oprah censors natural treatment for postpartum depression

[Guest guest]

Thank you so much for your post. It just described my life. Suicidal

thoughts, botched attemps...the leaving in the night only to return the next

day. Sexual abuse as a baby and small child and several rapes as an adult

has totally disrupted my entire life. I feel on some level, my Fibromyalgia

is my bodies response to my life's traumas. That was overwhelming to read

but I feel like I was reading an actual glimpse of my own life.

It is such a struggle to get on with life and get whole and healthy

and I really do want to be healed. I get nothing from this sickness.

Most times it is just too energy sapping to even describe all that I

feel and go through each day so it was a relief to see it in writing. Thank

you so much for sharing it.

Arizona

 

 

> http://www.spiritledbirth.com/article1032.html

>

> Alternative Remedies for Post Partum Depression/Psychosis: Oprah Winfrey

> Censors by Jenny Hatch

>

> In response to an Oprah show about Post Partum Psychosis, one woman

> posted to the Oprah website discussion board, a request for alternative

> remedies. Jenny Hatch, who experienced Post Partum Pyschosis 13 years

> ago, attempted to help this distressed mother, but her suggestions were

> deleted from the website by the Oprah staff. Jenny shares her thoughts

> here.New!

>

> In a message posted on the Oprah.com website, entitled " Alternative

> Remedies, " under the discussion entitled, " Post Partum Psychosis, " a new

> mother requested information regarding treatments for post partum

> depression that did not include medications. In describing her symptoms

> this mother wrote….

>

> " I cried on Wednesday as I watched the Oprah show partly because I

> could relate so well to the pain that others have felt, and partly

> because I was relieved that I was not the only one feeling pain. I had

> my first child, a son, five months ago, and have not felt like myself

> ever since.

>

> I did the Bradley method (no anesthesia), which went very well with

> the exception of some unavoidable injuries that left me extremely anemic

> and unable to really walk, sit, stand, lie down without extreme pain for

> almost 2 months. I had been home from the hospital for about a week when

> I totally lost control.

>

> The baby was screaming, my husband was tired and arguing with me at

> 2:00 am and I completely snapped. I can't even really remember what

> happened, I just know that I left the house and drove through the

> night/morning, so exhausted I could hardly see the road. I was just

> looking for an overpass so that I could run the car off of the side.

>

> I knew that my baby would be so much better off without me, that

> someone else could take better care of him. I don't know how long I had

> been driving when I called my husband from a payphone to tell him

> goodbye and that I loved him and the baby, but couldn't come home. I am

> sure that he was beside himself, and he called the police to help him to

> look for me. I don't know how or why, but I caught a streak of reality

> and finally decided to go home, take a sleeping pill, and go to bed.

>

> Since that time, I have " left " home several times. Sometimes I take

> the baby with me and drive to my mother's house to stay for a few days,

> and sometimes, like last weekend, I left the baby with my husband, drove

> a few hours away and stayed at a motel for the night, trying to decide

> how I could take my own life.

>

> Until Wednesday, I didn't know that anyone else had those horrible

> thoughts about their babies, like I had about mine. I don't ever want to

> do anything to hurt him, but sometimes I imagine what would happen if I

> dropped him while we were going down the stairs, or what would happen if

> I slammed on the brakes when we are driving on the freeway.

>

> When he screams in the middle of the night, I want to scream back at

> him and call him all kinds of horrible names, and sometimes I even

> imagine slapping him senseless. It makes me sick to my stomach as I type

> this; I can't believe I am vocalizing these thoughts. I have not done

> anything to hurt him, and I do not want to, but the other day, I caught

> myself picking him up too rough because I was so angry.

>

> I am not myself. I only recently told my husband and my mother about

> these feelings (after the show), but I am so good at covering things up

> that I am afraid that they are going to think that everything is

> resolved and everything is okay. I know that they don't understand. I am

> afraid that if my family or my husbands family knew how I really felt,

> or what really went

> through my mind, they would take my son away from me and force me to

> quit breastfeeding him, and give me medication in the hospital against

> my will.

>

> I am not able to sleep at night, I get heart palpitations all the

> time, especially at night, I bite my lips incessantly (they bleed), and

> my mind never stops. I can't focus long enough to play the piano,

> exercise, or even read - all of the things I used to be able to do to

> relieve anxiety. I can't pay the bills or clean the house. Laundry is a

> joke. I have no appetite, no desire for food.

