"They were very understanding"

Following the birth of my son, I felt very overwhelmed, anxious, emotional and had thoughts of self harming.

I was constantly worried that something bad was going to happen to my son and that I was a terrible mom. The anxiety of this made me avoid certain situations. I had ideas in my head of what a good mom was and when I couldn't meet them, I would feel like a failure and beat myself up about. I cut myself off from friends in particular but I also found it hard to talk to family.

Our son was conceived through IVF so I felt ungrateful and guilty for telling anyone that I was struggling.

Sophie was very understanding and gave me strategies to help when I wanted to self-harm. She also helped me understand that I cant always control every situation but also not to avoid situations I cant control and to think that should something bad happen then I know what to do. She also recommended keeping a positive journal, writing down things that I achieved in the day for example walking the dog and how it made me feel which helped me to see the positives in every day even the really bad ones. We discussed exercise to help me feel better which I am continuing along with the positive journal.