My thoughts on "The REAL PostPartum Depression Treatment".

Lately, I've been suffering a lack of inspiration. Maybe I should call it writer's block. I have ideas and topics out the wazoo but I can never manage to write anything remotely readable about any of them. However, I think that I've finally got something I can write about. 


I was browsing the internet for PPD blogs, looking for some more to add to my blogroll, and came across a link for Jackie Hall's "Our REAL PostPartum Depression Treatment". The title caught my attention so I clicked the link. What I read had my eyebrows hitting the roof. Due to the sheer length of the text, I'm not going to copy and paste the entire thing to this blog entry but I have (for posterity's sake) put the entire text here. However, I'd like to include some of my... er... favorite... excerpts here.

Believe me, as someone who has struggled with postpartum depression… I can help you UNDERSTAND exactly what it takes to get you back to your happy, care-free self.

Oh how nice. Without being a trained medical professional with access to your medical history, much less access to any labwork, she can diagnose you AND tell you how to fix it! 

In fact, I was able to come up with 5 simple but powerful steps that will help ANY new mum get through her battle with after-pregnancy sadness and depression.

Wow, I didn't realize that everyone reacted the same to any particular treatment plan. My doctors and therapists must have been clueless since they said quite the opposite. 

More importantly, you can learn how to get that happy life back in just a few minutes from now.

Uh... 

How much better do you think it will be for you when you know EXACTLY what you need to do to get back to living the happy life you KNOW you were meant to live?

And how much better will you feel knowing you’re being the best Mum you possibly can be for your children?

Now, maybe it's just me, but this reads an awful lot like a guilt trip, like if you don't take her up on her miraculous offer, you'll be being the opposite of "the best mum you can possibly be for your children". Great. Just what moms with PPD (or any other PPMD) need to hear: that they're being the worst mum they can. 

My 12 week step by step Postpartum Depression Recovery Program will help you overcome the feelings of overwhelm and stress that can make motherhood seem almost unbearable at times.

Anyone who claims that their program WILL help you overcome PostPartum Depression is full of baloney. Any competent medical professional will tell you that there's no guarantee that any particular treatment (medical or otherwise) absolutely WILL work. Any time you're dealing with a medical problem, to include mental health, it's very much a trial and error process. Nobody can be guaranteed that they will respond a particular way to a particular treatment. Shoot, even treating something as simple as an ear infection gets a statement of "This antibiotic usually has success but bring your daughter back in about a week so we can make sure the ear infection is clearing up". 

Bottom line is… if you learn the right mindset and approach to these challenges, you can change your defeated, negative, sad and depressed feedlings and begin feeling more happiness and enjoyment for life. All feelings are a result of your thinking. This program arms you with the ability to change this thinking (even in the heat of the moment) and handle ANY situation that arises in your life.

Actually, the bottom line is that if you are suffering PostPartum Depression, you need to seek immediate medical attention from trained medical professionals. Also, some feelings are not the result of your thinking but the result of hormonal imbalances. 

What’s more is that you don’t need to keep rolling around in the events of your past to get better. This only reinforces the thinking that underlies your depression. This program will teach you once and for all how to change this thinking and STOP feeling so bad about yourself and your life.

 I feel like a broken record, but hormonal imbalances are quite often what TRULY underlies PPD. My PPD wasn't caused by "bad thinking" or "rolling around in the events of my past". I won't say they are always the underlying problem because unlike some people, I don't claim to know what causes PPD for everyone or how to fix it for everyone. All I know is what helped me, and I don't even know that that would be the correct course of treatment for me if I dealt with it again.

All that’s happening is that you have negative, self-defeating thoughts that are poisoning your mind. These need to be corrected and I can teach you how to do this.

So what about those of us for whom "all that's happening" is that our thyroid is malfunctioning, or we have some other type of hormonal imbalance, or any of the other medical problems that so often are the culprit behind a PPMD? Correcting those :negative, self-defeating thoughts" that are "poisoning our minds" isn't going to cause hormone levels to get back to where they need to be. 

With The Postpartum Depression Recovery Program, not only will you stop your postpartum depression, but you’ll also learn how to put a stop to the cycle of handing down the same depression-causing beliefs to your children.

Again, sounding like a broken record, but guaranteeing that this little "How to change your thoughts" program WILL stop your PPD is both dangerous AND irresponsible. "Depression-causing beliefs" can not always be assumed to be THE reason someone is struggling from a PPMD.

I’ll show you how to eliminate the negative energy that’s causing you to feel this way.

Ok, so what about eliminating the medical problems that are causing me to feel this way? 

You’re going to become a much better Mum, parent, and role-model because of it.

Again with the implied guilt trip, that if you don't buy her program you will not be a "much better Mum, parent, and role-model". 

I’m going to lay out the exact steps you need to follow… so you no longer have to wonder if you’re doing all the right things.

That must be why I occasionally still wonder "Am I doing it (it being parenting) right? Am I messing up?". And here I always thought that was just a normal part of parenting since nobody (except, apparently, Jackie Hall) is born or automatically imbued at childbirth with all the answers to every single situation that will come up in child-raising. Does this make it my mom's fault, for not buying this program and thus handing down all this negative energy to me, or my fault for not buying the program for myself? Maybe it's BOTH our faults!

Better yet, you can learn ALL of it in just a few minutes… so you can start feeling more like yourself a lot sooner.

