What Postpartum Anxiety Feels Like to Me

Postpartum anxiety might be invisible to you—but it’s very real to me

The thing about postpartum anxiety that makes it so misunderstood is that it’s invisible to you—but it’s very real to us.

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One mom is sharing her experience with postpartum anxiety. Her Instagram post is resonating with other moms for capturing the way postpartum anxiety can take over your life, even if others can’t see it. She writes:

You can’t see it. It’s invisible to the naked eye. We don’t wear it on our T-shirt next to the “mama” symbol. We don’t tell people because we don’t want to explain something that we don’t even understand ourselves.

But it’s there. All the time. When we’re cooking dinner while simultaneously singing nursery rhymes to the baby. When we’re packing lunches, putting the kids to bed, playing hide and seek and doing arts and crafts. It’s always there.

It’s silent to the world around us, but it’s loud and clear in our heads.

But we suppress it because it’s part of our survival instinct.

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It’s silent to the world around us, but it’s loud and clear in our heads. We know our thoughts are irrational, but they’re there and we can’t seem to stop them. We smile and pretend like we’re okay because how could you ever explain to someone that last night you were absolutely certain that your child was taken from you—when in fact they’re safely in your arms.

The thing about postpartum anxiety that makes it so misunderstood is that it’s invisible to you—but it’s very real to us.