Postpartum Depression

After giving birth, mothers can experience a wide range of powerful emotions including, excitement, fear, joy, happiness, and anxiety. Unexpectedly, mothers can also begin to feel depressed too. Most new moms are familiar with the term “baby blues” after childbirth. The “baby blues” include, mood swings, crying spells, trouble sleeping, and feelings of anxiety. These can last up to two weeks postpartum. Some new moms will experience a more severe, long-lasting form of depression also known as postpartum depression.

Symptoms Of Postpartum Depression

• Depressed mood or severe mood swings
• Excessive crying
• Difficulty bonding with your newborn
• Withdraw from family and friends
• Insomnia & sleep troubles
• Loss of appetite or increased appetite
• Fatigue or no energy
• Irritability
• Hopelessness
• Feelings of worthlessness, guilt, or shame
• Thoughts of harming yourself or your baby
• Difficulty concentrating
• Reduced interest in activities you used to enjoy
• Anxiety and panic attacks
• Restlessness
• Recurrent thoughts of suicide or death

There are many factors that play into postpartum depression but no single cause. Physical and emotional issues may play a role in the onset of postpartum depression. After a mother gives birth changes in hormone levels in your body may lead to feelings of depression and leave you feeling fatigued. Sleep deprivation, feeling overwhelmed, feelings of unattractiveness, struggling with identity, and doubt may contribute to postpartum depression.

How Therapy Can Help 

Treatment options can look different for everyone depending on severity, individual needs, or other underlying factors such as hormone levels or illness. As always, it is important to consult with your physician who may then offer specific testing or a referral to a mental health professional.

Psychotherapy and treatment models such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) can help you:

• Find healthy way to cope with feelings
• Set goals
• Identify unhelping thinking
• Identify support systems
• Help adjust your lifestyle to support you and your newborn
• Help you build positive and healthy responses

Postpartum Anxiety

It is commons to have feelings of anxiety or some level of worry after giving birth. Sometimes these feelings of worry often get out of control and can feel like they are taking over your thoughts. Postpartum anxiety can also occur along with postpartum depression, but the conditions are different despite sharing many of the same symptoms.

Postpartum anxiety affects between 11% and 21% of individuals at birth.

Symptoms of Postpartum Anxiety

• Racing thoughts
• Trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, despite feeling exhausted
• Changes in heart rate/breathing
• Dread of a sense of danger
• Excessive worry about the baby’s health or safety
• Feeling jittery or agitated
• Nausea/dizziness
• Loss of appetite
• Trouble sitting still
• Muscle Tension
• Difficulty focusing or forgetfulness

A change in hormone levels, lack of sleep, new overwhelming sense of responsibility, stress, and sometimes health conditions can put you at a higher risk for developing postpartum anxiety.

How therapy can help

Similar to postpartum depression treatment, psychotherapy and techniques such as CBT can be helpful in reframing thoughts, building coping skills to deal with feelings of anxiety, and provide psychoeducation to help you learn about what you are currently experiencing.

It may feel like you are all alone, but you are not. Call or book an appointment with us for support alongside your new journey in motherhood and to help you overcome postpartum depression/anxiety.

Help is always one call or text away: 

SUICIDE HOTLINE: 1-800-784-2433, A nationwide 24 hours/ 7 days a week service. To find a local number, see: http://suicidehotlines.com

Anxiety

Anxiety – that familiar knot in your stomach, the racing thoughts, the persistent unease – can manifest in countless ways and significantly impact our daily lives. While a natural response to perceived threats, it becomes a concern when it overwhelms us, hindering our performance and disrupting our everyday routines. You might experience a constant sense of unease, either generally or tied to specific situations.

The physical sensations of anxiety can be unsettling: a pounding heart, shortness of breath, tremors, dizziness, chest tightness, nausea, muscle tension, and headaches. These physical symptoms often intertwine with worrying thoughts, difficulty sleeping and concentrating, and a dip in self-confidence.

Different Faces:

Anxiety isn't a one-size-fits-all experience. It's often categorized into three main types:

• Generalized Anxiety: This involves a persistent and excessive worry about various events or activities, often without a clear identifiable cause. Some describe it as "free-floating anxiety," where the anxious person feels constantly on edge, sometimes even becoming anxious about feeling anxious. Symptoms can include irritability, difficulty concentrating, persistent negative thinking, sleep disturbances, and physical manifestations like excessive thirst, stomach upset, frequent urination, muscle aches, and headaches.
• Health Anxiety: Health anxiety is a persistent fear that something is seriously wrong with your health—even when medical exams come back normal. It often involves constant body scanning, Googling symptoms, and seeking reassurance from doctors or loved ones. While these actions might bring short-term relief, they often intensify the anxiety over time. Therapy can help you learn how to break this cycle, tolerate uncertainty, and reconnect with your body in a more grounded, peaceful way.

