By understanding the barriers, we can break through the barriers together. Looking back, I wonder, why didn’t I seek out help earlier? Now I know why. Postnatal depression (PND) is debilitating. Plus, it’s a cruel twist to those of us who look forward to motherhood, only to find ourselves in a bottomless pit of despair, offset only by the painful peaks of anxiety. But it’s not just the paralysing nature of postnatal depression that acts as a barrier to seeking help. There are more hurdles in the way. It’s our job as a community to break down these barriers for the sake of new parents, their b ..read more

When I became unwell with postnatal depression, I would often have reoccurring thoughts that something bad would happen to my baby.  These scary and intrusive thoughts stopped me from leaving the house, stopped my son exploring his new world, which I came to realise is a need, and, had a negative impact on our early bonding. Looking back, I now realise these thoughts and my behaviour was very limiting for both my son and I.  Part of my journey through counselling sessions with my psychologist, was to talk about the scary and intrusive thoughts I was having, and, h ..read more

A few days before I went into labour, an image came into my mind. The image was of me sitting in my rocking chair, snuggling up to my baby, reading them a book. The image filled me with so much joy that I hopped straight in the car, drove down to the local bookshop and bought two books – The Hungry Caterpillar and Guess How Much I Love You. I don’t know why that particular image came to mind at that time or why I chose those two particular books, but in time, they came to play a role throughout my recovery from perinatal anxiety and depression (PND). I placed the books on the table next to my ..read more

Two steps forward, one giant leap backwards, well, that’s what my recent anxiety attack felt like to me. I hadn’t experienced an attack in about a year and then….BAM…I had one…on Easter Sunday. An anxiety attack is intense, awful and, for me, scary. My symptoms were a sense of losing control, emotionally distressing, I was crying, feeling panicky, I had chest pain and shortness of breath. The day started out perfectly normal but on reflection, I can now understand why the attack happened. I had decided to host 20 people for Easter Sunday lunch at our place. A part of me thinks that the decisio ..read more

TRIGGER WARNING: this story contains information about self harm.  I am normally quite a private person and, therefore, I never thought I would be talking so openly about my journey through Anxiety and Post Natal Depression. I also never thought that the birth of my beautiful baby boy, would lead to one of my greatest challenges. But I’m a better, healthier and happier person, having faced that adversity. I hope that by sharing my story it will give hope to parents facing the same challenges that, even in the darkest days, recovery is possible. I clearly remember the home visit by my Mate ..read more

A snapshot of what anxiety and parenting looks and feels like to me. You may see me passing by you in the street, happily pushing my toddler in the pram. I may be smiling and, sometimes, you may even see me laugh with my son as he babbles away. But what you may not see as I am pushing that pram is that I have anxiety, more specifically, Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD). What is Generalised Anxiety Disorder? In short, it basically means that I am in a constant state of worry and feel tense most of the time. Having GAD is harder to spot than, say, if I was walking down the street with a broken ..read more

Hi, my name is Josie and I am a Melbourne mum of two.  Three months after giving birth in 2014, I suffered severe anxiety and depression and was diagnosed with Generalised Anxiety Disorder and Post Natal Depression.  Then in 2018, four months after the birth of my second child, Lily, PND reared its ugly head again.  Since those experience, a healthier, happier and a better person emerged.  Through recovery, I decided I wanted to give back.  I am currently volunteering with Perinatal Anxiety and Depression Australia (PANDA) as a community educator and through my blog ..read more

Hi everyone, Next month will be a full year recovering from perinatal anxiety and depression round 2. What better way to celebrate than with a fundraiser proudly supporting PANDA – an organisation very close to my heart, and, one I have been volunteering with for over 4 and a half years. On Sunday, November 10 at 2pm, please join me at Porgie and Mr Jones to celebrate my recovery and to help raise funds for PANDA. So, where does the money exactly go? $50 could help supply vital information and resources to mums and dads affected by perinatal anxiety and depression and postnatal psychosis ..read more

I first came across Yoga after recovering from postnatal depression with Leo back in 2015. I needed to find something to ground myself as I was still living with Generalised Anxiety Disorder.  So, I joined a basic yoga class through the local community centre and attended weekly.  Yoga ticked all the boxes – it improved my flexibility, increased my muscle tone and helped bring my anxiety to manageable levels. We then moved suburbs and I stopped going for a while until I found a yoga studio that was close to home and offered a variety of classes including Hot, Slow Flow, Power and Yin ..read more

When Leo was about two years old, Hugh and I started chatting about having another baby.  We always thought we would have two (me, three) children.  However, after having gone through postnatal depression (PND), we were both fearful of trying.  I was terrified about getting PND again, particularly after working so hard to overcome it and, Hugh was concerned he wouldn’t be able to see me go through it again.   In the back of my mind, I didn’t think I could survive it again. However, as time went on the desire, to grow our family grew stronger.  So, together, we sta ..read more