Author Archives: Molly Carter

Dad’s Depression has an Impact on Baby

When we discuss postpartum depression, we automatically think of moms suffering from this illness. But a recent study showed that many dads may experience depression after a new baby is born. And this study also revealed that dad’s depression can have major ramification of your children. There appears to be a direct correlation between dad’s depression and spanking. The study showed that 40 percent of depressed dads have spanked their one year old child, compared to only 13 percent of dads that are not suffering. These results are alarming, as children this young most likely will not make the connection … Continue reading →

Natural Disaster and the Impact on Mental Health

With the recent events in Japan, between the earthquake and then the devastation on the tsunami, and now the risk of a nuclear meltdown, it will be interesting to see the impact of these events on the mental health of the Japanese nation. Right now, I imagine most are running on survival mode, adrenaline levels are high, panic is setting in, reality is finding enough food and water to survive. The impact on mental health will be more long term, setting in once the initial chaos is over. It will probably be years before the whole impact on mental health … Continue reading →

Changes at Home

There are some big changes coming up in my life. And I fear these changes are going to have a huge impact on my stress. In a bad way. My husband has just graduated from his CDL School (Yea!), but that means major changes in our home life. He took a job with a company based out of Iowa (we live in Pennsylvania) and he will have to go out there for two weeks. Once he’s done with that, he’ll be in a truck training for another five weeks, during which he may or may not have the opportunity to … Continue reading →

Bonding Moment with a New Baby

I hate to say this, but I was not excited about my second pregnancy. My first baby was only seven months old when I took the pregnancy test, and I was not prepared for another baby at home. I mentally ignored the fact that I was pregnant as my belly grew. It was a completely different experience than my first pregnancy, which my husband and I had planned for five or six months. My water broke at six am, and we headed to the hospital. I remember I was reading Eat, Pray, Love through the beginning of the labor. The … Continue reading →

I’m Fat But I Don’t See It

I’m fat. There’s no doubt about it and there’s no beating around the bush. My friends and co-workers will always jump to my defense, claiming it’s baby weight. But really, I’m fat. I’m 190 pounds and when I met my husband nine years ago, I was 135 (poor man). Is it a lot of baby weight? More like weight from babies, three of them to be exact. But it’s weird. In my head, I know I’m fat. I see the numbers on the scale. I know how hard it is to get my pants buttoned. But when I look in … Continue reading →

When My Best Friend Lost Her Baby

When I found out I was pregnant last spring, my best friend, Jessie, was one of the first people to find out. A few weeks later, she called me with some news of her own; she, too, was pregnant. She was a week and a day behind me. We were so excited; we were going to have babies together! But Jessie was in a completely different situation than I was. She had a Mirena IUD in place, which had been there for almost five years. She had some tough decisions to make. She decided right away that she wanted to … Continue reading →

When Someone You Love Won’t Face Their Depression

I have found myself in a difficult situation. I have come to believe that my husband, whom I love dearly, is suffering from depression. He is expressing a lot of common symptoms. He has lost interest in doing things, to the extent that he will sit in front of the TV all day. He doesn’t have any desire to play with our children. He’s moody and sarcastic. He rarely has anything positive to say. He’s irritable. He has little to no patience. He will sneak away any chance he has and nap. He has no desire for sex. Adding to … Continue reading →

The Difference Between Moodiness and Bipolar Disorder

I was talking to a co-worker the other day and we were discussing a teenage client who has extreme mood swings. One minute he’s happy go lucky, joking and laughing, the next he’s angry at the world and wants to hurt someone. “I’m guessing he’s Bipolar ,” my peer said. I just rolled my eyes. Often people will say things like this when dealing with moody people. After all, most know that people who suffer from Bipolar Disorder have extreme ups and extreme downs. The misconception that most people have is that these ups and downs happen quickly, like mood … Continue reading →

The Challenge of Change with Conduct Disorder

I work at a juvenile placement facility for adolescent boys. Today, while we were walking to school, one young man decided to turn around and punch the kid behind him in the face. Pretty much just because he was angry. As I was filling out the incidence report, I noticed that the teen had been diagnosed with Conduct Disorder. It made me laugh. Currently at my facility, we have over 250 residents, all teenage boys between the ages of fourteen and twenty. If you look closely, I would guarantee that all but ten have been diagnosed with Conduct Disorder. What … Continue reading →

Multiple Personalities-Why the Obsession?

The other night, I was watching the TV drama Private Practice. The show displayed a therapy patient that, at first glance, appeared to have Multiple Personality Disorder. If anyone knows anything about mental illnesses, they know that this illness is so rare, most professionals in the field will never come across a patient that actually suffers from it. Many argue that it doesn’t actually exist. But we see it depicted in movies and on television all the time. The technical name for what most people would call Multiple Personality Disorder is Dissociative Identity Disorder and it results from an extreme … Continue reading →