Leah's husband called the mental crises helpline to help find resources before his military deployment.

Transcript

My husband is deployed again, we have the upcoming deployment. So I was just kind of stressed about that. I definitely had a lot, I would say, anger and rage particularly towards my husband. And yeah, I kind of brushed it, you know, brushed aside “I don’t have time to go, to seek help”. So when I was really, really sad around the Christmas period. We, my husband was actually so worried that he actually called, there is a mental health crises helpline for Nova Scotia. I talked to them for a few minutes but it was really a waste of time. Like if you weren’t considering suicide or actually hurting your baby, there was not much they could do for you. I was sort of hoping that they could refer me to a postpartum mental health specialist or counsellor at some time. But they didn’t have the ability to do that.

We did bring it up with our family doctor in one of the baby wellness visits. Maybe around two months. And she just kind of kept attributing it to postpartum blues, hormones, not sleeping. And I also felt that she did not take it seriously with my first baby when I came when I kind off brought up depression. I just didn’t even feel comfortable even bringing it up because I was just like “oh it is probably just a waste of time”. And yeah then, there, so there is a postpartum mental health clinic at the children’s hospital here, the IWK. So when I was probably, like I was just, the depression was not going away. My husband was getting really worried as he was getting ready to deploy. And I was still really depressed and I had no idea how to take care of these two kids on my own. And, and I think, like I think you, after 8 months or 9 months, after the baby is 8-9 months you are no longer able to go to this clinic.

So my husband wanted me to call the family doctor and get referred. And I sort of, I. So yeah, we did make an appointment to go to the family doctor. But getting into that clinic, the wait list is miles long. I was, I was really not, I did not think I had any chance to getting in because the baby was like nine months. But the doctor did, that is when she put me on the Setraline. So yeah we started at I think 25 mg and I didn’t really notice a difference with that so she upped the dose to 50. And that was life changing I would say. It, it made the hugest difference, I wish we had started that months before [laughter]. It almost took, I mean I still, you know, have my moments, especially being kind of a single mum for the last few months. But it, it just made, everything did not seem so overwhelming. It just I felt I actually could get through the day whereas I did not feel like that at all since my second son was born. Yeah so for me the medication made a huge difference, I have been on it I don’t know I guess 3 months now or so. Maybe 4 or 5 months but anyway. But yeah I, I, I recommend it to anyone. It is something I was hesitant to do to get on this you know kind of medication. I was scared it would change my personality or, but you know, or have some side effects. But, it was life changing, it was probably the most life changing thing that has ever happened for my depression.

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