Can any moms out there share their experience with what their OCD was like postpartum? (Not postpartum OCD, but your already diagnosed OCD) My OCD definitely amped up after my girls were born. The added stresses of life definitely make OCD more intense. What are your experiences?
I’m in the same boat! I have two boys. I see some OCD possibly coming up in my son as well and it breaks my heart but also strengthens my focus to want to get better myself.
@Ajm203 That’s so inspiring and shows your love for your son that you want to better yourself to help him. My oldest is 3, so I haven’t seen any signs of OCD in my girls yet, but I’ve thought about the possibility of our kids having it. I’m so grateful I know I have it though…When I first started struggling with it, no one knew what was wrong with me or how to help me. I was FINALLY diagnosed 11 years later…so what a gift we have that we’re able to help our kids right away. Thanks for sharing!
Yes I have a 3 year old and have only been recently diagnosed with OCD as of a few weeks ago. I was diagnosed with panic disorder 6 years ago which I now know was fueled by my OCD. My theme used to be “going crazy” and now I have had scary intrusive thoughts about being a bad mom. I really find it helpful using the tools “That’s a scary thought but whatever” or “It’s not me, it’s my OCD.” Those are helping me tremendously. I feel like being a mom only gave more fuel to my OCD but we can’t let it win and we can do this even when it’s tough!
@MarkieSierra You’re so encouraging! It’s SO hard, but I’ve gotten through some incredibly difficult days. When I continue on despite OCD, I know I’m not allowing it to win.
My oldest is 4 about to turn five. Thank you for helping me focus on the positive!
My child is 2.5 yrs and I was just recently diagnosed with OCD here. Looking back I know now I’ve been struggling with it since before I ever got pregnant. I started having a lot of scary intrusive thoughts and false memories creep in during my pregnancy and I just figured it was stress from a recent move and hormones. But after I gave birth things got dark. The first 14 months of being a mom I had intrusive thoughts and urges every day sometimes every hour or more in the early days of pp. I was terrified and paranoid for the first full year of my child’s life. I started googling symptoms (in private mode bc god forbid anyone see my search history right?) and articles about ocd and pp ocd started coming up. I cried tears of relief that what I was experiencing wasn’t me slowly descending into madness but had a name and could be managed. But it has taken me about a year and a half since that day to finally seek treatment. I’m just starting my journey to get better but I want to for my child and for myself and for a long time I doubted my ability to have anymore kids because of this. Now I have hope that I can do postpartum again one day and that’s a good feeling even though I’m still nervous.
@Anonymous I agree about being nervous to go through Postpartum again. After having my first daughter, my postpartum was a breeze. But after having my second daughter, I had the worst ocd, anxiety, and depression of my life. I’m still struggling through it and my daughter is almost 1 1/2! So I’m kind of terrified of having another baby at this point. It’s comforting to know I’m not alone in that feeling and that we have people who understand and can help us through it.
I am postpartum now (7 weeks) and OCD definitely sees an opportunity to latch onto my new baby and my postpartum mental health. I try to just expect the thoughts and expect it to latch on, because why wouldn’t it? And I have found that helps some and also just remembering that thoughts are genuinely just thoughts, just because we have them doesn’t make them true.
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