'Because the real pink cloud is quite rare,' says Quintra Rijnders. Quintra describes in her book 'The black cloud' very aptly how she slipped into a postpartum depression, experienced this and how she comes back on top. A fierce topic that unfortunately still remains a taboo to this day.
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Depression or postpartum depression is often a vague concept for people who have never had to deal with it. That makes this disease, and the patient (!), often unseen and misunderstood. Everyone is always talking about that pink cloud, right? How can it be that mine is black? Mothers in difficult times are eagerly looking for companions. The bizarre thing is that so many women have to deal with it to a greater or lesser extent.
Yet besides the film 'The Happy Housewife' there is very little material that really goes into the raw depth of this disease.
The national depression campaign started almost simultaneously with the launch of Quintra's book. This is to make this common disease a topic for discussion and to increase knowledge about it. Not entirely superfluous, because many people still see the disease as a weakness. So was Quintra, until it happened to her!
Breaking the taboo and silence surrounding depression, that is Quintra's mission.
As an experience expert, I can only confirm and encourage this.
Quintra didn't like it anymore and didn't want to anymore. She was a pile of misery. Everything was too much for her and she really just wanted to lie in her bed and do nothing. Now that I look back on this phase of the depression, I realize that seeing my wife, the person I love dearly, decline was very hard. According to her husband.
Quintra had her mission very clearly in mind, but describing this dark period has not always been easy for her.
Postpartum depression affects the entire family. Do not underestimate the role of the partner. A heavy but indispensable role that is often forgotten. That is why I think it is very nice and good to see that Quintra's man has a very clear share in the book. With his vision and experience of the process.
Like many life-changing moments, postpartum depression changes you as a person. Although this is not directly discussed in the book, Quintra can fully agree.
Writing the book has provided Quintra with a complete closure of this unpleasant period. Does this black cloud turn pink after all?
I previously wrote a blog about my own experience with postpartum depression. From that position I have great admiration for the fact that Quintra has had the courage to be so vulnerable. What I wanted to achieve with the blog at the time, more openness about the disease and reaching out to fellow sufferers, she tackles in a bigger way with her book. And it gripped me.
The insight that her book 'The black cloud' provides on the disease process is honest and pure. Every mother, with or without postpartum depression, will find recognition somewhere. It makes short shrift of the idea that something like this only happens to 'weak' people.
Quintra's thoughts, but also those of her husband, are described sincerely and with so much emotion that you experience the entire disease process with them. The struggle, the medication, the help, guilt, the fight for recovery with trial and error, with the downs but certainly also the ups. Although the course of postpartum depression is different for everyone, this book shows in a beautiful raw way how this disease manifests itself.
The book 'The black cloud' by Quintra Rijnders is available online here for € 15.
Quintra has some important advice for fellow sufferers:
• Be open to everything! Because you never know from which (unexpected) source the help that will make you better. I have seen many examples of people who have benefited from a combination of regular and alternative help, including myself.
• Always give yourself another chance to get better. If one method, approach, drug, or therapy doesn't work, get it all together and move on to the next. Only in this way can you find something that does work and does not get stuck in a victim role.
