Learn How To Cope With Pregnancy Depression

You are living your dream, preparing the baby room and enjoying the thoughts of your new born baby that will be here in just a few weeks. All of a sudden, you wake up one morning and feel a morbid sense of doom with nothing being wrong. Welcome to the clutches of pregnancy depression.

While you may think that pregnancy depression is not normal for most women, 20% of females suffer from pregnancy depression. What is worse, most family and friends do not understand how intense this situation can be. They merely write it off as having fluctuating hormone reactions to being pregnant. Never shrug off this mood disorder but take steps to cure. One in four women suffers from some type of depression during their lifetime and being pregnant is no different.

Signs of pregnancy depression can be the loss of interest in activities that you once loved, sleeping too little or too much, feelings of guilt or worthlessness, or difficulty concentrating on projects. The only thing that you can think about is how sad you are to be too pregnant, too poor or too unattractive. Pregnancy depression can progress to levels that can be dangerous to yourself and your unborn child.

Worthlessness leads to activities that you would never dream of doing when your mood is clear and level. Eating the wrong foods, smoking, drinking alcohol or driving erratically in your vehicle is some unhealthy habits that can be created just from trying to shake off the feeling of despair. You know that your baby comes first but at the moment, you just don't care.

Pregnancy depression is not just a state of mind but a real medical illness. Friends and family may tell you that it is not safe to be on any type of medication while you are pregnant but the trends that you could find yourself involved in are ten times worse. Telling your physician that you are suffering from what you believe is pregnancy depression will come as no surprise to him or her. They can prescribe the right anti-depressants for you while keeping baby in mind.

Recently, there have been some studies taking place in using acupuncture for pregnancy depression and other specific types of depression. The results have been very promising and if you know of an acupuncturist/herbalist, the subject might be worth discussing.

The worse thing that one can do when suffering from pregnancy depression is nothing. Willing away depression doesn't work any better than wishing away an infection. The symptoms are real and you need real treatment in order to bounce back to the old you. Discuss these options with your spouse and let him know the seriousness of your problem. You can get relief from pregnancy depression by seeking out a cure and having a shoulder to lean on is always pretty good medicine too.