I began doing things that were completely outside of my norm, like spontaneously quitting my job one morning. I have zero memory of that. There was even a time when I chose to check in on my pastor, which I never did. I was also speaking about grandiose ideas to my best friend. Alarms were going off everywhere! My husband said at one point I started quoting scripture that he never realized I had memorized.

We hear postpartum psychosis described as “rare” so often that it can feel like an unquestionable fact. But rare compared to what? Conditions with similar—or even lower—rates of occurrence are routinely described as common. The difference isn’t necessarily the numbers. It’s the language we choose to use around them. And when it comes to postpartum psychosis, that choice matters.