- Hey everybody, happy Thursday.
And when it's Thursday, that means that I'm on Twitter.
So if you've asked your questions on Twitter,
following me @KatiMorton using the hashtag #KatieFAQ,
I've found 'em and I have three today,
as well as a journal topic so thank you
for all of you sending your questions
as well as journal topic ideas.
It makes it much, much easier for me
to put these together.
Okay, and I have a variety of questions
so I hope you like 'em.
Question number one.
Hey Kati, do you think all eating disorder patients
should be weight monitored, and why?
That's a good question.
And the short answer is yes, I do.
Because, I find, and you can correct me
if I'm wrong, but I find my patients
don't always tell me the absolute truth.
Nope, they don't.
They don't always tell me what they're eating,
they don't always tell me how much,
oftentimes I find even my sickest patients,
their eyes don't tell them the truth
so they'll be like,
"Yeah, I've been following my meal plan,
"I've been gaining so much weight,"
Or, "I've been losing so much weight,"
or whatever we're working on.
And actually monitoring their weight
tells me the real story of how their body is doing.
So I think it's very important.
Not only for a regular primary care doctor
to do and to know and to monitor,
but also for me and potentially the dietician to monitor.
So that we can keep track of everything
and make sure you're doing what's best for you, okay?
Question number two.
Now this is kind of hard for me to read,
so gimme a second while I squint like an old person.
I have a 9 month old baby and was diagnosed
with postpartum depression about eight weeks postpartum.
Now postpartum just means after you've had the baby,
for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about.
When we're pregnant, our hormones,
we have a surge of hormones and then we have the baby
and oftentimes they plummet down
and we can suffer from depression, postpartum depression.
My psychiatrist wants me to stop breastfeeding
and start medication for my condition.
Easy for him to say.
However, nursing has always been a dream of mine
and I feel as if I let go of this,
I believe with all my heart that I will hate myself more
and never, ever forgive myself.
Most days, breastfeeding is the only thing
that makes me feel alive and attached,
but my psychologist just doesn't get it,
and spends most of the consult hour
trying to convince me to take medication.
The thought of stopping, it breaks my heart
and brings me to tears.
I don't know what to do, please, please help.
Now, there's a couple things.
I actually want to talk about this because
it's something I haven't talked about before,
but it's something that a lot of people struggle with.
Postpartum depression is no joke.
It's real, it happens, and it can be really severe.
I've had patients and I've had colleagues
of mine have patients who've been almost suicidal,
they're so depressed.
And there's even something that I haven't seen personally,
but postpartum psychosis,
which I believe attributes to a lot of those women
who've had babies and then they accidentally
hurt their child or do something horrible
and we hear about it in the news.
A lot of it has to do with our hormones.
We know, as women, how much that can change our mood.
And affect the way that we relate with one another
and interact with people.
Right?
So for this case, I would encourage you
to consider all options.
It sounds like taking medication
is not an option to you, you won't even
entertain the idea, and I understand that
breastfeeding is a way to connect with your child,
and it's something that
men can't understand, they say it's a lot of ways
that women then, if they didn't have
their maternal instinct earlier,
that's when they get it.
But we have to think of the overall
life of you and your child
and the overall benefit of you being
happy and healthy could be.
I want you to weigh all your options.
I want you to honestly consider.
Because there are a few things we want
to take into consideration.
If we're worried a lot about our child,
we wanna make sure that we can be there for them.
Mentally, physically.
We also wanna make sure that our marriage is intact.
And that that relationship is going well.
Have you tried other options,
like have you tried CBT therapy,
are you doing things to help yourself every day?
Do you set yourself up with little challenges
like today I'll get out of bed and I'll shower,
or today I will call one friend or I will do something.
I know it's really hard to reach out,
but if we're trying to think of other options
other than medication, then that would be
what I would go to.
We're gonna have to challenge ourselves
in other ways because I'm assuming what
your psychologist or psychiatrist is trying to tell you
is that other things haven't been working
or are really difficult for you to do,
and they worry about the health of you and your baby.
Because you have to eat properly,
have to take really good care of yourself
because your breast milk is what you eat
and what you do for yourself,
so we wanna make sure we're giving the best
to our baby and so there's a lot of things
to consider.
