Postpartum Progress

PBS To Air "Depression: Out of the Shadows" on May 21

From the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI):

The national premiere of the PBS documentary, "DEPRESSION: Out of the Shadows", on Wednesday, May 21 at 9pm ET.  (Check local PBS station listings.)  The documentary weaves the science and treatment of depression with intimate portrayals of families and individuals living with its effects.  Personal stories include a woman from Minneapolis who experienced postpartum depression.

After the documentary, Jane Pauley will host "TAKE ONE STEP: Caring for Depression," a moderated panel discussion featuring NAMI medical director Ken Duckworth, Dennis Charney, MD, dean of Mt. Sinai Medical School, and Annelle Primm, MD, MPH, director of minority and national affairs for the American Psychiatric Association. 

It's Time To Stand Up For Ourselves With CBS Radio & WFAN

Radio station WFAN in New York, which is owned by CBS, has decided to replace Don Imus, the "shock jock" who was fired for making racist comments about black female basketball players at Rutgers, with Craig Carton.  This is the same Carton who made fun of Mary Jo Codey's mental illness on air, suggesting, as recounted in an article in USA Today, that "women who suffer from postpartum depression should relax by smoking marijuana 'instead of putting their babies in the microwave.'"  Lovely.

When firing Imus, CBS issued a statement from CEO Leslie Moonves saying, in part: "We are now presented with a significant opportunity to expand on our record on issues of diversity, race and gender. We intend to seize that opportunity as we move forward together.”

Wow.  I can't say I'm impressed with that record.  In fact, I think you are obviously FULL OF CRAP.  Apparently CBS thinks it is not okay to make fun of the athletes at Rutgers, but it is okay to outrageously denigrate new mothers with mental illness who are black or white or any other color for that matter.  Not to mention Carton's record of racist and inflammatory comments made about people from Latin America and Asia ... Talk about saying one thing and then doing another.  WFAN and CBS obviously pretended to be concerned by firing Imus, but the fact that they truly couldn't care less is reflected by their actions in hiring Carton.

What really kills me about all of this is that CBS Cares has done such great work on postpartum depression.  Do they really think that makes up for the fact that they've hired a major on-air personality who just makes the stigma we all face even worse?

Thankfully, the New York Times agrees that WFAN has made the wrong choice.  Click here for their opinion.  Now we need your opinion voiced as well.

Ladies, reach out to WFAN and let them know what you think.  Even better, have your husbands join you in your outrage.  You can jointly send a letter to Eric Spitz, Programming Director, at:

WFAN-AM
34-12 36th Street
Astoria, NY 11106

You can also let CBS Radio know how much this sucks.  Direct your comments to Chris Oliviero, the VP of Programming, at: 

CBS RADIO
1515 Broadway
New York, NY 10036
212-846-3939

Or perhaps it would be more interesting to reach CBS through the CBS Radio PR folks ... 

Karen L. Mateo
Vice President, Communications
( 212) 846 7638

Dana McClintock
Senior Vice President,
CBS Communications Group
(212) 975 1077

We need to speak up for ourselves and not let this hypocrisy go unnoticed.

Feisty PPD Segment on This Morning's FOX

I planned to tell you that a PPD segment was going to air this Friday on FOX so you could be ready to watch, but unfortunately it got moved up to this morning, so I missed it and you may have too.  Anyway, it appeared on the nationally syndicated "Morning Show with Mike and Juliet."

The interview featured Melissa Noga, a mom who experienced postpartum anxiety, Dr. Meg Spinelli, Peter Breggin and PSI President Susan Stone.  You can, and SHOULD, watch the whole thing here.  Melissa was great, Dr. Stone was great, Dr. Spinelli was great, and Peter Breggin was a real ass.  He made the whole thing an argument about the "needless use of medication" and said that there was no evidence that antidepressants were related to hormones. 

I'M EVIDENCE, SIR. 

