When it strikes new mothers, it has a name. The anxiety and irritability that take hold after childbirth are well known as postpartum depression. But there's no name for the tense feelings that tarnish the first weeks of fatherhood.
Dads go through a pattern of symptoms just like the mothers do.
Biology is not the cause. Men do not experience the swings in hormone levels that are at least partly the cause of depression in new mothers. In fathers, the culprit is the favorite villain of our times, stress, which can cause mental and physical symptoms. Combine sleep deprivation, the uncertainty of a new child, a wife coping with hormones, and a drastic reorganization in the household power structure, and that's a formula for stress, Barsky says. The ways he used to cope are no longer effective.