Combatting depression and anxiety (especially postpartum depression)

   I have never really dealt with very bad depression. I was always the one that said you don't need that medicine. You just gotta pray and read your bible more.(Clearly I did not get how depression is like a disease.) I always viewed those dealing with it as weak or just not giving their worries to Christ. I will admit I am a worrier and have anxiety about things. I do not like change or new things. That is possibly why I had ppd after this last birth. Nothing went like I had planned!

   Sometimes I think God gives us trials to actually understand what other people go through. So we can actually be an encouragement and actually be able to sympathize with what others have and will go through. I never truly understood how horrible something like postpartum depression could be until it was me going through it. How even little things seem huge. How everything drives you crazy and sometimes you just feel like you are going to jump out of your skin. How sometimes all you can do is pray and cry out to Jesus.

    I was VERY lucky in that my husband and some nurses( one very special labor and delivery nurse to be truthful) caught my ppd after I was put back in the hospital for postpartum preeclampsia. I was put on meds that I have always said I would never take. But these were crucial to my recovery. NEVER feel guilty for getting help. Your family and your kids need you. Did you hear me! NEVER feel guilty. Many have went through it before you and many will go through it after you. And from someone who is so super hard headed NEVER quit your depression meds cold turkey! You will feel like you have the flu and are quite possibly dying. (Don't ask me how I know, yikes!)

   But this blog post is supposed to be a post on combatting depression and anxiety. First and foremost figure out your triggers. My trigger is absolutely what all I went through in my last delivery. I will one day have to work through all of it but now is not the time. But if you know your triggers ahead of time you will know that you could possibly experience depression and anxiety when faced with that trigger.  Having a good book to read has been essential for me as well as a great bible study. Praise and worship music has been one that that has actually helped me through everything I have been through the past several months. Getting outside with my kids , getting vitamin D from the sun is an absolute. And last but not least having a war room . A room I can go to and storm heavens gates !!! A place I can cry, scream, praise the Lord. A place you can escape to when life just gets too much.

   I am completely off my meds. It has been better than I expected but as the days go by somethings are really starting to bother me and I just do not really want to face them. But I know with my family and God  I will get through this and be ok. Also having godly friends that can come along side you and encourage you and make sure you are ok is very important. If you have went through this you know how lonely it can feel sometimes. Again I will repeat if you ever have to go through this NEVER quit your meds cold turkey and also rely on the Lord . After all that is where our help comes from.

   
2 Corinthians 12:9 ⁹But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

                                                   It's the little things that get us through!