I and thousands of other women like me are evidence that, when in postpartum crisis, antidepressants can save lives and restore families.  May I point out that no one in the PPD arena has ever said that:

1.  Every woman who suffers a postpartum mood disorder should take medication; or

2.  Every woman who takes medication should remain on it forever.

I don't know where these people come up with this stuff.  Most PPMD advocates, myself included, support whatever works, be it exercise, supplements, medication, therapy or a combination of all of the above.  What they do say is that women need to get themselves out of the crisis, and if it's meds that do that, then fine.  I used meds, and yes it took me several to find the one that worked for me, but once it did it was GREAT.  I'm proud of the choices I made.  I wouldn't change them for a second.  How dare he or anyone else question me, and try to make me feel ashamed of my choice.

Ladies, please listen to people like Meg Spinelli and Susan Stone and Shoshanna Bennett and others who have specifically treated hundreds and hundreds of women with postpartum mood disorders and know the latest information in the field, rather than old men like Peter Breggin, who has been in practice for many decades and seems not to have advanced his understanding of these disorders since the 1950s.

Thank You CBS for Caring!!!!

Congratulations to Postpartum Support International for a great new partnership helping to get the word out about postpartum depression.  PSI is working with CBS Cares to launch a public service announcement and an online education campaign.  The PSAs will debut during an episode of the CBS show "Cold Case" on Sunday, October 15 (9pm EST) and will feature show actors Kathryn Morris and Danny Pino.  The PSAs will include warnings about the severity of postpartum depression, including the negative emotional and physical effects on the mother, infant and family if the mother is not treated. To help with early detection, the PSAs will highlight symptoms such as tearfulness, mood swings and difficulty connecting with one's baby. Each PSA will remind new mothers and family members that no one is to blame and that this is an easily treatable medical disease.

The CBS Cares Website (www.cbs.com/cbs_cares/.com) will provide additional information such as interviews with field experts discussing the symptoms of perinatal illness and treatment options. The CBS Cares site will link to the PSI website, which lists local resources available and includes a helpline number -- 1-800-944-4773. Additionally, for the first time, CBS Cares will make available a Spanish-language version of the PSAs featuring Danny Pino to any broadcaster or cable operator wishing to run them, and will do so without the CBS Cares logo, allowing entities to brand them as their own. The CBS Cares website will include the English and Spanish-language versions.

On November 17, PSI is honoring both CBS Cares and COLD CASE for their commitment to this illness with PSI's Excellence in Media Outreach Award. Further information on this gala event is available on PSI's website.

This postpartum initiative builds on CBS Cares' commitment toward highlighting underserved health issues, including a campaign on depression that was hailed as network televisions "most expansive" campaign on the disease.

Kudos to CBS.  I may have to spend more of my television viewing time with that network from now on!!

Local Air Dates for "Shadow Voices"

If you'd like information about when the documentary about mental illness called "Shadow Voices" will air in your area, click this link.  In most places, you'll be able to see it on either December 4th or 11th.  Unfortunately for me they will not be airing it in Atlanta.  Thanks a lot WSB-TV for not caring enough to share this with your viewing audience.

If your local ABC television station is not listed, do what I did and contact its station manager or programming director using the ABC network website.  You can ask them whether they plan to air "Shadow Voices", and if not, why not.

Documentary on Mental Illness to Appear on ABC in September

On December 4, ABC will air a documentary called "Shadow Voices: Finding Hope in Mental Illness".  This is a documentary challenging society to rethink the stigma that continues to surround people with mental illness.  The program enters into the daily lives of persons living with such illnesses, and experts in the field of mental health, clergy and others explore how the community can do a better job of helping to create a truly healing and hopeful environment.  (Thank you Helena for sending me this.)

Considering how important it is for all of us to eliminate the stigma of PPD, I think this will be a very interesting program to watch.  I'm not aware that it will cover PPD specifically, but it doesn't really matter.  All people coping with mental illnesses deserve better treatment from society.  I'm pleased that ABC is willing to cover this issue, because it needs a lot of attention.

