What you say...

I never know what to say to people when they ask how things here are going, or how my bro is doing. I usually give some generic response like ohh we're taking it day by day, we're hanging in there, etc. The truth is I think everyday is a struggle still. Yesterday marked two months and it still feels like a bad dream at times. We know the reality and believe me we face it everyday but it still is hard to wrap my head around. And I know if it's hard for us to understand, it must be really hard for people who weren't around her to get.

What I mean by that is we saw my sil in the depths of this terrible illness, we saw the start of PPD set in slowly at first, until in a matter of two weeks she reached such a level of loss of reality, despair, and emotional hurt that in her poor suffering mind this was her only way out. This is not to say we sat idly by and did nothing because we were in this battle right beside her trying to ease the pain the best we knew how. What I am saying is we witnessed how damaging this illness can be, how it changed a bright, sweet, wonderful person who was beginning her journey on becoming a wonderful mother into a shell, someone who knew something was wrong and wanted to get better but didn't see a way how.

How do you convey that to people, is there an easy way to explain it? I think it definitely makes people uncomfortable to talk about or think about. This is an illness that affects women each and everyday and yet it's pretty taboo. It's not openly discussed, it's not really given the attention it deserves and it should be. The fact of the matter is this can happen to any female after giving birth and that scares people. But it shouldn't. PPD is treatable and it is one of those things that the more you educate yourself, the better prepared you are if this affects you or someone you care about. There are few things in life I feel truly passionate about but the fact that this has happened to my family and that it has the capability to affect other women in my life I care about or even myself, has me wanting to make sure I do all I can to help bring this to the forefront despite saying something that may make people uncomfortable.