My battle with post adoption depression

Jodie, 36, and her husband tried for ten years to have a baby before deciding to adopt. After a gruelling two-year process, they were matched with a ten-month-old boy and instantly fell in love.

But five months later, Jodie felt unexpectedly low. With no pregnancy, no birth and no hormone crash, she knew it wasn’t postnatal depression. After speaking to her GP, she was diagnosed with post-adoption depression (PAD) - a struggle many adoptive parents don’t even realise exists.

I spoke to Jodie for Femail in the Daily Mail, about her journey from infertility and adoption to discovering PAD, and why she now wants to raise awareness so other adoptive parents know they’re not alone.