Letter to Bill O'Reilly

I saw Bill O'Reilly's segment on postpartumdepression">postpartum depression last night.  I thought Dr. Lusskin held her own with Mr. O'Reilly, thank goodness.  Unless I'm misunderstanding him, he doesn't want to seem to admit that this is a real illness that many women suffer.  I get the sense he just thinks it's an excuse for irresponsible women who can't or don't want to take care of their children. His comment "these babies are getting knocked off like crazy" was over the top and quite silly.  I do, however, understand why he is concerned that people could misuse an insanity defense.  I worry about that as well, which is why we need better research into the causes of these illnesses.

Anyway, I thought I'd share with you the letter I sent to him in response to his segment:

Mr. O’Reilly:

I saw your segment last night on postpartum depression.  I can understand your concern over making sure that true criminals don’t misuse mental illness defenses.  I share that concern.  But let me assure you, this is as real an illness as any other.  I am 35 years old, and am the former Director of Experiential Marketing at The Coca-Cola Company.  I now run my own marketing consultancy.  I tell you this so you’ll know I am a bright, successful young woman.  Before the birth of my son, I had never been treated for or experienced any mental illness.  Upon his birth, I spiraled into a darkness so horrific I thought I’d never be the same again.  I couldn’t eat.  I couldn’t sleep.  I had uncontrollable thoughts of harming my son.  Sir, you have to understand that I am as competent as they come and a fairly accomplished young person.  My son is the light of my life, and a terrific kid.  I am no less of a mother than all the other great mothers in the world.  But the fact of the matter is this:  there is no way of knowing who will be hit by a mental illness or when it will strike or even exactly why.  I can’t explain to you why I thought of smothering my son with a burp cloth.  I had never had such disturbing thoughts in all my life.  I understand that, to a person who has never learned how little actual control they have over their brain, it is difficult to imagine having thoughts that you didn’t mean to generate.  It doesn’t seem possible, but it’s entirely possible, and happens to thousands of women – women who were expecting the birth of their child to be the most happy, most serene moment in their lives.  I felt like a defective human being who would be sent away forever never to see my loved ones again.  In fact, all I needed was a competent psychiatrist, some medication and some therapy.  I am now perfectly fine, as are the great majority of women who go through this and get the proper treatment.  Perhaps if all women were screened for postpartum mood disorder symptoms by their doctors at their six-week postpartum checkup, and if all psychiatrists and obstetricians were properly trained to recognize and treat these illnesses, we could begin to prevent the horrible tragedies that occur when new mothers take their lives or the lives of their children.   If we had the money and attention needed for research on this issue, we wouldn’t be left to sit and wonder what went wrong, or whether the person truly suffered from a postpartum mood disorder, when a horrible crime occurs.  For some reason, Congress has sat on a bill for such research (the Melanie Blocker-Stokes Act) for years – how hard is it to realize that children deserve healthy mothers, and thus this bill should pass?  I find it frustrating that the media never gives voice to the importance of actually addressing this problem, but instead only to the terrible details of what continues to happen because leaders don’t care enough to do something about it. 

Never Say Never

Lots of TV shows did stories last week (was it last week?) when the news came out about Andrea Yates.  I happened to be at the gym when I saw NBC's "The Today Show" interviewing Dr. Valerie Raskin.  The interviewer asked her if women with "regular" PPD ever have thoughts of harming their children.  Raskin said "Never", implying that only women with PPP have such thoughts.  I was so upset I had to leave the gym.  Now I realize this was a quick interview, and Raskin may not have had the opportunity to explain herself, but what came out was just not accurate in my experience.  It is not true that only women with Postpartum Psychosis have thoughts of harming their children.  I didn't have PPP, and I had intrusive thoughts.  Now I'm worried that women who may have seen that story and may be having intrusive thoughts are going to think that they'll come to the same end as Andrea Yates.  What if, God forbid, a woman harms herself because she doesn't realize she may simply have Postpartum Obssessive-Compulsive Disorder, which can be treated fairly easily and doesn't cause you to have to be committed to a psychiatric institution?