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Stories about the experience and personal insights during a mental illness often serve as a valuable resource for those currently in crisis.
«Going to Affoltern was at the same time the best but also the most difficult decision for me.»
«For two years I struggled with the consequences of birth trauma – today I want to reach out to others.»
«The transition back to everyday life after the hospital stay was challenging, but I finally felt capable of facing it and finding my way mindfully, at my own pace.»
«The four weeks alone in the clinic were the worst of my life, but Affoltern was where my healing began.»
«I had everything I needed to be happy—at least that's what I thought. But postpartum depression isn't a phase; it's an illness that requires help.»
«I want to die, to disappear, to make this situation end.»
«Please be kind to me – a new mother's message to the world.»
«I thought I had overcome the loss of my mother – but life took a different course.»
«I have learned that my children don't need a perfect mother, but simply a mother. Postpartum depression can affect anyone and no parent should be ashamed to ask for help.»
«Postpartum depression has shown me how strong and patient I can be»
«I had just given life, but I myself no longer wanted to live. But after the storm, the sun always comes back – stronger, more beautiful and much brighter.»
«I understood that asking for help was not a failure. If there are so many of us who feel this way, why is it still talked about so little?»
«I created a checklist against anxiety - and it took the pressure off me to be perfect.»
«Postpartum depression does not mean that you do not love your child – it means that you need help to cope with everyday life with a baby.»
«My maternal crisis was not a lack of love, but a fall from the ideal into reality – in a moment of greatest vulnerability.»
«The hardest part was the loneliness – the illness makes you believe no one understands you. But when I arrived at the mother-baby unit, I knew: I'm not alone.»
«My heart said 'yes' to a second child, my fear of obsessive-compulsive disorder said 'no'. But this time I had an emergency plan - and that changed everything.»
«She had to go through very painful moments and face extremely difficult emotions until the paths leading from the deepest darkness back into the light and the sun began to reopen—paths whose very existence she had at times almost forgotten.»