Post-partum Depression” is not really depression. While this could be a new way for you to think of the disorder, it’s true. Not a single doctor in the world would deny that post-partum depression is caused from a hormone imbalance. So why do so many doctors treat post-partum depression with antidepressants instead of balancing the hormones?
During and after pregnancy, a woman’s body changes dramatically. The reason is because of the extreme hormone changes needed to carry a pregnancy to term. Estrogen goes up, progesterone goes up. After the pregnancy, some of these hormones do not return to normal. The physical stress of the pregnancy and the hormone changes can cause the thyroid to no longer function properly.
Low thyroid and out of balance progesterone and estrogen can cause a woman to feel depressed and tired.
It is quick and easy to blame it on a psychiatric disorder. No lab tests are needed. The doctor only has to listen to the symptoms and prescribe an antidepressant. But doing that is not fair to the women involved. Antidepressants will not fix a thyroid gland that is not working. Antidepressants will not correct the hormone imbalance.
Too many women have harmed themselves and their children under the claim of post-partum depression. Many of the psychiatric drugs prescribed to these women actually may have caused them to do this. Side effects of commonly prescribed antidepressants and antipsychotic drugs include: agitation, confusion, depression, suicide, depersonalization, hallucinations, hostility, paranoia, psychosis and delusions.
If the thyroid is not working properly or the estrogen and progesterone levels are out of balance, adding a prescription that lists those as side effects could create a very serious problem.
The FDA says that less than 1% of doctors actually know the side effects of the drugs they prescribe. Women deserve to know the side effects and they deserve to know that they do not have a psychiatric disorder; they have a medical one. They do not have post-partum depression, they have post-partum hormone imbalance. I have successfully treated many women by slowly removing the antidepressants and balancing the hormones. IT IS IMPORTANT TO ALWAYS DISCONTINUE A PSYCHIATRIC DRUG SLOWLY AND UNDER A DOCTOR’S SUPERVISION!
How can you find a doctor who will know the difference and treat accordingly?
This is not fully accurate. And discouraging to postpartum women.
What is inaccurate. A legitimate medical condition has been hijacked be the psychiatric community. Women are being loaded up on psych meds wrongly… and that is all about profit. This illness is about the hormonal/endocrine system. The APA would have women being declared mentally unstable and making them pharmaceutical customers for life. Not to mention the terrible label then applied to them. Psych meds have awful and dangerous side effects.
That we as moms who are suffering aren’t really depressed. Did the doctor who wrote this article go through it herself? Nobody would dispute most of what the doctor said but I had severe anxiety and depression after my baby was born and wanted to commit suicide. The hormonal imbalance after having a baby is real
But so were the depression and anxiety I felt.
I agree, Becky. I find this discouraging. I have PPD and haven’t been on any meds. I go to a group therapy session as well as private therapy with a psychologist. I am also a practicing medical professional. I find this author’s ideas to be bunk. I know full well the POSSIBLE side effects of any medication that I prescribe – it’s easy enough – there are drug handbooks for prescribers at every desk. So she is insulting me in two ways: one, by assuming that my depression and anxiety are not real but could be due to a ‘thyroid imbalance’ and two, by assuming that I don’t know how to do my job.