>

> I don't enjoy anything that I used to. I am afraid to go out in

> public, can't go to church, won't answer the phone or the door if my

> husband isn't home. I really do feel crazy. I am writing because I am

> wondering if anyone has had any success with natural or alternative

> remedies.

>

> I took anti-depressants as a teenager, and do not want to take that

> route again, especially with nursing my baby. I have a doctor who is

> board certified and is a naturopath; she has placed me on natural

> progesterone replacement as well as supplements. "

>

> In response to this mother’s plea for help I posted the following link

> to the Oprah.com discussion board for Post Partum Psychosis:

> http://www.spiritledbirth.com/article1028.html. I encouraged her to read

> the article on alternatives to drug therapies for Post Partum Emotional

> distress, written by Deborah Warner, and published on the

> spiritledbirth.com web site. I also encouraged her to ponder Deborah’s

> testimony of non-drug approaches for post partum distress.

>

> Imagine my surprise when I went back later in the day to see if this

> new mom had read my words and after a careful search for my post, I

> realized that my message had been deleted from the discussion.

>

> Oprah's mission statement for her web site is " Live your best life. "

> What it should say is " Live your best life only with the permission of

> the American Psychiatric Association. " The censoring of my post was a

> simple, yet, effective attempt to keep this new mom from receiving the

> encouragement she is looking for.

>

> Perhaps the Oprah people are afraid of a lawsuit if this women goes on

> to kill herself or her child because she didn’t get the proper " medical

> treatment, " yet, this mother’s own words articulate her fear of being

> put in the hospital, medicated against her will, and having her child

> taken away from her.

>

> Jenny, 1990

> After Hospital Release

>

> Are these fears grounded in reality? Yes they are. Thirteen years ago,

> while suffering from the symptoms of Post Partum Psychosis, I was

> hospitalized against my will, separated from my daughter for six

> weeks, forced by the courts to take medication - against my will, and

> then sent home " cured " to pick up the pieces of my life.

>

> While in the State Hospital, when no one was watching, I was raped by

> four

> orderlies and then literally thrown naked into a seclusion room to stay

> for three days. While in that little cell my breastmilk dried up. The

> nurses just about killed me with an overdose of Haldol, and after 28

> days of refusing to take the medications, I landed in front of a judge

> who casually sentenced me with, " forced medications, 90 days if

> necessary. " All of this for the " crime " of losing my mind!

>

> For many women the reality of " care " at the hands of the psychiatric

> profession is far worse than the realities of life with post partum

> depression and/or psychosis.

>

> The desperate Mom who posted her story on Oprah’s site has found help

> in the form of a naturopathic doctor who correctly has put her on

> natural progesterone and nutrients to restore her body. Every person who

> is mentally ill has a niacin and b-complex deficiency.

>

> What she doesn’t realize is that her body is experiencing a normal

> reaction to trauma, with every symptom a logical, even predictable,

> response to the terror of her birth. Early in her post she relayed that

> the end of her birth resulted in physical trauma that left her unable to

> sit, stand etc., without extreme pain. She also must have had a large

> blood loss as she was anemic.

>

> As a teen she must have struggled with depression, as she mentions

> being put on medications. My guess is that this woman experienced some

> sort of trauma early in her life and the physical trauma of her birth,

> perhaps a fourth degree episiotomy or high forceps delivery, was the

> cause of her physical pain, and perhaps also a triggering event that

> recalled to her mind memories of being sexually abused.

>

> Suicidal feelings are common in those who have been sexually abused

> whether they remember the abuse or not. Most women assume some pelvic

> damage will occur when giving birth, after all, 90% of women who give

> birth vaginally receive an episiotomy. And many women deal with this

> needless trauma in a logical or even flippant way. For them it is

> " normal " to have the

> muscles of thier vaginal walls cut and ripped to shreds. But for

> others, especially those who associate sexual abuse with pelvic damage,

> even a simple pelvic exam could bring up those traumatic memories. This

> layering of trauma associates the baby and the baby’s birth with

> cellular memories of being sexually assaulted. Having a " vaginal

> cesarean " leaves many women

> more damaged than the worst rape.

>

> Some women who have never been sexually abused experience the exact

> same reactions to their births that women who are recovering from rape

> feel. The same powerlessness, the feelings of panic, suicidal overwhelm

> and frustration because when they try to articulate their feelings

> everyone shuts them up with the comment, " but you have a healthy baby! "

> As if the baby can make them forget the trauma! The little one is a

> constant reminder! Some women are able to compartmentalize their trauma

> and it will not come back to haunt them for many weeks or months. Others

> start to feel the overwhelm during the most challenging weeks while the

> baby is a newborn and no one is sleeping well.

>

> A common theme in women who kill is the desire to send their babies to

> a safe place. They will say things like, " I am not going to allow them

> to be hurt the way I was hurt " or they will feel the baby will be better

> off with God than allowed to stay in mortality. I believe this again is

> a sign that the mother was sexually abused. Given the fact that so many

> women struggle with healing from sexual abuse, the two hundred babies

> that are in fact killed by their mother’s every year is a witness to how

> well women do in general to cope with the trials and traumas they

> struggle with. Without a change in the current birthing world, (the

> c-section rate went up 4% in the last few years and no one seemed to

> notice), and the continual emphasis on drug therapy for crisis

> management without a real dialogue on how to prevent birth trauma – I

> predict that the numbers of children killed by their mother’s will grow,

> despite the use of more sophisticated drug therapies.

>

> The new Mom who shared her story on Oprah most likely was told that

> her baby needed to be delivered quickly or it would die. She likely

> never considered that perhaps she was being hurried along to suit the

> needs of the staff and/or her doctor.

>

> Without looking at the current butchery of mother’s in the delivery

> rooms around the country as being a factor in new mother's experiencing

> the symptoms this new Mom so graphically shared, we will never get to

> the root cause of post partum depression and psychosis. This woman is

> not psychotic, she is able to write a reasonable, articulate post

> detailing the

> symptoms of her distress, the help she is searching for, and the hope

> she has of being able to continue breastfeeding without her child being

> taken from her or being medicated against her will. Her traumatic birth

> had much more to do with her suicidal overwhelm and " scary thoughts "

> than a hormonal or chemical imbalance.

>

> When mothers and babies are traumatized at birth and not able to bond

> well, even if they are only separated for one hour after birth, a wedge

> is placed in each of their hearts. This wedge of unnatural affection can

> be overcome. However, the stress of recovery,

> new-baby-sleep-depravation, and with the general ignorance of most

> American families on the true needs of the post partum mother- this

> breach of hormonal interconnectedness can lead to mother's having

> thoughts of killing or harming their babies. It can also lead to child

> abuse and neglect.

>

> In the animal kingdom it is a well established fact that if mother

> animals are separated from their babies for even a few minutes after the

> birth, when the baby is returned to the mother later on, she may be

> indifferent to it or even try to kill it.

>

> I personally believe that one of the main reasons new Mom's find it

> easy to go back to work and leave the baby in the care of someone else

> is because they honestly believe the baby will be safer with someone

> else. In the years since my own psychosis I have done a ton of research

> and talked to hundreds of women.

>

> I was a Phone Contact Support Person for Depression after Delivery

> before they fired me for encouraging women not to take the drugs and use

> alternative remedies for thier depression. During the five years I

> volunteered my time to this organization I had anonymous phone calls

> from women from all over the country who were looking for emotional

> support. Because of the

> anonymity factor of the setup of this organization I believe the fifty

> or so mother’s who called me over the years were more apt to share their

> true hearts than even what is shared with professionals in the medical

> world. Almost all of these women expressed deep concern over the scary

> thoughts they were having of wanting to harm themselves or their babies.

> It was most

> helpful for them to hear that they were not alone and that this was a

> common response to a traumatic birth. Many that I talked to would burst

> out crying in relief that they were not the only ones on the planet

> having these feelings.

>

> A few women will have these thoughts after a quiet home birth. Some

> Mom's that I have been in touch with wonder if they stuff the memories

> in order to take care of thier babies, and having an empowering gentle

> birth at home emphasizes the truth about the horror they experienced

> during a botched hospital birth. These women have expressed to me that

> they were able to work through the " scary " thoughts using prayer and

> other spiritual tools.

>

> Oprah is right, we need to discuss this taboo subject and get mother’s

> the help they desire and need, but we also need to understand that for

> some women the drugs of the psychiatric profession are not the answer.

> While most women may feel the medications give them their lives back,

> other’s are determined to stay away from mental hospitals, drug and

> electroshock

> therapy, and psychiatrists. As with all female health care decisions,

> this is a choice issue and women should be able to make their own

> decisions regarding their minds and bodies.

