The following post is one of the best that I’ve read regarding postpartum depression and other health conditions related to pregnancy and motherhood. You can get to it by clicking here. I have excerpted a few paragraphs.

Gender expectations and gender differences seem to create disadvantages for mothers, especially if there are genetic factors or other problems at work. A woman’s brain is wired with so many more connections in the areas of communication and emotion. This makes women more sensitive to all kinds of subtleties in these areas. 

These allow moms to be closely attuned to the minutia of her children’s moods, needs, schedules, conflicts, etc. Moms can be responsive to issues dads might not be aware of. Nothing against dads, but it seems that moms are often tuned to a different frequency than dads are.

However, this high capability with emotions and communications can backfire when the system is overloaded or impaired. I think of Superman floating above earth, holding his ears shut because his sharp hearing ability is overwhelmed at times. Moms with a mental illness are already overloaded with their own emotional imbalance. Depression makes them feel desperate and lonely. Anxiety creates constant rumination and obsessive worry. A personality disorder may make normal kid struggles seem like personal attacks.

When a mother isn’t healthy enough to give of herself, she mostly does what she can to protect herself. And this often means that somewhere, somehow, the kids will lose out on having a mom when they need one. Some moms with mental illness give every last ounce to their kids to make things seem as normal as possible, while they run themselves dry on the inside.

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