As a wife and a mother of three beautiful daughters my friends and those who know me well will tell you I am a strong person and always appear happy. I am the last person you would expect would suffer from a mental condition. But you see, the people you least expect are the ones who are affected the most, because no one really checks on them, they are always assumed to be okay.

After the birth of my second born daughter I felt overwhelmed by everything, small tasks made me feel like breaking down and crying, everything was just too much for me. There are nights I cried no sleep and myself to sleep. One moment I will be happy and the next minute I will be so sad and break down. The task of taking care of my daughters was a tough one. Inside me I was a bad mother and they were better off without me. But the thought of committing suicide was too scary.

It felt like I sunk into a deep hole that no one could get me out of. It was so dark, lonely and I didn’t even know myself anymore. It was the darkest phase of my life.

It took a friend to realize I might be ill and needed to seek help. A counselor was recommended to me and I sort her help. She told me I was suffering from Postpartum depression. This is where my recovery began. She walked with me to full recovery.

Depression changes you into someone you cannot even recognize. Depression does not only affect you, it also affects the people around you. The baby suffers and if you are married, your marriage stands to suffer as well and in my case the later was the case. My marriage was on its knees. I was about to walk out of my marriage when help came in the form of a counselor. After recovery I decided that I would not sit down and watch other women suffer in that darkness anymore, I decided to rise up and look for solutions.