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• Phobias: These involve intense and irrational fears of specific objects or situations, leading to significant avoidance behaviors. You can find more information about phobias at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).
• Panic Disorder: Characterized by sudden episodes of intense fear that peak quickly, often accompanied by physical symptoms like heart palpitations, sweating, and a feeling of losing control. 

The Vicious Cycle of Anxiety:

Stressful situations at work or home can easily spill over into other areas of life, triggering anxiety. Similarly, a frightening experience can lead to lingering fear, as seen in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The interplay between mental and physical anxiety symptoms can create a challenging cycle. A physical symptom might trigger anxious thoughts, which in turn intensify the physical sensations, leading to a feeling of being trapped. In panic attacks, this cycle escalates rapidly. Even the effort of trying to control it can be stressful, inadvertently fueling the problem.

Strategies for Managing Anxiety:

Understanding how it works – as a combination of physical and mental responses rooted in the "fight or flight" mechanism – is the first step towards regaining control. Here are some helpful strategies:

• Relaxation Techniques: While not an instant cure, consistent practice of relaxation exercises like guided imagery and progressive muscle relaxation can significantly reduce it over time.
• Regular Exercise: Low-impact aerobic exercise strengthens the heart, making it less prone to the pounding sensations associated with it. Exercise also helps release built-up tension.
• Dietary Awareness: Reducing or eliminating caffeine, found in many beverages, can help break a vicious cycle as it can mimic anxiety symptoms like increased heart rate and sleep disruption.
• Setting Boundaries ("Just Say NO!"): Overcommitting yourself can lead to a build-up of low-level anxiety about multiple tasks, which can be just as overwhelming as intense anxiety about one major issue. Learning to say no is a powerful form of self-care.

Anxiety Management Psychotherapy with Marina Edelman, LMFT

At the practice of Marina Edelman, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in Westlake Village, CA, we understand the complexities of anxiety and offer comprehensive and holistic care to help you find lasting relief. Psychotherapy can be instrumental in addressing the root causes, and equipping you with effective coping mechanisms.

• Explore Underlying Causes: Uncover the triggers and experiences that contribute to it, including stressors related to work, family, and past events.
• Examine Thought Patterns and Behaviors: Identify the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that may be exacerbating your stress levels.
• Gain Self-Understanding and Insight: Develop a deeper awareness of your personal stress triggers and patterns.
• Develop Tailor-Made Coping Strategies: Learn and practice techniques that are specifically suited to your needs and effective for long-term management.

Marina Edelman, LMFT, offers support for a range of anxiety-related issues, including:

• Panic Attacks
• Generalized Worry
• Social
• Nervousness
• Performance
• Shyness
• Sexual

Anxiety Counseling & Therapy for Relationships

Anxiety doesn't stay contained to the individual experiencing it — it moves through a relationship. It shows up as the need for constant reassurance that exhausts a partner. As the avoidance of difficult conversations that leaves important things permanently unspoken. As a hypervigilance to tone and meaning that turns ordinary interactions into something to be analyzed and feared. As the withdrawal that a partner experiences as coldness or indifference, without ever understanding its true source.

When anxiety is unaddressed in one or both partners, it quietly shapes the emotional climate of the relationship — creating cycles of pursuit and withdrawal, conflict that seems disproportionate to its trigger, and a chronic low-grade tension that neither person fully understands but both consistently feel.

In my practice, I work with individuals and couples where anxiety — whether diagnosed or simply present — is affecting the quality of connection, communication, and intimacy. Using a blend of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), and somatic approaches, we address both the individual experience of anxiety and the relational patterns it has created. That means helping the anxious partner understand their triggers, build genuine regulation tools, and communicate their needs without the anxiety doing the speaking for them. And it means helping both partners understand what anxiety actually looks like in a relationship — so that what has felt like rejection, neediness, or conflict can finally be seen for what it is.

Anxiety in relationships is not a character flaw and it is not a reason to give up on the partnership. It is a clinical pattern with real roots and real solutions — and with the right support, it is one of the most responsive presentations I work with.