Medications paired with support from a psychologist who taught her how to reframe thoughts was the best source of help for Genna.
Transcript
Interviewer: So you saw a psychologist. Was that helpful?
It was. I think I had a stigma around taking medication and I think a lot of people do around mental health. If we have heart disease, no one says, ‘I’m not going to take my heart medication,’ but there is for whatever reason a stigma around not taking medication. So for me that was the number one source of help. The psychologist helped as well, to kind of process my thoughts and reframe some of my thinking and help me not judge myself and work through some of the anxiety that I was having because after the depression I got into a phase of anxiety that lasted until November. So that would’ve been close to eight or nine months postpartum.
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- Seeking and Finding Reliable Information – GennaGenna suggests increasing education about mental health during perinatal classes to help reduce stigma.
- Gaps in Health Care System – GennaGenna used savings to pay for counselling supports.
- Communicating with Health Care Providers – GennaGenna feels her psychosis could have been identified sooner.
- Work, Finances and Mental Health – GennaGenna feels fortunate that her partner received compassionate care unemployment benefits to be home and support her.
- Support from Family and Friends – GennaA crises team came to Genna's house to assess the situation, and her family supported her when she was on a 24-hour watch.
- Managing Personal Challenges with Sleeping and Eating – GennaDuring her psychotic episode Genna developed a sort of algorithm to help her remember her daily tasks, as she often forgot to eat or sleep.
- Stigma and Feeling Judged – Genna (clip 2)All Genna could talk about was her depression and anxiety and she worried that her friends might judge her for it.
- Stigma and Feeling Judged – GennaGenna feels there is a kind of judgement that people struggling with mental health during and after pregnancy do not love their child.