Mother-of-two Kathy DiVincenzo has made it her mission to break the stigma surrounding postpartum depression and shine a light on the tough realities of motherhood with a confronting Facebook post.
Although the set-up is the same in both photos, they couldn’t be more different: one depicts a frazzled, exhausted Kathy, surrounded by kids’ toys and trying to change a nappy while her eldest daughter demands her attention.
The second image is the kind we’re more used to finding on Facebook – smiling mum, perfect children, on-trend outfit, zero mess.
DiVincenzo, who suffers from postpartum depression, anxiety and OCD, published the images and accompanying message to challenge her audience to “push past the discomfort society has placed on postpartum mental illness.”
“I feel like it’s time to show you what that can really look like, not just the side of me that’s ‘Facebook worthy,’” she writes.
“The truth is, both of these pictures represent my life depending on the day. I would only ever comfortably share one of these realities though and that’s the problem. The only thing more exhausting than having these conditions is pretending daily that I don’t,” she continues.
At time of writing the post has been shared over 69,000 times and received over 12,000 comments from women who have been in DiVincenzo’s shoes.
DiVincenzo concludes her post by calling on everyone to make themselves aware of the signs and symptoms of postpartum depression.
For help and support contact:
PANDA – 1300 726 306
beyondblue – 1300 224 636
Pregnancy, Birth and Baby – 1800 882 436
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