Hi friends, family and followers:
Please someone make sense of this story for me…..(Link below) I just covered this trial this morning. Life is just so hard for some. Love your people and let them love you back! I really want to know what happened at that retreat she went to…. I look forward to your comments.
Amanda Marrazzo 
I think it’s critically important as we talk about these tragedies in the news that people understand the distinctions between postpartum depression, and postpartum psychosis. Too often, psychosis is described as “severe postpartum depression,” when in fact a psychotic episode postpartum is a completely different mental illness. It’s concerning because when the two are used interchangeably, it tends to create even more terror in the minds of new mothers that if they have postpartum depression, either their children will be taken away or that they are likely to seriously harm their children because their depression makes them dangerous. Both postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis require treatment so that women can get well. Because I have not read any of the evaluations on Ms. Mejia, I am not in a position to say what exactly she was suffering from; however, the fact that she wanted her son to be with God and that she was in a “catatonic state” when found, suggests something far more serious than “severe postpartum depression.”
Diana Lynn Barnes, Psy.D
California Maternal Mental Health Collaborative
Los Angeles County Perinatal Mental Health Task Force
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Thank you for commenting! It was a tragedy! So sad. At one of the hearings the baby boy, almost 2 now, saw her come in in her jail issued orange clothing and yelled out “Ma…” Just heart breaking. The say he will not remember any of this. He has been in lots of therapy to help him with his speech. She definitely had a psychotic break. But the father didn’t realize how bad she was. They are very poor, don’t speak English very well. He knew she was not acting like herself for days before. I wrote an earlier story on that, you could go onto Chicago Tribune then search my name to find those stories. It is so sad. He is so sweet. I wonder how long she will be kept in the mental health facility. I will write a post when I know after the hearing in about a month or so. Thanks again for commenting. I think this is a very important story.
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