Can You Get Postpartum Depression After the First Year?
Over the past few months, I have gotten a lot of calls from moms who have “older” kiddos, who have already had their first birthday. A lot of these moms currently have toddlers, sometimes a 3 or 4 year old. The script goes like this, “I think I might have had postpartum depression after I had my son/daughter, but now that my little one is older, I know it isn’t postpartum depression. Are you the right therapist for me? Can I still see you even though my child is older than one?”
This is good. This is rich information! Here’s the key, underlying question these moms have: Can you have postpartum depression (or to be clinically correct, a perinatal mood and anxiety disorder) after your little one is older, past the first birthday? Let’s talk about this below.
Background of Postpartum Depression Therapy & Diagnosis
To start, it might be helpful to give some background. Postpartum depression, postpartum anxiety, postpartum OCD, are not the “clinically correct” terms. The DSM-5 does not have a “postpartum depression” diagnosis, nor a “postpartum anxiety” diagnosis. However we DO have anxiety, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, with peripartum onset diagnoses. This means you can be diagnosed with “postpartum depression” or “postpartum anxiety” BEFORE even having your baby. Oftentimes, symptoms begin during pregnancy and are heightened as time goes on/after delivery. When we refer to postpartum depression or anxiety, we are referring to clinical depression/anxiety in which symptoms first presented during pregnancy or postpartum.
I of course cannot make a blanket statement about every mom who calls me, and every situation is different. But, generally speaking, a lot of these moms are struggling with a form of maternal stress that dates back to their pregnancy, labor and delivery experience, or postpartum time frame.
While these mothers might no longer meet the diagnostic criteria for a mood disorder with peripartum onset, they often have what I like to call “extended postpartum distress” that was never efficiently supported when symptoms first arose during the pregnancy & postpartum time frame. She might have found ways to cope with some of her symptoms, but she likely feels like she never fully healed from her postpartum depression or postpartum anxiety. These lingering symptoms have stuck around, to some degree or another, like an annoying scratchy throat for the past few years. However, as most things do in time, these symptoms have adapted, and now they might be manifesting in completely new and distressing ways in her life.
This is when they reach out for help, unsure of where to turn, since they technically are not in the time frame of “postpartum” anymore. Clinically speaking, because these symptoms have stuck around for so long, she might have a different clinical diagnosis at this point, however we can often date it back to the perinatal time frame.
Hear me in this: you are not alone! Let’s go back to our stats – 1 in 5 women will have a perinatal mood and anxiety disorder. Let’s take this a step further…3 out of 4 moms who screen at risk for postpartum depression receive NO treatment. Studies show us the cost of not treating maternal mental health conditions is $32,000 per mother-infant pair. This is $14.2 billion nationally.
Looking at our statistics, it makes perfect sense. Of course I am getting moms of “older” kids calling me for “extended” postpartum depression counseling related concerns. If this is you, if you feel like you have those lingering symptoms that never fully resolved from your perinatal mood or anxiety disorder, please feel comfortable and confident in reaching out and putting yourself and your mental health first. We will work collaboratively to define and use concrete tools and evidence to meet your therapy goals.
A wonderful quote to accompany this blog post: “It’s never too late to be what you might have been.” – George Eliot
Data in this blog post was received from https://www.mmhla.org/.
