Our daughter was born near the very end of 2020, and we were overjoyed. But soon the warning bells of postpartum depression began gently ringing, and continued throughout most of 2021. It wasn’t until I was eight months postpartum that the dark and detached feelings started to lean on the doorbell—heavily. It was as if they were forcing their way in, saying “WE’RE HERE! It’s already too late!”

Our current landscape is strange, but you’re handling things well, right? Or maybe you thought you were, but you’ve recently hit a wall. Believe me, I get it. When the COVID-19 restrictions started, I was determined to handle the stress of the situation thoughtfully. I told myself that I would not buy into conversations, news, or social media posts that would feed my propensity to feel stressors and emotions intensely. I tried to carefully reserve my cortisol (stress hormone) so I could calmly manage situations as they arose—rather than spiraling or letting the stress catastrophically flood my life.