My younger brother, Mikhail, has me feeling a bit concerned. He’s recently become a father-to-be, which is no small amount of pressure at the age of 21. That in itself wouldn’t worry me, but he doesn’t seem to be coping that well, and his anxiety seems to be mounting as the pregnancy progresses.
I sort of wonder if he feels uncomfortable with expressing his apprehension. At that age, I’m sure I would have wanted to keep it under wraps, not realising that this is something that’s almost universally experienced as a significant life change, and one that can be stressful to boot. Mikhail is very smart, but I don’t think he’s had enough life experience to be comfortable with expressing vulnerability.
At the same time, not having kids myself, I don’t really feel qualified to advise – or at least, I suspect he’ll tune me out because I’m not an authority. This makes me wonder if the matter would be best approached by pointing him towards some counselling. Mornington people, do you have any recommendations on this?
I mean, it’s not that I think he’s on the precipice of a drastic breakdown. I just want him to be mentally stable and feeling good about the whole thing by the time the baby is born – preferably earlier, really. It just seems like the whole family situation is likely to be more resilient that way. I might not have had a baby myself, but I know how much strain they can put on relationships.
One of my friends saw a Mornington psychiatrist by referral from her GP when, over a year after giving birth and having successfully sleep trained her bub, she was still having problems sleeping. She told me she hadn’t really wanted to do it, as she’d formed a belief that insomnia was a normal state to be in, even though her kid had started sleeping through the night. In the end, it was a very effective course of action for her
Maybe I’ll hit her up for the details of the centre and pass it onto Mikhail.