When you think about it, it makes intuitive sense, when you consider the hallmark signs of depression - sadness, fatigue, lack of interest in things you used to like. When kids are having a tough time with peers, and struggling with depression, then this can translate to reduced rates of physical activity.

It was ultimately fatigue that best predicted which women would develop postpartum depression.

For these women, the constant fatigue came first, and depression followed.

Perhaps numbing yourself of all emotions is better than feeling pain.

I remember asking myself one night, while I was curled up in the same old corner of my same old couch in tears yet again over the same old repetition of sorrowful thoughts, 'Is there ANYTHING about this scene you can change, Liz?' And all I could think to do was stand up, whle still sobbing, and try to balance on one foot in the middle of the living room. Just to prove that - while I couldn't stop the tears or change my dismal interior dialogue - I was not yet totally out of control: at least I could cry hysterically while balanced on one foot.

It seemed silly to wash one day when I would only have to wash again the next.

It made me tired just to think of it.