Postnatal depression: I went downhill very fast

Joanna Friend was given tranquillisers and antidepressants, and spent a week on a psychiatric unit when she relapsed

Joanna Friend, from Woodbury, near Exeter, Devon, first experienced depression and anxiety five days after the birth of her first son: I started feeling an intense anxiety, and I went downhill very fast I was lying on the floor crying and asking for people to help me. It got so bad a friend said I needed to call the mental health crisis team.

With no specialist care available Friend, now 36, was given tranquillisers and antidepressants, which required her to stop breastfeeding. After six months she was able to go off medication, only to relapse 18 months later, when she became pregnant with her younger son.

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from Pregnancy | The Guardian http://ift.tt/1qWDWkE