About this episode

This episode discusses the distinction between burnout and depression in mothers, exploring how women's distress is often misdiagnosed and the implications of this misunderstanding.

Many mothers go to the doctor because they feel exhausted, overwhelmed, and they aren’t sleeping - and leave with a depression diagnosis and a prescription. The message is: your brain isn't working right, and medication will help you cope.   But what if the problem isn't your brain at all? In this episode, I talk with journalist Bob Whitaker, who has spent decades investigating psychiatric treatment in the U.S. We look at how women's distress has been medicalized instead of taken seriously as a response to impossible circumstances.   We look at how antidepressants work, which is quite different from what the drug companies have been telling us for years. He also shares the results of a New Zealand study on postpartum depression that should have changed how we support new mothers - but didn't.   Questions this episode will answer Is it burnout or depression? Burnout and depression share a lot of the same symptoms - exhaustion, low mood, difficulty functioning - but they have different roots. Burnout is a response to sustained, unmanageable circumstances. Depression, as it's currently diagnosed and treated, is framed as a brain malfunction. This episode looks at why…

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