My guest in this episode of Beyond Postpartum is Georgie. Georgie first came to PPPSS as a volunteer, over 23 years ago, and has been an integral part of PPPSS since! In this interview she shares her journey with postpartum anxiety and depression, and how a single conversation was the turning point for her healing. Georgie also shares about the importance of self-compassion, and how meaningful it has been in her life, and how things were different (and what was similar!) for her when her own children had children and she became a grandmother.
In this episode we talk about:
- What brought Georgie to PPPSS as a volunteer – 23 years ago!
- Experiencing perinatal anxiety during pregnancy and postpartum with her 3rd baby
- The shame she experienced when she was struggling to bond with her 3rd baby
- How her postpartum anxiety and depression affected her whole life
- Isolating herself when she was struggling – and not wanting to be seen
- Going back to work at 9 months postpartum, when she was still struggling
- The interplay between thoughts, feelings, behaviours, and physical sensations
- The harsh criticisms she was putting on herself
- The moment where everything shifted
- The power of being really seen
- Self-compassion – and learning how to be self-compassionate
- Incremental shifts towards getting better
- Breaking down the isolation she had built
- How all counselling isn’t created equally
- The healing that happened when she started to volunteer at PPPSS
- Still working on consciously being seen as an important piece of her wellness
- The spiraling path of healing
- Becoming a grandparent, and the similarities, and differences, to her parenting and postpartum experience
- Staying in the present moment
- The gift of showing others that they aren’t alone
- The intensity that social media brings to early parenthood
- How we can become intensely depleted as new parents – physically, emotionally, spiritually…
- Being able to speak our truths without the fear of being judged
- Intrusive thoughts – who gets them, what helps
- What it has been like to support her children when they had children of their own
Resources
- Self-compassion.org
- The space between self-esteem and self-compassion (TEDx talk by Kristin Neff)
