An Ohio mom’s viral Facebook post is shedding light on the reality of postpartum depression.
On May 1, Kathy DiVincenzo shared two photos taken by her friend, photographer Danielle Fantis. While one picture shows the mom dressed up and smiling with her children in their clean house, the other shows DiVincenzo looking tired and unhappy with a classic messy bun and cluttered home.
DiVincenzo explained in the caption that May is National Maternal Depression Awareness Month. Because she has struggled with postpartum depression, anxiety and OCD, she decided to speak out and show people what the experience can look like ― and “not just the side of me that’s ‘Facebook worthy.’”
The two pictures DiVincenzo posted represent her life, “depending on the day,” she wrote.
“I would only ever comfortably share one of these realities though and that’s the problem. The only thing more exhausting than having these conditions is pretending daily that I don’t,” she explained, adding that she works hard to hide the harsh reality from the social media world because she’s worried it would make people feel uncomfortable.
“I’m afraid you’ll think I’m weak, crazy, a terrible mother, or the other million things my mind convinces me of, and I know I’m not alone in those thoughts,” she wrote. “We need to stop assuming that the postpartum period is always euphoric, because for 1 in 7 it’s not. We need to start asking new parents how they’re doing in a deeper way than the normal, “so how are you doing?” that triggers the knee jerk, “everything’s great!” response. We need to learn the…
The post In Just 2 Photos, Mom Highlights Unspoken Reality Of Postpartum Depression appeared first on FeedBox.