Today, I’m excited to be a guest blogger over at Eric’s
(aka Le Clown from A Clown on Fire) blog Black Box Warnings. It’s a safe haven where people are invited to share their personal experiences with mental and physical health.
I’ve written about a deeply personal and painful subject–my struggle with postpartum depression after the birth of my son.
When a Cold Day Dawns, the most difficult post I’ve ever written.
Thank you, Eric, for giving me this opportunity. Bringing these buried thoughts out into the light has helped me heal even more.
Please, come on over and check it out, along with the other fantastic bloggers and posts. Thanks for reading!
She's A Maineiac 
This is awesome! We don’t get many that will come out and talk about these illnesses. I want to say, kudos, congratulations, thank you, and I’m so very proud of you. I may not know you personally, however, please know you are not alone. I also suffered Post Partum depression after having my son. My illness had spun out of control into psychosis. I truly hope you never have to go through that. It also triggered other underlying severe mental illnesses. There isn’t enough information out there regarding this particular illness and I commend what your doing. I’ve battled this for 14 years..there will be no cure..so with you coming out with it you bring light and hope to those that may be going through it..or may one day face it. You are indeed a blessing to those whom need that light..that hope to manage post partum depression. I didn’t have it 14 yrs ago and I sure wish I had. Thank you for who you are!
Unbrkn1 🙂
And thank you for such heartfelt comments. I am deeply sorry you know what I was talking about and that you had such a difficult time dealing with PPD plus other underlying severe mental illness.
People will just never understand what it’s like unless they’ve been there. It really is something no one should ever feel ashamed of talking about or be too scared to admit to others. It’s something that can be treated. And most important, it’s something that is NOT your fault in any way. Thank you so much for sharing your story with me and for reading about mine. I wish you peace and blessings on your journey.
Thank you, you are 100% correct, I am one who refuses to be ashamed. I blog mainly because of that, I think I got tired of having to suffer berating, or see others have to suffer it that suffer from mental illnesses as if suffering mental illness isn’t debilitating enough. And suffering the berating, bullying, stigma, stereotype and at times discrimination, from a society that should know better, if they just took the time to educate themselves. Reading stories like yours and mine, does just that. It can be a great learning tool in seeing mental illness through they eyes of those that go through it. I hope to see more people doing this, blogging about their illnesses, throwing those raw details right out there, if they only saw just how much they are not immune to the grasp of mental illnesses. I don’t wish these illnesses on anyone, I don’t wish that kind of suffering on anyone, I want to offer insight, and hope to those out there battling such a relentless illness. I guess it just takes one at a time, in letting them know, hey, you don’t suffer alone.
I wish you peace and blessings on your journey as well, chin up, we will chip away at this one blog at a time:)
It’s true, if more people would be more open and willing to educate themselves on mental illness, this horrible stigma would be lessened. To me, I view it like any other illness or disease, a person’s mind/brain isn’t working properly and therefore needs help or treatment. There should be no shame involved at all. Kudos to you for standing up for yourself like that. Very inspiring to me!
This was a beautiful and uplifting post. Thank you for being so strong and willing to bare your soul.
I have to admit, it was hard to take the chance and talk about it. But I’m so glad I did. Thanks for reading it, Hook and for such lovely comments, they made my day.
A post? I could write a book about it, but my family would likely be traumatized by the unveiling. Isn’t that the problem with mental illness? No one wants to own it. Thank you for your honesty and courage in being forthright about struggling. When our hormones swing, it isn’t just a matter of grabbling the old boot straps and giving a yank. Bravo!
That’s just it, Renee, people have no idea what it’s like, they think “oh, just snap out of it!” or they somehow might think the person is at fault for simply not being happy. Hormones are extremely powerful and influence the mind is so many ways. If only people would understand it’s not something you can control easily.
Popping over now. I agree. It’s rare to see a safe place to honestly share about disease of any kind. Looking forward to reading what you have to say.
I wish we could all be more open and honest about mental illness. It could only be for the good.
SO true. People fear labels (and for good cause), but the more we know and dispel the fears, the less apt those labels are to hurt and stick like glue.
I’m back. I finally got a minute to leave a comment. Both kids were off from school today so it was busy at the homestead. In any case, I wanted to express my deepest gratitude for writing such a transparent post. It brought back many of my own dark memories. Unfortunately, my PPD went undiagnosed. I suffered from the hallucinations, a baby who had colic for months, and the insurmountable shame of not being able to breastfeed. This did not bode well for someone who has a type A, slightly OCD personality. Life was out of control.
Without writing an entire post in your comment section, I just want to say THANK YOU for being brave. For being an inspiration.
Anka, thank you for sharing your experiences with me, I really appreciate that because sometimes you think you’re the only one that’s suffered with it. Now I realize there are many more out there who can relate (unfortunately). I hate to say this but it took me years to finally heal from that and let it go. And even longer for me to forgive myself and accept that I wasn’t to blame for any of it. Such a huge burden to carry, especially when you’re alone and with no one to talk to about it. Thanks for reading my story, it means a lot to me.
Heading over…..you are so brave and amazing to share, DarDar. Not that this surprises me one bit.
Darla, it takes so much courage. And every time someone shares their story, it give strength for another person to look into their own life and let out a breath of relief that someone has experienced what they have. You inspire the thought: “I’m not alone.” Thanks for your great heart. (I hope your back is better, too.)
SUch a sweet thing to say. Thanks, Barb. I have to say I held my breath publishign this one!
My back is infinitely better today. Just a mild aching pain. wahoo!
Wonderfully written, Darla.