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| #thefaceofantidepressants
This is the face of a mother.
This is the face of a partner.
This is the face of a friend.
The face of someone you know.
This is the face of antidepressants.
There has always been a sense of failure surrounding
medication for depression or anxiety, the fact they are derogatorily nicknamed ‘happy
pills’ does not help.
Someone close to me recently remarked that he did not know
any female in their late twenties in close friendship circle and family that were
not currently taking antidepressants. If that is the case, if we are all ‘secretly’,
on them why is it such a big taboo still?
Why is it not socially acceptable to stand up and admit,
that yes, you are on anti-depressants?
I have written before about the sense of shame of having to
go on and off medication to be happy, to function. Especially as a mother, one
of the hardest things you will ever have to do is admit that you need help and
it took me a long time to accept the forms the help could come in. Medication
being one of them.
When I was pregnant the Doctor said to me that if I wobbled
just for a minute during pregnancy it was safer for me to go back on my
tablets. It is like if you have a heart condition and you must take pills
everyday would you stop because of what people may think of you?
No.
So, why is it as a society we view anti-depressants with
such resentment, guilt and even shame?
After the birth of my second son, I was diagnosed with
severe PND and anxiety, it took me 6 weeks to know I was at my limit. The best-case
scenario for everyone involved especially my boys was to go back on them.
7 months on, and I have processed a lot and feel as though
my head is slowly coming out of the water. Medication was responsible for a lot
of that. Finding ways to manage to function and talking openly and honestly.
Another amazing advocate for trying to remove the stigma from
taking anti-depressants and the guilt we are supposed to feel is Amy Ransom from Surviving Motherhood who has
started an amazing campaign #thisisthefaceofantidepressants
We are all different, we all need help now and again and
whatever form that comes in, there should be no shame. There should be no wall
put up around the subject of mental health.
What works for us, works.
I am a mother of two, partner, freelance writer and stay at
home mum juggling it all including the cat eating fish fingers off the floor,
and this is my face. #thisisthefaceofantidepressants
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The newest Cockerill Do you all remember my ever so optimistic natural birth plan? You can read it here. However, spoiler alert, it didn’t happen. What did happen was something no one was expecting. Wednesday the 5 th July… a mundane sort of day spent cleaning the house and doing the weekly shop. With Greg going back to work the next day I was determined to make sure everything was ready for when this baby arrived! I was three days off my due date and still hadn’t had one single sign this baby was imminently coming. I had been receiving messages from quite a few people asking if baby was here yet. I was getting fed up as everything I had tried to induce labour failed miserably and every morning for the last two weeks I woke up disappointed I wasn’t in labour! I gave up, walking didn’t help, pineapple made me sick and I was beginning to tire of the raspberry leaf tea. This baby was staying put. In the evening I put Elijah bed, and we began to settle down for the eveni...
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