Motherhood and Mental Health
Disclaimer: When I had the idea for this blog, it was the earlier part of this month before Mother’s Day.
I wonder if it’s just a coincidence that Mother’s Day and Mental Health Awareness month are part of the same month..
cause let me tell you, there is nothing more that has challenged my mental health more than being a mom.. a single mom at that! It’s crazy too because I say this all the time in my personal conversations, but I feel we are not nearly educated enough about women’s health. Whenever I initially had my son, I went through what my doctor explained to me as baby blues, which is a milder form of postpartum depression. It took me by surprise honestly because I wasn’t really understanding what I was going through and why I was going through it.
HORMONES 🥴
They really do take control like you have no say so of what goes on in your own body. That’s literally how I was feeling like I had no control. I had just had a baby. I was breastfeeding. My body just felt like it had been high jacked. I went to go stay with my mom for a while and took things slow while I gave myself the proper time to get adjusted to what was happening around and within me.
Now, I say that we’re not nearly educated enough because if you don’t take the time to tune in and understand your body as well as gain some self-awareness in general, you’ll lose control. You’ll end up thinking that that’s just the way things are not knowing that you have a choice to do something and that you don’t have to suffer.
Luckily during this time, I didn’t have to take any meds. I hate taking meds. Having a strong support system kept me from feeling so lonely, out of my head, and strong enough to handle everything I was facing as a new mom.
After this time, whenever those particular hormones wore off and my body found some sort of normalcy, I realized how to tune in to it more and pay attention to what it needed. I slowly started to bring regular movement and exercise into my routines, made sure I stayed hydrated, and kept myself surrounded by the people I felt most supported by. At some point after this phase, life happened again. Me and my child’s father officially split a little past a year after our son was born. This definitely did a number on my anxiety and mental health 🥴 It was probably one of the roughest experiences I’ve had in terms of my mental health and anxiety experiences. The details behind that will probably make up for another blog post, so if you have questions let me know. It was a pretty weird time for me, but it was a battle that made me stronger and an experience that I’m grateful to have gone through.
What I learned from it most was that the narrative I allowed it to take on during that time was quite the opposite of the true reality of it all. It was during this time that I realized how important it was to have an actual gratitude practice. This kept me from being defeated with depression. I depended a lot on the sunlight too. The natural vitamins it filled me with and the warmth it provided every day knowing it would raise again and again is something I don’t think I have the words to describe. It just honestly brought light into my life that kept me renewed as opposed to listening to the narrative my mind was screaming mostly when nightfall hit.
Another lesson, reminder really, was that no matter how life is happening around me, I am truly well equipped to see it through to better days. All of the days aren’t going to be your best days, but you can very well see the best in all of your days. So to all my mamas out there (and dad’s too since Mother’s Day is over now), keep doin the damn thang because this definitely ain’t for the weak.
Be sure to follow my insta to keep up with how I continue to live through some of these lessons I talked about.
