Anxiety symptoms:
• Excessive worry about a number of things
• Restlessness, nervousness, or being on edge
• Uncontrollable over-thinking
• Uncertainty over actual or potential problems
• Being easily fatigued
• Difficulty concentrating or mind going blank
• Irritability
• Muscle tension
• Sleep disturbance (difficulty falling or staying asleep, or restless unsatisfying sleep)
• Causes significant distress or difficulty in social, occupational, or other important areas of your life
• Low mood
• Feeling sad, empty, or hopeless
• Tearfulness
• Irritability
• Loss of interest or pleasure in activities
• Weight loss or gain
• Insomnia or hypersomnia
• Restlessness or slowed speech and decreased movement
• Difficulty concentrating
• Fatigue
• Feeling worthless or excessive/inappropriate guilt
• Thoughts of death/suicide
• Causes significant distress or difficulty in social, occupational or other important
areas of your life
Perinatal: from conception up to one (1) year postpartum
“Baby Blues”:
• Feeling low up to 2 weeks post-birth
Pregnancy & Postpartum Depression (PPD):
• Feelings of anger, rage, or irritability
• Lack of interest in or not feeling connected to baby
• Appetite and sleep disturbance
• Crying, sadness, loneliness, isolation
• Feelings of guilt, shame, or hopelessness
• Loss of interest, joy, or pleasure in things you used to enjoy
• Possible thoughts of harming the baby or yourself; thinking your baby/family are better off without you
• Onset can start after baby blues
• Constant worry
• Feeling that something bad is going to happen
• Racing thoughts
• Disturbances of sleep and appetite
• Inability to sit still
• Physical symptoms like dizziness, hot flashes, and nausea
• Obsessions, also called intrusive thoughts, which are persistent, repetitive thoughts or mental images related to the baby; these thoughts are very scary and upsetting
• Compulsions, where the mom may do certain behaviors over and over again to reduce her fears and obsessions (i.e. needing to clean constantly, check things many times, count or reorder things)
• A sense of horror about the obsessions
• Fear of being left alone with the infant
• Extreme hypervigilance in protecting the infant
• Moms know these thoughts are bizarre and are very unlikely to ever act on them
Caused by a real or perceived trauma during delivery or postpartum. These
traumas could include:
• Prolapsed cord
• Unplanned C-section
• Use of vacuum extractor or forceps to deliver the baby
• Baby going to NICU
• Feelings of powerlessness, poor communication and/or lack of support and reassurance during the delivery
• Women who have experienced a previous trauma, such as rape or sexual abuse, are also at a higher risk for experiencing postpartum PTSD.
• Women who have experienced a severe physical complication or injury related to pregnancy or childbirth, such as severe postpartum hemorrhage, unexpected
hysterectomy, severe preeclampsia/eclampsia, perineal trauma (3rd or 4th degree tear), or cardiac disease.
Symptoms of postpartum PTSD might include:
• Intrusive re-experiencing of a past traumatic event (which in this case may have been the childbirth itself)
• Flashbacks or nightmares
• Avoidance of stimuli associated with the event, including thoughts, feelings, people, places and details of the event
• Persistent increased arousal (irritability, difficulty sleeping, hypervigilance, exaggerated startle response)
• Anxiety and panic attacks
• Feeling a sense of unreality and detachment
– Bipolar I Mood Disorder
• Periods of severely depressed mood and irritability
• Mood much better than normal
• Rapid speech
• Little need for sleep
• Racing thoughts, trouble concentrating
• Continuous high energy
• Overconfidence
• Delusions (often grandiose, but including paranoid)
• Impulsiveness, poor judgment, distractability
• Grandiose thoughts, inflated sense of self-importance
• In the most severe cases, delusions and hallucinations
– Bipolar II Mood Disorder
• Periods of severe depression
• Periods when mood much better than normal
• Rapid speech
• Little need for sleep
• Racing thoughts, trouble concentrating
• Anxiety
• Irritability
• Continuous high energy
• Overconfidence
• Delusions or strange beliefs
• Hallucinations (seeing or hearing things that aren’t there)
• Feeling very irritated
• Hyperactivity
• Decreased need for or inability to sleep
• Paranoia and suspiciousness
• Rapid mood swings
• Difficulty communicating at times
* Perinatal Mental Health symptoms outlined directly from postpartum.net
Get help now.
All these symptoms and diagnoses are treatable and manageable with proper
assessment and care.
Contact me today so we can discuss treatment options so you can begin to feel
yourself again, or even better.
Call (213) 277-4411 or BOOK HERE NOW
© 2022 Cynthia Garcia, MFT
