Is postpartum depression a form of TMS?

This idea occurred to me that maybe my chronic pain since having my daughter 12 years ago is actually a form of postpartum depression that manifested in physical aches and pains. I never felt sad or depressed, but I was very worried and nervous (but not like the severe symptoms described for postpartum anxiety). I had a lot of the other things that put a woman at risk for postpartum depression though – a traumatic pregnancy and premature birth, lack of connection in the beginning with the baby, lack of support at home and feeling like I was a failure for not being able to breast-feed.

I’ve read some articles online, and it seems that the cause of postpartum depression is unknown – but it’s often treated with antidepressants, hormones or psychotherapy. Anyone here connect postpartum depression to their symptoms, and is some sort of medication or hormones necessary to recover from it?

 

Hi Pemberley, No direct experience with this, but I want to encourage you in this line of inquiry. Many TMS symptoms go back to bearing children. It is a big deal physically and emotionally. Making sense of your symptoms, like seeing that they are a "substitute for depression" is a great thing.

 

Hi Pemberley, In Steve Oz.'s book "The Great Pain Deception", he notes that both pregnancy and having a new baby can be very TMS-inducing.

 

Hi! Yes Yes and Yes!
I am 6 mths postpartum with first bub and I had an uptake of symptoms at the 6week mark I found myself also moving house with a newborn, we had also only just been married the year before.
I strongly believe my TMS manifestation was bought on by emotional overload. A crossroads of a bucket load of repressed stuff around motherhood, being a wife and how I was bought up!
I have also identified that it wasn't acceptable to my subconscious to become depressed..or 'catch the depression' as some older female relatives would say ...to deal with the mass of physical emotional and chemical changes I was experiencing... Hence physical pain.

As I recover I am looking more into post partum chronic pain and curious to hear others stories, because it is certainly something left unspoken much of the time

Wellness to you!

 

Thank you, Allissa! It is so encouraging to hear this -- although, I am so sorry to hear about what you're going through. But it's really awesome that you know about TMS at this time. I really wish I had heard of it back then, but it took me many years to come across Dr. Sarno. Two things in particular really speak to me: "a bucket load of repressed stuff around motherhood" (yup -- here too) and "wasn't acceptable to my subconscious to become depressed" (this is something I've been pondering a lot this week). For many years, I've often said to my husband that it feels like my back is crying, but I never thought of it as depression.

Please keep us updated if you find any interesting connections/stories on postpartum chronic pain -- and wishing you wellness too!

 

Looking back at my experience having my first child, I believe TMS was a big component (although I had never heard of TMS at the time). At the time I had post-partum rage, which I could tell, and had read about. I was so angry. Another huge component of it for me though was sleep deprivation. We endured severe sleep deprivation, and when my daughter finally started sleeping through the night around ten months and I finally got back into a regular sleep schedule myself, I felt soooo much better. I always refused medication because I knew deep down that it was from the extreme lifestyle change of caring for a frustrating baby combined with extreme sleep deprivation. Once those stresses decreased my mood improved.

 

Thanks, grapefruit! That's so great that you were able to recognize that back then and know deeply that it would go away once you were able to get back to regular sleep.