So I want you just to take some time,
maybe write some notes,
think about how well you feel
you're talking care of yourself and your child,
what other options you think there are,
are there things that you could do
that would be more helpful and supportive?
There are also groups at hospitals.
I'd contact the hospital where you gave birth,
and let them know that you're interested
in a postpartum group.
A lot of them offer them free of charge.
Let's start looking at other things
so that we can get a whole picture,
and if all those things don't help
and that you find your depression getting worse,
I would honestly tell you to please, please, please
openly consider medication.
But since it seems like it's not an option to you,
then it'd be a last resort.
So you wanna try all the other things first.
Does that make sense?
And if any of you've had experience with this,
and some particular thing really helped you,
can you let us know below?
'Cause this is something that a lot people
struggle with, okay?
Question number three.
Hey Kati, I was at the beach today and I saw
someone with lots of self-harm scars.
I'm in recovery for self-harm and I felt
very, very triggered.
Is this selfish?
'Cause that person was so brave to do that.
It was with my family and I froze up
and freaked out, is that normal?
Is it okay?
Is this selfish of me?
The reason I want to talk about this is because
when I started answering,
this was one of the questions I was like,
oh I'll answer this right now.
Because it's definitely not selfish of you.
That was what my immediate response was like,
no, that's not selfish.
But the bigger picture here
is that we have a right to feel our feelings.
We have a right to feel triggered,
we have a right to feel frustrated,
we have a right to feel angry, upset,
whatever it is.
And of course it's not selfish,
we don't have a complete control over that.
It's kind of an automatic response,
and I think part of the recovery process
that's so important to discuss,
and the reason I chose this question,
is the acceptance of emotions.
The recognition of
us being human, and us feeling things,
and sometimes not even recognizing
where they come from.
And then working to recognize where they came from.
Why was it triggering?
Is it something that you find yourself missing?
Have you not fully replaced the urges
with something healthier?
Are you not talking about it enough with people
so that you still feel like you're holding this secret?
What is it?
I think it's very important for us to acknowledge
sometimes we yell at ourselves,
we tell ourselves it's wrong, shameful,
embarrassing, and terrible,
to feel certain emotions.
Like they're not okay,
we're not allowed to feel that.
And I want all of you to take a moment
to recognize when you do this,
because we all do it, myself included.
And allow yourself to feel the feeling
and accept it.
Work on accepting it.
Like that song I talked about a long time ago,
it's something Envy, no, it's called Am I Wrong.
It was one of my journal topics,
and part of the lyrics he says,
am I wrong to feel this way?
But that's just how I feel.
Like, that's the explanation.
It's like, you think I'm wrong
but that's just how I feel.
And sometimes just saying that to ourselves,
no, but that's just how I feel,
that's how it feels to me, and that's okay.
It can be so empowering, and it can be such,
take us to a greater level in our recovery
so we don't feel like we're just hanging on,
we feel like we're,
we've overcome it, kind of like we're in control.
I just think it can be really empowering.
So I hope that helps, I hope that makes sense.
But it's definitely not selfish.
You have every right to feel the way you feel.
I'm really proud of that person, too,
and I'm glad that you're in recovery.
And maybe that could be you someday.
Who knows, right?
Okay, journal topic of the day.
Now this is a quote that came from
one of my followers and I didn't write down
her name, oftentimes I don't know if
you want me to share it so I don't always
put the names on there.
But it's a quote from a Hilary Duff song and it says,
"Love the life I live and I will live the life I love,"
from her new song Chasing the Sun, which is amazing.
She says I like this because it made me think of
what I love in my life, and what I'm doing
to make it even better.
So I would encourage you all, as the weekend approaches,
to take some time and sit down
and think about all the things you love in your life
and the steps you're taking or that you've taken today,
to help make tomorrow even better.
It can just help us remind,
help remind us of all the wonderful things
we're doing in our lives
and how we're making it better for ourselves.
How strong we are.
Okay, I love you all, I'll see you tomorrow
'cause it's Friday, and I'll be on Facebook,
so ask your questions there, bye!.