Depression and Hormones
Postpartum Depression therapy is vital to helping women get back on their feet and find new hope with their growing family. Depression is a mental illness that tends to run in families and women with a family history of depression are more likely to have it. Postpartum depression seems especially cruel in that is strikes women at an incredibly vulnerable time when their instincts and society’s pressure tells them they should be happiest.
Depression and Hormones
Depression is believed to be caused by changes in brain chemistry or structure and is often attached to stressful life events. These life events can be the death of a loved one, caring for an aging family member, abuse, and poverty. While most attribute depression to difficult times in life, the truth is that the happiest of times, giving birth, can also trigger depression.
Hormonal factors play a unique and highly causative effect in our bodies. Hormones directly affect the brain chemistry that controls emotions and mood and during particular times of hormonal changes, these chemical affects can go haywire, with difficult consequences. Women are at greater risk of depression at certain times in their lives when hormones are dramatically changing.
Depression after childbirth is called postpartum depression. Especially dramatic and often traumatic, hormonal changes after giving birth are thought to trigger postpartum depression. During pregnancy, levels of the female hormones estrogen and progesterone increase greatly, however theses hormones return to normal levels within the first 24 hours after childbirth. This fast and drastic change can trigger postpartum depression.
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