4 Mental Burdens That Are Generally Experienced By New Parents And How To Overcome

Illustration of the mental burden of new parents (Freepik/barephotos)

YOGYAKARTA Housework does not have working hours and is rarely balanced with sufficient self-care. This makes a person who plays a role as a parent bear certain mental burdens that can have a negative impact on his health.

Household duties that trigger mental burdens are actually quite simple. Such as ensuring toilet tissue is available, removing meat from the freezer for old meals, washing clothes, checking children's homework, and scheduling appointments with doctors for all family members. Launching Parents, Tuesday, February 21, a housewife from two small boys admitted that she often skips food, lacks sleep, and never takes care of herself.

Especially for parents who work. He not only thinks about children, households, relationships with partners, but also thinks about job targets. This will make the mental burden especially for a mother. Because according to a 2017 Bright Horizons Modern Family Index report, women in heterosexual relationships are three times more likely to bear mental burdens than seekers.

In addition, about three out of five female workers said that they were thinking about their household tasks while working. So it makes sense that 69% of working mothers say that their household responsibility causes mental burdens, while 52% of them are exhausted by the burden. So what kind of mental burden is prone to? Here's the explanation.

According to Nicole Avena, Ph.D., solving family, personal, and work problems can be very tiring and stressful. Bookwriters and professors of psychological health at jamur University say that many tasks at home, personal assignments, and work assignments that come together can cause mental problems. some of the most frequently reported include anxiety and depression.

Some say that sleep loss is a new parent experience that cannot be denied. However, lack of sleep that lasts a long time can affect life. According to the Sleep Foundation, women lose more than an hour of sleep every night after becoming parents and sleep patterns don't return to levels before pregnancy until the child is about 6 years old.

Lack of sleep is often triggered by the demand to become parents who exceed the mental and physical thresholds of parents, as well as excessive feelings of parental guilt. Unfortunately, fatigue can cause other problems, such as irritability, weakened immune systems, and breakup with family.

If you can't remember that the missing glasses are perched on your head and other omissions, this is a symptom of memory loss due to mental burden. After giving birth, parents can experience postnatal depression which refers to physical and mental setbacks. This can also be triggered by a lack of iron, zinc, and B12 after giving birth.

"What happens from time to time is that mothers take more mental work while raising children, so that it leads to'mother's brain' and easily turns into a problem of depletion after a more serious presentation", said Shelsh, RN, MSN.

High estrogen levels can trigger headaches. In addition to hormonal fluctuations also cause chronic headaches and migraines. According to Northwestern Medicine, this may be experienced before menstruation, during pregnancy, after giving birth, during perimenopaus, and menopaus. Even when using hormonal contraception also causes headaches.

Lack of sleep, anxiety, and fatigue associated with mental burden can all cause frequent headaches. Stress from the mental burden of a parent can bring disaster to the body, releasing chemicals that cause the body to react in a state of resistance or running, said Jaclyn Fulop, a licensed physical therapist.

Those are the four mental burdens that are common for parents but most experienced by women. How to overcome it, you need to lighten your mental burden. For example, by asking someone else for help, this is quite helpful. The second way, make it and identify your boundaries. This will help you say 'not' to do things that can't be handled.

Wish suggests spending time alone. This free time can be utilized to manage mental burdens and prioritize yourself when you can. It doesn't take much time, it takes 10 minutes a day to walk, meditate, and breathe exercise. In addition, taking a little time for a power gap of 20 minutes will make you feel much better.