>

> Censoring information is not in the best interest of the mother. Many

> women go on to kill themselves or thier babies even when they receive

> the whole range of psychiatric services. I find it ironic that a few

> women on Oprah's discussion board mentioned having had the thoughts of

> wanting to hurt their babies ten, twenty, or thirty years ago and making

> it through that time with the help of God. Many of these same women

> claimed how helpful it would have been to be diagnosed, get the

> professional help, the meds, and the hospitalization to help them. While

> they bemoan the fact that they didn’t have those " treatments " to aid in

> their recovery, they all did in fact recover without the

> professionals!!!

>

> I have given birth to three additional children since the trauma of

> psychosis. The worst part of my experience was having my health care

> decisions made by those who thought they knew what was best for me. I am

> grateful that I was able to get out of the clutches of the psychiatric

> profession and find the alternative healers who gave me the tools to

> heal from all traumas, the worst being the toxic mind numbing horror of

> being " treated " by the so called professionals.

>

> Please contact Oprah to demand that she support choice in mental

> health care, and stop the censorship of her site.

>

 

 

Arizona Hughes

Please stop by and visit my Website listed below

http://members.aol.com/artistdesigner/Arizona_Hughes/Page_1x.html

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

http://www.spiritledbirth.com/article1032.html

 

Alternative Remedies for Post Partum Depression/Psychosis: Oprah Winfrey

Censors by Jenny Hatch

 

In response to an Oprah show about Post Partum Psychosis, one woman

posted to the Oprah website discussion board, a request for alternative

remedies. Jenny Hatch, who experienced Post Partum Pyschosis 13 years

ago, attempted to help this distressed mother, but her suggestions were

deleted from the website by the Oprah staff. Jenny shares her thoughts

here.New!

 

In a message posted on the Oprah.com website, entitled " Alternative

Remedies, " under the discussion entitled, " Post Partum Psychosis, " a new

mother requested information regarding treatments for post partum

depression that did not include medications. In describing her symptoms

this mother wrote….

 

" I cried on Wednesday as I watched the Oprah show partly because I

could relate so well to the pain that others have felt, and partly

because I was relieved that I was not the only one feeling pain. I had

my first child, a son, five months ago, and have not felt like myself

ever since.

 

I did the Bradley method (no anesthesia), which went very well with

the exception of some unavoidable injuries that left me extremely anemic

and unable to really walk, sit, stand, lie down without extreme pain for

almost 2 months. I had been home from the hospital for about a week when

I totally lost control.

 

The baby was screaming, my husband was tired and arguing with me at

2:00 am and I completely snapped. I can't even really remember what

happened, I just know that I left the house and drove through the

night/morning, so exhausted I could hardly see the road. I was just

looking for an overpass so that I could run the car off of the side.

 

I knew that my baby would be so much better off without me, that

someone else could take better care of him. I don't know how long I had

been driving when I called my husband from a payphone to tell him

goodbye and that I loved him and the baby, but couldn't come home. I am

sure that he was beside himself, and he called the police to help him to

look for me. I don't know how or why, but I caught a streak of reality

and finally decided to go home, take a sleeping pill, and go to bed.

 

Since that time, I have " left " home several times. Sometimes I take

the baby with me and drive to my mother's house to stay for a few days,

and sometimes, like last weekend, I left the baby with my husband, drove

a few hours away and stayed at a motel for the night, trying to decide

how I could take my own life.

 

Until Wednesday, I didn't know that anyone else had those horrible

thoughts about their babies, like I had about mine. I don't ever want to

do anything to hurt him, but sometimes I imagine what would happen if I

dropped him while we were going down the stairs, or what would happen if

I slammed on the brakes when we are driving on the freeway.

 

When he screams in the middle of the night, I want to scream back at

him and call him all kinds of horrible names, and sometimes I even

imagine slapping him senseless. It makes me sick to my stomach as I type

this; I can't believe I am vocalizing these thoughts. I have not done

anything to hurt him, and I do not want to, but the other day, I caught

myself picking him up too rough because I was so angry.

 

I am not myself. I only recently told my husband and my mother about

these feelings (after the show), but I am so good at covering things up

that I am afraid that they are going to think that everything is

resolved and everything is okay. I know that they don't understand. I am

afraid that if my family or my husbands family knew how I really felt,

or what really went

through my mind, they would take my son away from me and force me to

quit breastfeeding him, and give me medication in the hospital against

my will.

