Your mental health can be affected in all kinds of situations like being in a toxic work environment, financially unstable, toxic relationships, you name it. But one situation that isn’t talked about enough and can sometimes be put off as “a normal reaction” is the mental health stability of a woman after they’ve experienced a miscarriage.

After Leslie Martinez had experienced her second miscarriage, she thought that the feelings and thoughts she was having were normal because that’s what she was being told by other women in her life. “Those words didn’t make me feel better. It made me feel worse,” said Leslie.

Leslie is a 24-year-old with a son and a husband. “Before my son, I had a miscarriage. And I didn’t give myself time to heal through that experience. I got pregnant again a few months later and had my son SJ.” A couple of months after her son turned a year old, she had a second miscarriage. “That destroyed me,” said Leslie. “I completely isolated myself and didn’t talk to anyone.”

Days passed, and her husband saw that she wasn’t getting better, so he reached out to his family for help. “My mother-in-law came over to the house one day and, in the kindest way, told me that I needed to seek help. What I was experiencing wasn’t normal anymore.”

Leslie made an appointment with her Primary Care Provider and OB, Dr. Elali, to see if he could help. “I told him what was happening, and he referred me to CBHA’s Behavioral Health team.”

She was scheduled to meet with Deyanira Gonzalez, Behavioral Health Counselor. “Pregnancy loss can result in feelings of discouragement, sadness, loneliness, anger, and guilt, and it’s my job to help my patients heal from that,” says Deyanira.

During Leslie’s first visit with Deyanira, she didn’t know what to expect and wasn’t very open to talking. “Deya asked the hard questions that really helped me dig deep and find the root cause of my depression,” said Leslie. Deyanira gave her different exercises that could help calm her down for the times she would start feeling anxious or stressed. “She told me to write down what I was feeling whenever I started having bad thoughts or feeling anxious. Whether it was in a notebook or just the notes in my phone, and that really helped me a lot,” said Leslie.

Your mental and physical health is so important after experiencing a miscarriage, and it’s good to know the signs and symptoms of someone who is experiencing depression after a loss. “Signs to look out for would be persistent crying or sadness, feelings of guilt that do not lessen over time, lack of motivation and sleeping too much or too little,” says Deyanira.

It’s important to seek help when you start to recognize these symptoms in yourself, your spouse, daughter or friend who has gone through a miscarriage. “I’m so grateful to my family for pushing me to get help. Now we will be welcoming baby number two in November, and I can’t help but thank Dr. Elali and Deyanira for helping me find solutions and work through my mental health,” says Leslie.

At CBHA, we don’t just take care of your physical health. We see our patients as a whole and want to take care of their mind and body. Please reach out to our Behavioral Health team if you or someone you know has been experiencing any of these symptoms. Call/Text 509.488.52556 or schedule at CBHA.org.

If you’ve had a positive and amazing story with us, we would love to hear about it.