Mind On Mental Health · Penn Medicine - Princeton House Behavioral Health

Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders Are Not Always What We Think of as Postpartum Depression

·22 min

Andy Dean interviews Lisa Tremaine. She introduces herself as a nurse by training and a women's health and mental health specialist, and she brings lived family experience too. The conversation centers on perinatal mood and anxiety disorders. They begin by asking what exactly those disorders include and why the label matters when people use postpartum depression as shorthand. Anxiety, depression, OCD, and psychosis all come up. Lisa is direct about psychosis as a break with reality, while Andy keeps steering the discussion back to the thoughts and fears a parent may not want to say out loud. The line between a passing thought and real intent stays clear. They use the stubbornness of intrusive thoughts to show how fear can stick without meaning somebody wants to act on it. The episode also turns to the news. Andy brings up a Wyoming case and uses it to show how sensational stories can plant awful images in a listener's head. Social media gets its own turn. Lisa and Andy talk about how constant comparison and public performance can make parenting feel more exposed than it already is. The tone stays conversational. Quick clarifications, plain language, and a few dry jokes keep the heavier material moving without flattening it. Lisa's clinical background matters. So does her lived experience as a mother and as someone who has lost a family member to suicide. The talk keeps circling back to how these issues can be hidden or minimized. That makes the episode useful for families trying to name risk, sort panic from danger, and know when to ask for help. It never pretends the subject is neat. It leaves the listener with clearer language for a subject that often gets oversimplified.

As heard by us

A plainspoken guide to perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, with a clear look at the pressures around them.

This episode covers perinatal mood and anxiety disorders and the way social media can shape parents' mental health. Lisa Tremaine and Andy Dean also talk through depression, anxiety, intrusive thoughts, and psychosis in plain language that families can use.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

When you want a plain-English talk about perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, intrusive thoughts, and how social media can affect parents' mental health.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify