How do I tell the difference?

[MumtoTJ]

I'm confused.

Can someone please tell me how to tell the difference between PND and having a few bad days?

DD was born 4.5 monthsa go and in that time I have had maybe 10-15 days where I have sat at home by myself and cried because I have felt that things were getting too much. The next day, everything is fine.

How do I know if it's just me being overtired and emotional?

For example, DD had a really bad night on Monday night and as a result I spent most of yesterday bawling my eyes out, not answering the phone and refused to open the door. But today I feel better. I didn;t get a hell of a lot of sleep last night, but it was more than Monday night.

I'm scared. We moved into our new house when I was six weeks pregnant. We are 30kms out of the closest town which only has one GP booked up for the next two weeks. Our families are 300kms away and I really haven't had het chance to make many friends.

I don't know if I need help or not. We had a friend of ours who never had her PND properly diagnosed and didn't get the help she needed and her whole world fell apart five years later. I don't want that to be me and DH.

Am I over tired? Or is it PND? Please help.

[our3boys]

i would suggest you ring up your local gp and get him to ring you back then you can explain things to him over the phone. thats what i do with mine when i have something important as he is usaully booked out for 3 weeks also. its hard to know because when i had my PND it was every day that was hard but im sure its different for different people you def should get it looked into.

[WorkingClassMum]

There's being over-tired, being emotional, having the blues, having PND and then there's full blown psychosis

What you have or don't have is irrelevant.

If you feel the need for help - then please seek it.

No-one will judge you for seeking help, and many of us will applaud your ability to open up and seek help.

If you can't get into your Dr, see your MHN or ring a help line.

Do you have family support available? Can you ring your mum/mil or sister/sil or cousin or a good friend?

Can you ask hubby to take a day off and give you a break?

Good luck and please let us all know how you go

[MumtoTJ]

Thanks you all so much for your support.

I have followed this up and got some advice. DD had her first day at family day care yesterday and I can;t tell you how much that helped! Just to have that one day to myself. Not that I did much relaxing - 4 loads of washing, did the dishes, swept the floors, folded the clothes, etc - but I got to do it with my music up really loud and sing and danced around the house! Hahaha! What a sight for sore eyes!

DD is also sleeping a bit better during the night the last two nights so I'm hoping we are getting things sorted.

I just need to keep a record of my days and rate them between 1 and 10 (1 bring a bad day - 10 being a super duper good day) and we will have them assessed after a week or two. My family day care carer has also said if I have a bad day in the mean time I can always call her and she will try to fit DD in even if its just for a few hours.

Again, thank you all so much.