Post Partum Psychosis
Post-Partum Psychosis is an extreme and much rarer version of Post Partum depression, where women begin to experience strange delusions hallucinations and strange beliefs, a decrease in social skills and activity, mood swings and more. It is a rare illness that only comes to about 1-2 out of 1,000 deliveries, basically .1-.2% of births. The illness normally sets in quite fast, roughly only two weeks after postpartum.
Post-Partum Psychosis is most likely to come to people who have a family history of previous encounters with Post Partum Psychosis or other similar illnesses, and significantly including Bipolar Disorder. It is caused by extreme hormonal shifts due to the birthing process. Post-Partum Psychosis, unfortunately, has been suggested to lead to about 4-5% suicide rate among people who come down with the illness. Beyond this statistic, however, comes the relief that this terrible illness most of the time does not motivate people to do harm to themselves or others. The Post Partum Support international reports that it is very important for women who have delusional symptoms and rash judgment should be diagnosed and treated as soon as possible. Something that Andrea Yates did not receive. Because of the way that she was quickly treated and released she was not able to get over these serious symptoms hence the continuation of her Psychosis that lead to the death of 5 children and the destruction of a family.
Similar Case:
Another mother that experienced Psychosis and had issues with her family was Mrs. A. Onl two days after giving birth she felt that her husband was poisoning her food and that her older baby was staring at her constantly. These were textbook paranoid symptoms of Psychosis. She slept only 2-3 hours a day and eventually didn't take a shower for 6 days. She required a lot of help at simple tasks like putting a diaper on her baby etc. And eventually told her husband that she was hearing voices. After so many symptoms the husband finally reported it.
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Post-Partum Psychosis is most likely to come to people who have a family history of previous encounters with Post Partum Psychosis or other similar illnesses, and significantly including Bipolar Disorder. It is caused by extreme hormonal shifts due to the birthing process. Post-Partum Psychosis, unfortunately, has been suggested to lead to about 4-5% suicide rate among people who come down with the illness. Beyond this statistic, however, comes the relief that this terrible illness most of the time does not motivate people to do harm to themselves or others. The Post Partum Support international reports that it is very important for women who have delusional symptoms and rash judgment should be diagnosed and treated as soon as possible. Something that Andrea Yates did not receive. Because of the way that she was quickly treated and released she was not able to get over these serious symptoms hence the continuation of her Psychosis that lead to the death of 5 children and the destruction of a family.
Similar Case:
Another mother that experienced Psychosis and had issues with her family was Mrs. A. Onl two days after giving birth she felt that her husband was poisoning her food and that her older baby was staring at her constantly. These were textbook paranoid symptoms of Psychosis. She slept only 2-3 hours a day and eventually didn't take a shower for 6 days. She required a lot of help at simple tasks like putting a diaper on her baby etc. And eventually told her husband that she was hearing voices. After so many symptoms the husband finally reported it.
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This is a very interesting but sad topic that I think is really important to raise awareness about. Andrea Yates was clearly an extreme case due to the lack of help she received for her post Partum psychosis which lead to it escalating and ending in the unfortunate death of her children. However, I do not believe she is to blame for this because I think that it was Rusty's responsibility to ensure that she got the help she needed and he should've made the decision to not have another child after the doctor said having another one would make it come back even worse.
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