Baby Blues? Fathers may suffer from postnatal depression, too

Your father may not have been quiet talking about his feelings, but these days, more men, and especially young fathers, are having to be a sad father.

Postpartum depression-a severe and long mood disorder affecting new parents-is self-reported in approximately 12% to 16% of American women, according to disease control centers.

Is caused by hormonal changes after children (although the causes are multifactic and not completely unbearable).

But, Fellas, you can be shocked when you learn that you can get baby blues as well, and they affect a 10% dajak of new fathers – not far from the number of women diagnosed. And that ballpark number is probably low.

“Are men ready or willing to report this? I mean, yes, come on,” said Sean Leonard, a psychiatric nursing practice specialized in mood disorders (among other psychiatric diseases) in recovering healthy life: San Digo Drug & Rehab alcohol. “They have no desire to say they are depressed, and then why are they depressed.”

While men do not experience hormonal coils that new mothers undergo – testosterone, however, falls significantly in young fathers, studies show – changes in lifestyle that come with parenting can be just as worrying.

Sleepless nights and long days in the office are draining. Instead of a hot dinner served with some netflix and cold, you will get home from work only on time for witch clock. Suddenly, you are in second place.

Or, if you are one of those sustainable new fathers at home (18% of us now!) Loss of identity and isolation can wet the brilliance from your joyful package and lead to the connection-the other side creates feelings of guilt.

“Paternity affects where you live. This affects the way you associate. It affects your finances,” Leonard said.
More hobbies and arrows still: Daddy’s dad begins now. Passage and overeating are normal for new parents. Stir in some chronic fatigue, irritability, difficulty in concentration, headaches and muscle tension, and you have a cocktail called male after birth. You are an official from the “father knows best” for “father is depressed”.

“Back during the day, it was simply assumed that the mother would take care of the baby, and the fathers are providers,” said Dr. Bonnie J. Mitchell, who specializes in behavior health. “But in today’s society, it is not always the case. Dads are taking more an active role with newborns.”

Still, she said, when it all gets a lot, men often don’t want to call a shovel a shovel.

“The boys do not necessarily believe that it can be depression,” she added. “They may say they are feeling tired, irritating or inappropriate because their idea of ​​what should be a father who are feeling at that moment.

So what should a guy do? The recipe for the beating of male melancholy is simply, doctors say: Do not model your baby in your father. You have to contact those vain items and ask for help.

The good news is that the last generation of fathers for the first time is already finding it easier.

“We are in a society now where more and more individuals who are under the age of 30 are really in contact with their emotions,” Dr. said Mitchell.

Next, it is time to develop coping skills, such as seeking social support, involvement in regular exercises, practicing your mind, cleaning up your sleep hygiene and maintaining a healthy diet, we know). Simply put, make it time – and you will have to do it – for the things you love.

“Amazing is amazing how they can help in your regular routine, especially because many fathers feel powerless,” said Dr. Mitchell. “They see that the mother is frustrated, tired, exhausted and don’t know what to do to fix it.”

Then, if this is not enough yet, it’s time to swallow the pill.

“The treatments for this are great,” Leonard said – and he should know, he is an experienced father of seventh.

“But all medicines have side effects. So in my practice, we do many gene tests [a test that analyzes how your genes may affect medication outcomes] To make sure the medicines you are at work. “

However, a prevention of a cure is worth a cure, and the best thing a father expecting can do is educate and prepare for what is to come.

“Men can cry. Men can be depressed. It is to know the symptoms and who to speak,” he said. “Pediatricians also have to be proactive in the story of newborn parents, ‘by the way, depression is authentic in women and men,” to make them feel it is something you can say, to get rid of that stigma. “