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TESTIMONIALS – The pathology affects 5% of men, according to a recent study published in 2023. An illness that is difficult to diagnose due, in particular, to gender stereotypes.
Sébastien, a 47-year-old engineer, is the very happy father of two daughters aged 10 and 13. Yet the man has come a long way. When his eldest was born, he went through what we call “paternal depression.” During childbirth, while he is “overjoyed” to be a father, he falters. “There had already been small warnings before, I had notably had phases of anxiety during the pregnancy but nothing serious. I really had no worries in my life and no history that could have predicted the future…” After the euphoria of the birth, everything exploded. Overnight, his mental health declines. “It was immediate and very violent: I cried constantly, I had no appetite, I lost 5 kilos in a few days,” he remembers. Everyone congratulated me and I didn't understand what was happening to me. I was really experiencing a cognitive dissonance between the happiness of having become a father and the anxieties, the sadness of depression.
8 to 10% of fathers concerned
Like Sébastien, others…
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