 

I am not able to sleep at night, I get heart palpitations all the

time, especially at night, I bite my lips incessantly (they bleed), and

my mind never stops. I can't focus long enough to play the piano,

exercise, or even read - all of the things I used to be able to do to

relieve anxiety. I can't pay the bills or clean the house. Laundry is a

joke. I have no appetite, no desire for food.

 

I don't enjoy anything that I used to. I am afraid to go out in

public, can't go to church, won't answer the phone or the door if my

husband isn't home. I really do feel crazy. I am writing because I am

wondering if anyone has had any success with natural or alternative

remedies.

 

I took anti-depressants as a teenager, and do not want to take that

route again, especially with nursing my baby. I have a doctor who is

board certified and is a naturopath; she has placed me on natural

progesterone replacement as well as supplements. "

 

In response to this mother’s plea for help I posted the following link

to the Oprah.com discussion board for Post Partum Psychosis:

http://www.spiritledbirth.com/article1028.html. I encouraged her to read

the article on alternatives to drug therapies for Post Partum Emotional

distress, written by Deborah Warner, and published on the

spiritledbirth.com web site. I also encouraged her to ponder Deborah’s

testimony of non-drug approaches for post partum distress.

 

Imagine my surprise when I went back later in the day to see if this

new mom had read my words and after a careful search for my post, I

realized that my message had been deleted from the discussion.

 

Oprah's mission statement for her web site is " Live your best life. "

What it should say is " Live your best life only with the permission of

the American Psychiatric Association. " The censoring of my post was a

simple, yet, effective attempt to keep this new mom from receiving the

encouragement she is looking for.

 

Perhaps the Oprah people are afraid of a lawsuit if this women goes on

to kill herself or her child because she didn’t get the proper " medical

treatment, " yet, this mother’s own words articulate her fear of being

put in the hospital, medicated against her will, and having her child

taken away from her.

 

Jenny, 1990

After Hospital Release

 

Are these fears grounded in reality? Yes they are. Thirteen years ago,

while suffering from the symptoms of Post Partum Psychosis, I was

hospitalized against my will, separated from my daughter for six

weeks, forced by the courts to take medication - against my will, and

then sent home " cured " to pick up the pieces of my life.

 

While in the State Hospital, when no one was watching, I was raped by

four

orderlies and then literally thrown naked into a seclusion room to stay

for three days. While in that little cell my breastmilk dried up. The

nurses just about killed me with an overdose of Haldol, and after 28

days of refusing to take the medications, I landed in front of a judge

who casually sentenced me with, " forced medications, 90 days if

necessary. " All of this for the " crime " of losing my mind!

 

For many women the reality of " care " at the hands of the psychiatric

profession is far worse than the realities of life with post partum

depression and/or psychosis.

 

The desperate Mom who posted her story on Oprah’s site has found help

in the form of a naturopathic doctor who correctly has put her on

natural progesterone and nutrients to restore her body. Every person who

is mentally ill has a niacin and b-complex deficiency.

 

What she doesn’t realize is that her body is experiencing a normal

reaction to trauma, with every symptom a logical, even predictable,

response to the terror of her birth. Early in her post she relayed that

the end of her birth resulted in physical trauma that left her unable to

sit, stand etc., without extreme pain. She also must have had a large

blood loss as she was anemic.

 

As a teen she must have struggled with depression, as she mentions

being put on medications. My guess is that this woman experienced some

sort of trauma early in her life and the physical trauma of her birth,

perhaps a fourth degree episiotomy or high forceps delivery, was the

cause of her physical pain, and perhaps also a triggering event that

recalled to her mind memories of being sexually abused.

 

Suicidal feelings are common in those who have been sexually abused

whether they remember the abuse or not. Most women assume some pelvic

damage will occur when giving birth, after all, 90% of women who give

birth vaginally receive an episiotomy. And many women deal with this

needless trauma in a logical or even flippant way. For them it is

" normal " to have the

muscles of thier vaginal walls cut and ripped to shreds. But for

others, especially those who associate sexual abuse with pelvic damage,

even a simple pelvic exam could bring up those traumatic memories. This

layering of trauma associates the baby and the baby’s birth with

cellular memories of being sexually assaulted. Having a " vaginal

cesarean " leaves many women

more damaged than the worst rape.

