How To Support Someone With Postpartum Psychosis

Postpartum Psychosis is a severe mental health condition. It puts everyone involved at risk of harm – including a parent and their child.

Getting treatment for the condition is crucial. With the right treatment and support, a full recovery is possible.

However, in line with the “support” aspect, there are many things that those around the person with the condition can do to aid their recovery.

What is Postpartum Psychosis?

Postpartum Psychosis: Postpartum Psychosis is a serious condition that affects someone soon after they have given birth. The condition involves the mother showing signs of psychosis, and is a medical emergency. Treatment is available, with the focus being on ensuring the safety of the mother, their child, and the wider family.

Ways of supporting someone with postpartum psychosis

As mentioned, there are a lot of things that those around the person with the condition can do to help.

Being calm and supportive is important. By being calm, it should reduce any tension or frustration within the person with the condition.

Moreover, listening is crucial. While it can be difficult to listen to someone that is delusional, giving them a chance to speak their mind can be helpful to them. Shutting them down will not be helpful.

They will be receiving treatment. So the best thing to do is to listen to them and waiting for the treatment to take effect. Treatment for psychosis includes talking therapy and medication.

Something else that can help with their treatment is getting enough sleep. Therefore, try to let them sleep as much as possible. But make sure you get enough yourself!

Furthermore, this can extend to assisting with night-time feeds, and looking after any other children.

Doing things around the house is important too. This includes helping with cleaning, washing, cooking, and other household tasks. This should help put the person with the condition at ease as they will know that the house is being looked after.

Another thing you can do that is helpful is to limit visitors to the house. It is commonplace after a birth for many people to want to visit. However, this can become overwhelming, and is not conducive to the calm environment that someone with postpartum psychosis needs.

Moreover, being patient is key. It takes time for a person to recover from postpartum psychosis – patience is key.

Looking after yourself

However – remember to look after yourself too! It can be very stressful to look after someone with the condition, so you need to look after yourself,

Make sure that you remain healthy! You can do so by exercising, eating well and getting enough rest – these can help your mental health.

Moreover, don’t use any illicit substances or over-consume alcohol as a way of coping with the situation.

If you have any queries about the person’s situation, you can contact the health team of the person.

Summary

Postpartum psychosis is a terrible condition, and affects so many people. Fortunately, treatment is available.

Looking after the person involved is important, it will aid their recovery, and help the health and wellbeing of the child too.

But looking after yourself too is crucial! This way, all those involved, including the child, should be able to put the condition behind them and go on to have a happy and healthy life.

See Also

• Postpartum Psychosis: Information, Symptoms, Treatment and More
• How To Reduce The Risk of Postpartum Psychosis
• Is There a Link Between Cannabis and Psychosis?
• Eriksson Twins: The Horrors of Shared Psychosis
• Burari Deaths: Shared Psychosis or Something More Sinister?