Sleepless Days: One Woman’s Journey Through Postpartum Depression
Product Description
Sleepless Days is a brilliantly written, haunting memoir of one mother’s encounter with postpartum depression. It is a story for the other 400,000 women who are afflicted with PPD each year and are desperate for reassurance that others have felt their despair and recovered. It is a compelling narrative for anyone who has ever watched helplessly as a vulnerable woman fought against the weight of this mysterious disease…. More >>
Sleepless Days: One Woman’s Journey Through Postpartum Depression
Tagged with: Days • depression • Journey • Postpartum • Sleepless • Through • Woman's
Filed under: Depression during Pregnancy
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Read this book in a 26 hour period, couldn’t put it down. A rarity of self-help and readability. It is destined to be a lifeline to countless mothers, although it was universal in addressing depression and therefore has a broader appeal than PPD. There are so many things I could translate into my own experience. The agitation, inability to read and watching of mindless-only television. The support system that PERMITTED me to breakdown and pull myself back together again and love life more than ever and to be grateful for the break from reality so that now I can appreciate life MORE happily than those who’ve never suffered and can’t know what they must appreciate. I’m in awe, and most of all, this author will save countless of women whose brains and hormones and life have conspired to attempt to destroy them. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, luckier, more interesting, wiser, etc etc etc etc. Not all women will have the resources and support system that the author had, however, if those women see themselves as having an even greater risk than the author, then hopefully it will motivate them to get the medicine they must try, and at the very least to forgive themselves alittle, and to try to grasp a plan of recovery, hope and balance. (loved the beginning, loved the ending.) I cried and was left hopeful. Post-partum Depression person in your life? Buy the book. Read it to them out loud. Reading the book is therapy.
Rating: 5 / 5
After getting hit hard with PPD when my daughter was four months old, I searched far and wide for books on the subject and consider this book a godsend!!! Ten months later it is still the only book I’ve found that thoroughly and accurately explains the horrific feelings I felt during those first few awful months. I found myself nodding and underlining sentences in the book because they perfectly described my feelings when I was so unable to explain exactly how I was feeling to anyone. The introduction alone is amazing!
Rating: 5 / 5
At first I really enjoyed this book and was completely wrapped up in it. Suffering from PPD in the form of panic attacks it was wonderful reading about someone else going through the same stuff, thinking the same things..etc. Now the parts that just dissapointed me was this: 1. She can afford to stay at home and does not have to deal w/ going back to work. 2. Her husband stays up with the baby in a different room at night so she can get plenty of sleep. 3. She has the luxury of babysitters…and I mean that in the plural form. 4. On top of babysitters she ends up using a wonderful in home daycare as well. 5. Another luxury is this recreation gym she gets to go swim at 3x a week while yet again someone watches her baby.
6. Goes on and on about what a wonderful easy baby Max is and how she had no problem breastfeeding him.
I could go on but I think I made my point. I’m not saying she did not have it bad b/c regardless PPD is a horrible thing to go through but come on. I would rather read a book about a woman who does not have the money to have all the above luxuries and has a baby with colic. (Perhaps I should write my own book) I hate to say it but by the end of this book I was not feeling sorry for her but feeling envious! Save your money and get a book you can relate to unless this sounds like a lifestyle you lead already.
Rating: 2 / 5
This honest, eye-opening account sheds light on a problem that health care professionals clearly do not take seriously enough. Ms. Resnick makes a convincing case that American society places unrealistic, even harmful demands on new mothers: they should get back to work, or get to the gym, or entertain family, rather than spend time resting and adjusting mentally and emotionally. These demands are particularly unkind to those mothers struck by Postpartum Depression. With a deft and approachable writing style, Ms. Resnick walks us through her own struggle with PPD, candidly sharing the confusing and often disturbing thoughts she had about herself and about her new baby. She searched for a book that would help her make sense of her feelings, but found nothing. Now recovered, she has written that book herself, hoping it will help other new mothers who find themselves on the same dark, bewildering path.
Rating: 5 / 5
I was in my seventh month of pregnancy with my fourth child (in 4 1/2 years) when I came upon this book. I had suffered severe PPD with my first 3 children, and my husband and I had decided not to have any more children. When I found out that I was pregnant again, I was devastated. I was depressed throughout the pregnancy, and was dreading the April delivery and the first year afterwards.
Ms. Resnick’s book arrived on my doorstep in mid-February. I read it twice that day, underlining quite a few things the second time through. I found myself nodding in agreement and exclaiming, “Yes, that’s exactly how I felt!” It was so reassuring to know that someone else really did understand!
At the back of the book, I found the phone number for Depression After Delivery. I called and within 10 days I was in the office of a wonderful counselor. She worked with me over the next several weeks. I was encouraged by her to seek medicinal help from a psychiatrist, who changed my medication.
All of this came about because I read Ms. Resnick’s book. She helped me to recognize the need for professional help, the realization that medicine is supposed to DO something positive, and the understanding that it is OK to limit the size of one’s family for the benefit of a healthy, happy mommy.
The ending is happy: Within one week of my medication being switched, I felt like a new person. Three weeks later, my second son (fourth child) was born. I had one brief bout of the blues on Day 3, but the months since then have been the happiest of my life. I am so thankful for Ms. Resnick’s book. It gave me direction and encouragement, and I was finally able to enjoy the infancy of one of my children.
Rating: 5 / 5