 

Some women who have never been sexually abused experience the exact

same reactions to their births that women who are recovering from rape

feel. The same powerlessness, the feelings of panic, suicidal overwhelm

and frustration because when they try to articulate their feelings

everyone shuts them up with the comment, " but you have a healthy baby! "

As if the baby can make them forget the trauma! The little one is a

constant reminder! Some women are able to compartmentalize their trauma

and it will not come back to haunt them for many weeks or months. Others

start to feel the overwhelm during the most challenging weeks while the

baby is a newborn and no one is sleeping well.

 

A common theme in women who kill is the desire to send their babies to

a safe place. They will say things like, " I am not going to allow them

to be hurt the way I was hurt " or they will feel the baby will be better

off with God than allowed to stay in mortality. I believe this again is

a sign that the mother was sexually abused. Given the fact that so many

women struggle with healing from sexual abuse, the two hundred babies

that are in fact killed by their mother’s every year is a witness to how

well women do in general to cope with the trials and traumas they

struggle with. Without a change in the current birthing world, (the

c-section rate went up 4% in the last few years and no one seemed to

notice), and the continual emphasis on drug therapy for crisis

management without a real dialogue on how to prevent birth trauma – I

predict that the numbers of children killed by their mother’s will grow,

despite the use of more sophisticated drug therapies.

 

The new Mom who shared her story on Oprah most likely was told that

her baby needed to be delivered quickly or it would die. She likely

never considered that perhaps she was being hurried along to suit the

needs of the staff and/or her doctor.

 

Without looking at the current butchery of mother’s in the delivery

rooms around the country as being a factor in new mother's experiencing

the symptoms this new Mom so graphically shared, we will never get to

the root cause of post partum depression and psychosis. This woman is

not psychotic, she is able to write a reasonable, articulate post

detailing the

symptoms of her distress, the help she is searching for, and the hope

she has of being able to continue breastfeeding without her child being

taken from her or being medicated against her will. Her traumatic birth

had much more to do with her suicidal overwhelm and " scary thoughts "

than a hormonal or chemical imbalance.

 

When mothers and babies are traumatized at birth and not able to bond

well, even if they are only separated for one hour after birth, a wedge

is placed in each of their hearts. This wedge of unnatural affection can

be overcome. However, the stress of recovery,

new-baby-sleep-depravation, and with the general ignorance of most

American families on the true needs of the post partum mother- this

breach of hormonal interconnectedness can lead to mother's having

thoughts of killing or harming their babies. It can also lead to child

abuse and neglect.

 

In the animal kingdom it is a well established fact that if mother

animals are separated from their babies for even a few minutes after the

birth, when the baby is returned to the mother later on, she may be

indifferent to it or even try to kill it.

 

I personally believe that one of the main reasons new Mom's find it

easy to go back to work and leave the baby in the care of someone else

is because they honestly believe the baby will be safer with someone

else. In the years since my own psychosis I have done a ton of research

and talked to hundreds of women.

 

I was a Phone Contact Support Person for Depression after Delivery

before they fired me for encouraging women not to take the drugs and use

alternative remedies for thier depression. During the five years I

volunteered my time to this organization I had anonymous phone calls

from women from all over the country who were looking for emotional

support. Because of the

anonymity factor of the setup of this organization I believe the fifty

or so mother’s who called me over the years were more apt to share their

true hearts than even what is shared with professionals in the medical

world. Almost all of these women expressed deep concern over the scary

thoughts they were having of wanting to harm themselves or their babies.

It was most

helpful for them to hear that they were not alone and that this was a

common response to a traumatic birth. Many that I talked to would burst

out crying in relief that they were not the only ones on the planet

having these feelings.

 

A few women will have these thoughts after a quiet home birth. Some

Mom's that I have been in touch with wonder if they stuff the memories

in order to take care of thier babies, and having an empowering gentle

birth at home emphasizes the truth about the horror they experienced

during a botched hospital birth. These women have expressed to me that

they were able to work through the " scary " thoughts using prayer and

other spiritual tools.

 

Oprah is right, we need to discuss this taboo subject and get mother’s

the help they desire and need, but we also need to understand that for

some women the drugs of the psychiatric profession are not the answer.

