Something to consider (that really helped me)

Let me start this by saying that I don't believe that any two people have the same experiences (just like with pregnancies) but that maybe what I found could help someone else out.

I am in the middle of my second round of PPD / PPA after DC #2 after suffering with DC #1 and during both of my pregnancies.  Also, they were able to determine that my PPD was primarily hormonal and not situational.

I didn't get diagnosed with PPD until DC#1 was over 6 months old and I went through all of the feelings where I was a bad mother, the extended family didn't understand / accept what I was going through and I thought that I would be on medication and seeing a psychiatrist for the rest of my life.

When DC#1 was 14 months, I finally felt that I had life a little more under control and starting talking to my psychiatrist and doctor about weaning off the medication, etc.  I tried it once with the schedule that he provided and it was a miserable failure.  When I went back he had me see a Naturopath to see what recommendations they had.

The result that was before I even considered starting to wean off of it again, they had me on a work out plan, not at the gym every day but stuff I could do at home with my schedule and talked a lot about diet and looking after myself.  Once I felt that I had found a new balance which took about another 6 weeks, then I started to wean off the medication.

It was amazing the difference that it made.   I felt way better than the first time and I am starting the same routine now for DC#2.

It wasn't that this Naturopath was some sort of miracle worker, they just had me take a good look at what was going on with me, my home, family and career and had me work on figuring out what I needed to change before drastically altering my system again.  As a result, I ended up eating much healthier, feeling better physically and determining what I needed to do to make myself emotionally content.

The one thing that I should add is that my DH was on board with this.  I said that I didn't need to figure out what was needed for groceries, what his schedule was every week, etc.  When he realized that all he had to do was write out when we were almost out of something on the notepad on the fridge or put his shift / hockey schedule on the calendar he was all for it.

I guess what I am trying to say is that having this is not a bad thing, you can survive it, and you may not necessarily have to be on medication forever.