Mental Health for Mom with Rebecca Fox Starr

In today's episode of the "Helping Families Be Happy" podcast, host Christopher Robbins, co-founder of Familius publishing, husband, father of nine, author, fisherman, backpacker, and aspirational musician based in the Central Valley of California talks with guest Rebecca Fox Starr, an author, writer, Blogger, speaker, and mental health advocate. She created her internationally read blog "Mommy Ever After" in 2010 following the birth of her first child when she became pregnant with her second child in 2013. Rebecca suffered from prenatal anxiety and depression and subsequent severe postpartum depression. She decided to document her journey in real time in an effort to help others.

Episode Highlights

• 1.07: Rebecca writes candidly about her life as a mother, survivor, advocate, singer-songwriter, dance partier, and studded shoe collector. Her story has been featured in the New York Times, Huffington Post, on ABC News, and all forms of media across the world. 
• 03.43: Maternal mental health is just mental health feelings, emotions, and diagnosis. But for mothers, for those who are trying to conceive, pregnant or have children. 
• 04.45: Rebecca talks about motherhood and what drove her to start her first blog.
• 05.07: Rebecca shares how she tackles postpartum depression post giving birth to her second child. 
• 06.58: For Rebecca writing was the greatest therapy. When feeling down, nervous, depressed, she used writing as a medium to get out of it. 
• 08.24: As treacherous as the landscape of social media can be, there is also something that is amazing about the exposure, because now people are used to sharing things about their lives and it's become easier, sometimes even attractive, or desirable, says Rebecca.
• 08.56: As per Rebecca, because people are talking more and connecting more because we are all so much more connected through social media. 
• 11.26: Rebecca shares how motherhood is the greatest joy in the world, but it is also the hardest phase. 
• 12.05: As per Rebecca, everyone has negative feelings, and just like it's in her book, negative feelings come. We don't have to pretend that they don't exist. We need to be resilient and know that we are sad or lonely or scared. But just like storms, they these feelings pass. 
• 14.02: For moms in particular, 25% of moms or 30% of moms are diagnosed with a perinatal mood and anxiety disorder. 
• 15.46: Rebecca talks about the therapeutic way of positive thinking and how it can help to get over anxiety and depression.
• 17.21: For someone with depression validation is important, says Rebecca.
• 18.45: As per Rebecca, support is the key to success, and she has done a lot of research on postpartum depression screening and diagnosis. She is not a clinician, but she has done a lot of research and written academic books on this.
• 20.11: A lot of times people who are going through especially a parental mood and anxiety disorder, postpartum depression, they are thinking that they should feel better or that they are bad parent for feeling the way that they do.
• 21.10: Christopher has found out that saying how can I help you is not as helpful as just helping.
• 21.46: Rebecca shares for those who are in the book world, what does she hopes that the publishing industry in the book industry can do to help improve mental health awareness? 

3 Key Points

1. Rebecca shares how writing has helped her to crawl out of her depression post giving birth to her second child. Writing is how she connects with people, so finding people to connect with was incredibly healing.
2. Rebecca talks about her book, Mommy Ever After, how does that relate to mental health and why was that book important for her to write? 
3. To use business terms, somebody who reaches out to a friend once a week, the return on investment is so great. You have a 30% less chance to experience depression or to sink down into a deeper depression and just by being checked in on, says Rebecca. 

Tweetable Quotes

• "In 2013-2014 people didn't talk about mental health the same way that they do now. Not as openly, not as compassionately." – Rebecca
• "Sharing about postpartum depression has been, as I said, the greatest. Pivot and ultimately gift in my life." - Rebecca
• "Actually, starting to write was the most healing thing that I did. And over the course of the next several years, as I crawled out of that hole of anxiety and depression, I knew that if I got that feeling, feeling down, feeling nervous, feeling depressed, writing was the greatest therapy." - Rebecca 
• "When I started writing about postpartum depression, my first two books were academic texts. There was not a big list of books on postpartum depression and. There is no book on trying to expand your family after postpartum depression, so I wrote it because there was nothing there." – Rebecca
• "For me, Mommy ever after, is this whimsical book with the most gorgeous illustrations." -Rebecca
• "We encourage our audience, if anyone is experiencing acute anxiety or debilitating depression, to make sure that they get proper professional medical care to help them as they navigate this one of these life challenges." - Christopher

Resources Mentioned

• Rebecca's Book
• www.mommyeverafter.com
• Instagram https://www.instagram.com/rebeccafoxstarr/?hl=en
• Podcast Editing