So if I can learn it all in just a few minutes, why is it a 12-week program?

Here’s what you’ll notice after using the Postpartum Depression Recovery Program:

• RELIEF as you discover that what’s happening to you can be changed quickly and easily.

 You know, as long as your PPD isn't caused by a medical problem that needs medical treatment from a medical professional.

• An UNDERSTANDING of why you got PPD in the first place (in fact it will make perfect sense to you after completing the first week’s lesson!)

I can probably give an even more educated guess than she is, I'll do it right now, and I won't even charge you anything: you probably got PPD because you had a baby and your body hasn't quite regulated itself properly yet! 

Well, let me ask… what price can you put on feeling better about yourself?

What’s your happiness worth?

Let's see: at 19.95/week for 12 weeks, apparently it's worth  239.40, assuming there's no tax added on.

You’d spend thousands of dollars going to see a doctor.

Actually, that depends very much on minor details like insurance, the type of treatment, etc. Thanks to my insurance (which I am very lucky to have), the only thing I paid was co-pays on medication. 

In fact, if you do feel you’re suicidal or in a deep, deep depression, I suggest you get medical help right away.

I included this because at least she's adding in that caveat. Last time I blogged about a program like this was when I read about Sheryl Paul and her program, and there was no such caveat at the time (I have no idea if she's changed it since). However, I do not feel that adding in "If you feel suicidal you should seek medical help right away" in any way excuses the rest of what she's saying... but at least she's saying it about suicidal feelings.

And since I can offer this system to you as an online, downloadable system… there are no printing or shipping costs. That way, I can pass along the savings to you.

If you join today, the Postpartum Recovery Program is now only $79.00 $19.95 a week!

I'm going to take a wild guess that her page always says that as an added method of trying to get people to buy instantly, feeling that they don't want to miss this INCREDIBLE opportunity. 

I can honestly say that there’s NEVER been a resource for mums that gives you the support, guidance, and knowledge you need for such an unbelievably affordable price.

Actually, there are other programs that are hyped up as exactly the same thing that are more affordable... Additionally, there are resources that give support, guidance, and knowledge for free, they just don't claim to promise to heal you.

I just know this 12 week program is going to help ease your pains and frustrations… and solve your problems that you’re facing as a new mum who has suddenly found herself overwhelmed.

Oh, so this program is going to come to my house and help me do laundry, grocery shopping, take care of the baby so I can get a nap or get more than 3 hours of sleep at one fell swoop, make my beat-up lady bits feel better, make me feel attractive, magically cause my extra poundage to drop off, and take the kid for a while so my husband and I can go on a date? AWESOME! Now THAT is something I would pay 19.95/week for.

You know… I’m very confident this postpartum depression recovery program will give you everything you need so you can start feeling happy and like yourself again.

I’ve already tested and proven it with my own success. And it has also worked for each and every Mum who has seriously followed along in the program.

Ah, so the women for whom it DIDN'T work must have just not been following along seriously enough. Roger. It's really their fault.


Believe it or not, I actually left out a lot of what she wrote. These are just the lowlights highlights. There are so many problems with what she's written. There are so many dangers to programs like this and to hers specifically. The first one that comes to my mind is the fact that she's not saying "Regardless of how 'mild' a case you feel like you're dealing with, you should be seeking medical treatment and bringing my program up with them to see if it is a viable candidate for your treatment.'. She doesn't even begin to go into the fact that PPD is so much more complex than "negative energy" or "faulty thought processes", the fact that it is a legitimate MEDICAL problem that NEEDS to be treated by a medical professional who has some sort of degree or certification proving that they have been trained in how to treat issues like this. Even if that treatment consists of one visit with a doctor who says "You know, why don't we try out this program and see if it benefits you", after determining that there's not an underlying issue like hypothyroidism or other hormonal imbalances AND determining that your PPD is not, in fact, a lot worse than you realize it is, you need to see a medical professional first.


I'm also pretty upset with the "Blame the victim" mentality. And regardless of whether she realizes that's what she's doing, that's what she's doing. She is essentially telling everyone that "This is because of something YOU are doing or not doing. This is the result of the thoughts that YOU choose to think.". Like I said before, the LAST thing a mom with PPD needs is someone (else) telling her that her PPD is her fault.


I had planned to take this blog post to also cover an article I found that she wrote but I didn't realize this would be as long as it is, so I'll save that for another day. The thing I want most for everyone reading this to take away from this post is that the first thing you should do when you realize you're dealing with PPD (or start having concerns about how you're feeling after having a baby) is to call your doctor. Please please please, don't go online and buy some program instead. Any type of treatment, whether pills, therapy, or something online to change your outlook, should ONLY be started under the guidance, supervision, and approval of your medical professional. And any time you read about a program that guarantees a fix to your PPMD, you probably ought to just run the other way because anyone who claims to be able to diagnose and guarantee to treat you successfully like that... well... just no. There are no guarantees about treatment for anything, and anyone with even a SHRED of integrity who has developed a treatment will tell you that.


If you are suffering from PPD, it is not your fault. Please don't buy into the line of BS that it's because of bad energy or faulty thought processes or because you're "rolling around in events from your past". You are beautiful, wonderful, and loved. You are strong. There is hope out there and you can find help. Please do seek that help... from your trained medical professional.