as posted on my Facebook profile on Friday, August 21, 2026

There is a court case right now that involves postpartum psychosis.

Let’s talk about that— not about the case, because I know nothing about that person’s situation. Let’s talk about postpartum psychosis.

Because, that is indeed something I know something about.

Because, I gave birth to our middle child in May of 2008.

And due to my employer’s policies of the time, and due to the fact that I was out of work four weeks’ prior to my son’s birth due to preterm labor, I returned to work on my due date.

And as it happens, I was going to lose my job if I did not return to work on my due date.

And I loved my job; it was my dream job with my dream employer; and so, I, from my hospital bed, within hours of giving birth on my child’s birth date, emailed my boss to let her know that I would like to attempt to return to work in precisely four weeks. I told her I thought I would be in good shape to do that.

As it turns out: four weeks to the day from that date, I did actually indeed return to work.

On my child’s due date. My first day back at work, the day my child turned four weeks old, was his due date.

He wasn’t even old enough to go into daycare; my aunt and uncle kept him for the first two weeks I worked because he needed to be six weeks old to go to daycare.

And as it happens; I did have a history of bipolar disorder at the time; I’d had my first psychosis at age 17.

And as it happens now: I am on SSDI for bipolar disorder and PTSD; my case is one of the rare ones that had enough documentation that I qualified at first application without an attorney.

And I know absolutely nothing about what is going on with the particular legal case that is in the news. I know that it is a tragedy I refuse to speculate about.

But: I know something about dealing with severe mental illness in the wake of giving birth.

I know what it is to not have the kinds of support you really need to raise three children.

By the grace of God, I have a child turning 20 years old on Monday who is at the college of his choice, and that child whose due date occurred on the first day I returned to work is in his first weeks at the college of his choice; both of our children have tremendous scholarships. And our 12 year old will attend a cross country meet in the morning.

I am one of the lucky ones.

I am one of the lucky ones because of happenstance. Because a month after I returned to work, I resigned from said job because I knew I was unwell, and within 48 hours I was inpatient in a mental facility in metro Atlanta, delusional and having experienced the only hallucinations i have ever experienced in my lifetime.

I’d sought help, within two weeks of returning to work. It was clear I had postpartum depression; I was in overdrive and overwhelmed caring for a toddler and a newborn. My psychiatrist at the time was not great and was not that responsive.

And whether my allergy to lamictal or whether my own propensity toward psychosis kicked in is irrelevant; I experienced a break with reality that saw me 1013’d into a mental hospital for 72 hours.

And I’d like to say my story had a completely happy ending.

And in a lot of ways, it does: I am much more stable today; and my children are safe and relatively happy, and in many ways have beaten quite a lot of odds given that they were raised with one parent with severe mental illness.

But: I can’t say I’ve had the support I’ve needed throughout raising my chlidren. My husband has had to bear an unfair burden of parenting. I’ve retreated to isolation in a lot of situations. I have friends, but I have lost an awful lot more friends who I’ve made uncomfortable with my particular brand of mental health issues.

It’s not quite as simple as a lot of the commentary out there seems to indicate: That if you need or want help or someone to talk to, you should just reach out. That is a gross oversimplification that simply is sometimes impractical; sometimes ignored; sometimes unwelcome.

And I have to say: I read an awful lot of social media commentary in relation to the current events case.

What I can say is that the mental health system is indeed broken; good psychiatry care is hard to find; good therapists are harder to find.

I found a regimen and care team that work for me: but I didn’t enter serious care until after that postpartum psychosis episode, and it took over a full decade to figure out which medications really work for me in a sustainable manner.

And I was lucky: because I have had very significant family social and financial help; I lucked into SSDI at first application; I have a spouse that has the temperament to deal with my issues; and I’ve had very good psychiatrists. And I went onto have a third baby whose birth didn’t induce a postpartum psychosis because I was under the watchful eye of a stellar psychiatrist.

But I can’t say that it is a completely happy ending because there has been tremendous cost to me socially, financially, professionally; and quite frankly, if I’d felt more supported in any one of those areas, I probably could have been a better parent in my childrens’ growing up years.

So I find it pretty uncomfortable for a lot of the social commentary going on in the Lindsay Clancy case. It is true that postpartum depression and psychosis requires much more support than is typically given or available.

But in my experience, society is not prepared to provide that support in any way, shape, or form to mothers with mental health needs. Not even close. Not judging by the interactions I still have, and severe isolation I still deal with, every day of my life, as a woman who has with my husband raised two children to adulthood with one still at home.

And the armchair detectives and commentators out there on this case make me very, very, very uncomfortable. It strikes me as making entertainment of a family’s real-life tragedy, and a sort of mockery of those of us who have indeed dealt with real life post-partum psychosis.

But what I do know is it shouldn’t take enormous tragedy to call attention to the enormous mental health needs of all mothers.

But that requires conversations and support that we as a society are not prepared to have.