Growing up is tough, and being a teenager brings huge changes inside and out. While teens grow taller on the outside, massive shifts are happening inside their brains. At the same time, teenagers are dropped into a world full of big expectations and new daily pressures. All of these outside stresses mix with how their brains grow to shape how they feel every day.
Few phrases in popular culture are as unhelpful—or as unkind—as "failure to launch." It conjures an image of a young adult stalled on the runway while everyone else soars past, and it places the blame squarely on the individual, as if the only missing ingredient were willpower. At Upward Behavioral Health, we see something very different when we sit down with these young adults and their families. We see capable, often deeply thoughtful people who are navigating a genuinely difficult transition with brains and nervous systems that may not be well served by conventional expectations. When we replace judgment with understanding, a new path forward becomes possible.
When we think about maternal mental health, our minds often go to pregnancy and the postpartum period. Far less attention is given to what comes before - the often long, complex, and emotionally-taxing journey of infertility and fertility treatment. Host Elex Simon recently invited me to discuss this topic on the Mental Mixology podcast as part of Maternal Mental Health Awareness Month. During that conversation, I shared both my professional perspective as a psychologist and portions of my own family-building journey. While my husband and I spent 13 years navigating infertility and exploring assorted options, what stood out most to me in reflecting on that experience were not the details of our story, but the broader psychological lessons it offered.
The postpartum period can be a time of joy, excitement, and wonder, right alongside frustration, isolation, and exhaustion. While there are mental health challenges that can arise during the prepartum period, the changes experienced after that little bundle of joy arrives can be dramatic in terms of physical differences, routine changes, role adjustments, financial stress, and many other elements. These combine to create a space that leaves many women vulnerable to new or worsening mental health symptoms.