Moms share their stories of dealing with postpartum psychosis on social media amid Lindsay Clancy's case
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DUXBURY, MASSACHUSETTS: In the wake of the Lindsay Clancy case, women took to TikTok to share their experiences of dealing with postpartum psychosis, a condition that causes new mothers to have hallucinations, delusions, dramatic mood changes, paranoia and suicidal and/or homicidal thoughts.
Clancy was charged with murder after she strangled her three children, before attempting to take her own life on January 24. Prosecutors argued the murder was not motivated by mental illness in fact it was pre-mediated. However, Clancy's lawyer entered an insanity plea, citing mental health issues.
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'It can happen to anyone'
TikToker Alison Frankel gave her account of postpartum psychosis in a video. She said, "Believe it or not, it can happen to anyone in any situation. I mistakenly in my psychosis believed that universes had collided and that the husband that I had known for seven years was replaced by a different person that looked exactly like him from a different universe."
She said her symptoms were diagnosed as Capgras syndrome, which causes a person to believe they had been replaced by an identical imposter. "So this was more than intrusive thoughts, I honestly believed that this person, or thing, that had taken over my husband's body that was not him was going to hurt me and my children," she said. Her condition even lured her into thinking about packing up in the middle of the night and running away without telling anyone out of fear that the "intruder" would find her or her children.
"Psychosis is not just a thought that you have when you're upset or when you're frustrated," Frankie said on TikTok, adding, "Psychosis is something that you really believe with all your heart that is really happening in that moment. And you have to do something to fix it."
Another woman said that she thought her son was bright blue, and how she shook him to wake him up. Another noted at the time she had thoughts such as "what if I threw the baby over the balcony?"
'Very significant stigma'
Dr Holly Puritz, an OB-GYN and board advisor at the maternity analytics platform Lucina, explained postpartum psychosis was very misunderstood both because it was rare, and because it carried "very significant stigma." She added that it can frightening because people are not aware of the condition and it is very unusual. "They often will subscribe even abnormal behavior to, 'Oh, I bet she's just a little sleep deprived, just a little bit overwhelmed,'" Puritz said. "But those sets of conditions are a medical emergency and one that needs immediate attention," per Insider.