While most women may feel the medications give them their lives back,

other’s are determined to stay away from mental hospitals, drug and

electroshock

therapy, and psychiatrists. As with all female health care decisions,

this is a choice issue and women should be able to make their own

decisions regarding their minds and bodies.

 

Censoring information is not in the best interest of the mother. Many

women go on to kill themselves or thier babies even when they receive

the whole range of psychiatric services. I find it ironic that a few

women on Oprah's discussion board mentioned having had the thoughts of

wanting to hurt their babies ten, twenty, or thirty years ago and making

it through that time with the help of God. Many of these same women

claimed how helpful it would have been to be diagnosed, get the

professional help, the meds, and the hospitalization to help them. While

they bemoan the fact that they didn’t have those " treatments " to aid in

their recovery, they all did in fact recover without the

professionals!!!

 

I have given birth to three additional children since the trauma of

psychosis. The worst part of my experience was having my health care

decisions made by those who thought they knew what was best for me. I am

grateful that I was able to get out of the clutches of the psychiatric

profession and find the alternative healers who gave me the tools to

heal from all traumas, the worst being the toxic mind numbing horror of

being " treated " by the so called professionals.

 

Please contact Oprah to demand that she support choice in mental

health care, and stop the censorship of her site.

[Guest guest]

I did once try the doctor route and it was so bad and actually made

things worse for me. Lately I have been taking St. John's Wort and many

vitamin B's as well as lots of other supplements. I notice if I don't take

them and its not worth the risk. I too get suddenly suicidal and just feel

plain hopeless so I try never to forget to take them.

As for all the junk in my life...it seems we all have a sad story to

tell but I have had a balance of incredible, wonderful things as well. I

won the lottery in the husband and kids department. I feel lucky to have

my life and I only hope I prove worthy to have lived it. I hope to help

others one day through what I have gone through.

AZ

 

> Arizona,

> No problem... you bet! I'm sorry that you've been through so much junk

> in your

> life! Are you/have you tried any anti-depressants, whether medical or

> natural? I have to remind myself to take 5-HTPs and anti-stress B-complex

> vitamins. Because if I don't, the first sign is that I start getting

> frustrated

> at every little thing, and then a day or two later I start getting

> horrible,

> negative thoughts, such as, " Gosh, my kids would be so much better off

> without

> me... life is hopeless... blah blah blah. " It really stinks and I'm

> learning to

> try to catch these things in the bud before they flower too much.

>

> Mindy

>

 

 

Arizona Hughes

Please stop by and visit my Website listed below

http://members.aol.com/artistdesigner/Arizona_Hughes/Page_1x.html

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 16/1/02 20:23:16 GMT Standard Time, ArtistDesigner

writes:

 

You have already proved worthy of your life in the things that you say in

these posts and kindness and love you give to the wonderful animals that pick

you out. I have never heard anyone put in such a loving way their feelings

for the husband and children, they also have won the lottery in the

wife/mother department.

Marianne

> . I

> won the lottery in the husband and kids department. I feel lucky to

> have

> my life and I only hope I prove worthy to have lived it. I hope to help

> others one day through what I have gone through.

>

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

ArtistDesigner wrote:

 

> Thank you so much for your post. It just described my life.

 

Arizona,

No problem... you bet! I'm sorry that you've been through so much junk in

your

life! Are you/have you tried any anti-depressants, whether medical or

natural? I have to remind myself to take 5-HTPs and anti-stress B-complex

vitamins. Because if I don't, the first sign is that I start getting frustrated

at every little thing, and then a day or two later I start getting horrible,

negative thoughts, such as, " Gosh, my kids would be so much better off without

me... life is hopeless... blah blah blah. " It really stinks and I'm learning to

try to catch these things in the bud before they flower too much.

 

Mindy

[Guest guest]

Gosh, I'm blushing now. Thanks Marianne.

Arizona

 

> You have already proved worthy of your life in the things that you say in

> these posts and kindness and love you give to the wonderful animals that

> pick

> you out. I have never heard anyone put in such a loving way their feelings

>

> for the husband and children, they also have won the lottery in the

> wife/mother department.

> Marianne

>

 

 

Arizona Hughes

Please stop by and visit my Website listed below

http://members.aol.com/artistdesigner/Arizona_Hughes/Page_1x.html

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

>>>>>You have already proved worthy of your life in the things that you say

in these posts and kindness and love you give to the wonderful animals that

pick you out.

 

 

 

 

I will second that.

 

Regards, Dorothy.