Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren Bogelbaum here. For some time, researchers and mental health
Speaker 1: experts have known that postpartum depression is not something solely
Speaker 1: experienced by new mothers. New fathers too may experienced depression.
Speaker 1: We spoke with Brandon Eddie, an assistant professor in the
Speaker 1: Couple and Family Therapy program at the University of Nevada,
Speaker 1: Las Vegas. He learned a little about postpartum depression when
Speaker 1: his wife experienced it after the couple's first child, and
Speaker 1: has studied how postpartum depression affects men too. He wrote
Speaker 1: about it for a paper in the February twenty nineteen
Speaker 1: edition of the Journal of Family Issues. It's titled Forgotten
Speaker 1: Fathers Postpartum Depression in Men. Already, Eddie's hearing from many
Speaker 1: who applaud his efforts to force this illness more into
Speaker 1: the open. Eddie said, I had a former co worker
Speaker 1: who read it and sent me a message. He said,
Speaker 1: I really appreciated your study. I could really relate with it,
Speaker 1: he said. Everyone asks how's your wife, how's the baby,
Speaker 1: and it ends there. I desperately want someone to ask,
Speaker 1: how are you doing. Many parents of new babies go
Speaker 1: through the baby blues. Mood swings, anxiety, trouble sleeping, and
Speaker 1: general sadness are all symptoms, but when those moods become
Speaker 1: more intense and last longer, when overpowering fatigue sets in,
Speaker 1: when a parent has problems bonding with a newborn, or
Speaker 1: has thoughts of suicide or of harming the baby, those
Speaker 1: are all signs the postpartum depression has set in. Postpartum
Speaker 1: depression can be especially difficult for men. Because of a
Speaker 1: widely held belief that it's a woman only illness. Much
Speaker 1: of the available information on postpartum depression is still aimed
Speaker 1: exclusively toward women. Even the National Institute for Mental Health
Speaker 1: defines the condition as quote a mood disorder that can
Speaker 1: affect women after childbirth. Yet a twenty ten studies shows
Speaker 1: that somewhere around ten percent of dads and in the
Speaker 1: three to six month period after birth experienced postpartum depression.
Speaker 1: Eddie's research sites another study that says that between twenty
Speaker 1: four and fifty percent of men whose partners have postpartum
Speaker 1: depression also experience it, and of course, as with any
Speaker 1: serious depression, it can impact all aspects of men's lives,
Speaker 1: their work, friendships, and relationship with their partner and children.
Speaker 1: With the stigma that surrounds paternal postpartum depression, the idea
Speaker 1: that it's for women only. Men don't get it. You
Speaker 1: didn't carry a baby for nine months. Just suck it
Speaker 1: up and be strong. Finding men willing to talk openly
Speaker 1: about their depression was not going to be easy, so
Speaker 1: Eddie and his fellow researchers went to a source where
Speaker 1: anonymity rules and fathers felt free to speak their mind,
Speaker 1: the Internet. After conducting searches for phrases like depression and
Speaker 1: new fathers, Eddie and his co authors scoured chatboards, blogs,
Speaker 1: and other forums like Reddit to pull information from twenty
Speaker 1: seven new dads. Eddie said, no one knows who they are,
Speaker 1: so there's not the same sense of shame. It's not
Speaker 1: like all eyeballs are upon you. So sometimes that makes
Speaker 1: it a lot easier to share their experiences. These people
Speaker 1: were in a safe place where they were able to
Speaker 1: express themselves. Eddie's research uncovered six main themes from those
Speaker 1: online comments. First, father's need education. It became clear that
Speaker 1: although they may not have known what to call it,
Speaker 1: many of the commenters were living with paternal postpartum depression. Second,
Speaker 1: men experiencing postpartum depression were anxious about adhering to gender expectations.
Speaker 1: One commenter said, I wanted to cry and give up
Speaker 1: being a father, but I was afraid to acknowledge those
Speaker 1: thoughts and feelings in myself. It wasn't becoming of a
Speaker 1: man and father to feel those things. Third, the fathers
Speaker 1: were repressing their feelings. For example, one said she's with
Speaker 1: the kids all day every day, and I'm home to
Speaker 1: help for six hours and can't handle it. Fourth, the
Speaker 1: men felt overwhelmed. One said I have the feeling that
Speaker 1: I'm constantly on the edge of bursting into tears. Fifth,
Speaker 1: their own negative feelings led to some resentment of their babies.
Speaker 1: One said baby cries can unearth some darkness in me
Speaker 1: I've found. And six, the fathers themselves felt neglected. One
Speaker 1: said I blamed both my wife and my son for
Speaker 1: my feelings of loss and insignificance. My wife seemed to
Speaker 1: consider me selfish and irresponsible. These were the common threads,
Speaker 1: and although of course it sucks to have these feelings,
Speaker 1: they're completely valid. These feelings are real, recognized by scientists.
Speaker 1: And caused. Some experts believe at least impart by chemical
Speaker 1: changes in men's bodies. Postpartum depression and women has been
Speaker 1: tied to a dip in the hormone estrogen. But women
Speaker 1: aren't alone in dealing with falling hormone levels. Men experience
Speaker 1: a drop in testosterone from early to late pregnancy, and
Speaker 1: that's been linked to depression too. Most importantly, fathers need
Speaker 1: to know that help is available. A talk with a
Speaker 1: help practitioner maybe the first step towards shaking postpartum depression.
Speaker 1: If seeing a psychologist is intimidating, a family doctor can
Speaker 1: help you reach a diagnosis, prescribe medications that may help,
Speaker 1: and put you in touch with a mental health practitioner
Speaker 1: that you'd be comfortable with. Eddie said, the sooner you
Speaker 1: get help, the better. If you put this off, you're
Speaker 1: going to have more distance grow between you and your partner,
Speaker 1: You're going to isolate yourself, and you're going to put
Speaker 1: yourself in a bad situation. So seeking out help as
Speaker 1: soon as you recognize something is off is really the
Speaker 1: way to go and the way to limit how much
Speaker 1: it impacts you and your family. Today's episode was written
Speaker 1: by John Donovan and produced by Tyler Clain. Brain Stuff
Speaker 1: is a production of I Heartmedia's How Stuff Works. For
Speaker 1: more on this and lots of other mental health topics,
Speaker 1: visit our home planet, how stuff Works dot com. And
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