What is Anxiety?
According to the American Psychological Association:
Anxiety is an emotion characterized by feelings of tension, worried thoughts, and physical changes like increased blood pressure.
Anxiety is not the same as fear, but they are often used interchangeably. Anxiety is considered a future-oriented, long-acting response broadly focused on a diffuse threat, whereas fear is an appropriate, present-oriented, and short-lived response to a clearly identifiable and specific threat.
What is Bipolar Disorder?
According to the American Psychological Association:
Bipolar disorder is a serious mental illness in which common emotions become intensely and often unpredictably magnified. Individuals with bipolar disorder can quickly swing from extremes of happiness, energy, and clarity to sadness, fatigue, and confusion. These shifts can be so devastating that individuals may consider suicide.
All people with bipolar disorder have manic episodes—abnormally elevated or irritable moods that last at least a week and impair functioning. But not all become depressed.
What is Depression?
According to the American Psychological Association:
veryone experiences sadness at times. But depression is something more. Depression is extreme sadness or despair that lasts more than days. It interferes with the activities of daily life and can cause physical symptoms such as pain, weight loss or gain, sleeping pattern disruptions, or lack of energy.
People with depression may also experience an inability to concentrate, feelings of worthlessness or excessive guilt, and recurrent thoughts of death or suicide.
Depression is the most common mental disorder. Fortunately, depression is treatable. A combination of therapy and antidepressant medication can help ensure recovery.
What are Perinatal Mental Health Conditions?
According to Postpartum Support International:
Perinatal Mental Health conditions are the number one complication of childbearing.
There are several types of Perinatal Mental Health conditions that can occur during the perinatal period (including pregnancy, postpartum, and post-loss) and affect not only the pregnant person but also other family members, including dads and partners. Some of these may occur individually, but you may experience a combination of PMH conditions during the perinatal period.
