2 minute read
You can come back
Like many women giving birth during COVID, Charlotte felt isolated and anxious. A traumatic birth in restrictive conditions left her debilitated. Exhaustion and depression descended into something even deeper – post partum psychosis.
“I was never a nervous person but I worried a lot about COVID when I found out I was pregnant,” she recalls. “I’d had an easy labour with my daughter but my son’s birth turned into an emergency. I had flashbacks afterwards. His first weeks were far from the joyful times I’d been looking forward to. I couldn’t see my mum. I was so isolated.”
Charlotte felt unsafe outside her home. “I could hear voices talking about how I looked and about me as a mum. I had very dark thoughts. I was at the point of no return – I wanted to die.”
Her health visitor recognised the signs and contacted the Early Intervention team. “They were like a ray of light,” she says. “Looking back, I was one step away from taking my own life, but I was also one step away from help.
“If only more people realised how much help is out there and how it is possible to get your life back on track. Before I became ill, I would have said that psychosis was caused by drugs or by homelessness. But if it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone.”
Heston shines a light
Celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal has told of his ‘tornado’ of intensifying mood swings, hallucinations, paranoia and suicidal thoughts when he was diagnosed with psychosis.
He feels sleeping just two hours a night damaged his mental wellbeing. “Since my diagnosis I’ve learned a lot more about myself ... I’m hoping that talking about it can change the way we see the condition and put it in the spotlight for all the right reasons.”
