It is important to know what postpartum depression looks like in order to be supportive and understanding towards your wife or partner. Along with mood changes and depressive feelings, postpartum depression can also bring with it disorganized, paranoid, or even harmful thoughts. Knowing what to look for will help you help your partner when she needs it most.
Common signs of postpartum depression are:
Mood changes: Showing extreme amounts of anger or frustration or going from anger to sadness to happiness in short amounts of time.
Depressive feelings: Extremely low mood, inability to get out of bed or care for herself, or even feelings or thoughts of wanting to just ignore or dismiss everything else around her.
Extreme fatigue: She falls asleep while feeding the baby and feels too exhausted to do things other than caring for her baby’s most basic needs, which results in neglecting many of her own needs.
Harmful or scary thoughts: Thoughts of wanting to harm herself or the baby in some way.
Paranoia: Expressing extreme worry or concern about someone harming the baby. This can seem irrational to outsiders, as it is more than the usual worries about caring for a new baby.
Hopelessness: Feeling like things will never get better, she will never not feel this way, or she will never see a way out.
Racing thoughts: Having the same thoughts over and over or feeling unable to calm down or slow her thoughts
Insomnia: Going days without sleep or with only a couple hours of sleep a night. While decreased sleep is normal during this time, insomnia can make it so that even when she has time and space to sleep, she still can not shut off her mind or calm her body enough to do so.