The Lindsay Clancey Trial — What Does a Struggling Mom Really Look Like to You?

Previa Alliance Podcast

This episode of the Previa Alliance Podcast examines the Lindsay Clancy trial through the lens of maternal mental health, challenging the mi

Key takeaways

• Functioning well does not equate to being mentally well; many mothers with severe mental health conditions maintain daily routines and responsibilities.
• Postpartum psychosis is rare but real, and symptoms like hallucinations or intrusive thoughts can coexist with high levels of caregiving and organization.

Main topics

• Maternal mental health
• Postpartum psychosis

Notable quotes

"We mistake functioning for wellness. We have such a hard time believing that a mother can be doing everything while quietly battling postpartum depression, anxiety, OCD, trauma, or even a more severe mental illness."

"She reached out for help frequently... She knew. She knew and she sought out help."

Conclusion

The episode concludes with a powerful call to action: mothers must be empowered as advocates for

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:09) Hello, guys. Welcome back to Preview Line's podcast. This is Sarah, and I have got my favorite maternal mental health therapist slash attorney Speaker 1 (0:17) today for the Clancy trial, Whitney. Speaker 2 (0:21) She signed up for jury duty, and we're here. I Speaker 1 (0:26) was Speaker 2 (0:26) not assigned, Speaker 1 (0:27) but I Speaker 2 (0:27) volunteered. We love to self-volunteer in this type A, Enneagram One life. And, you know, even when not called upon. In all seriousness, guys, we are going to talk about the Clancy trial. So if you are not in the mental Speaker 1 (0:44) space to hear this, come Speaker 2 (0:47) back to it when you are or just say, you know, I'm not in that and that's fine. But we Speaker 1 (0:55) are going to talk about postpartum psychosis. We are. Postpartum depression. A lot of things that have already come to light within the trial. I don't think that we will get super detailed in the gory side of things, but just know like it is heavy topics because we are talking about Lindsay Clancy and, you know, the allegations of her killing her three children and a suicide attempt. And that is hard. So if you, if you're not in the place, it is okay that you're not in the place. Protect yourself, protect your mental health. Speaker 2 (1:33) And it's a lot. And, you know, it's like I've told Whitney, Lizards, I'll tell you guys, when it first came out, it brought me back. I mean, it brought me back to Speaker 1 (1:43) postpartum. Speaker 2 (1:45) It brought me back to truly just the feeling of the struggle. Speaker 1 (1:52) And Speaker 2 (1:52) we're talking about brain fog and she's desperately not wanting to feel this way. And even like. feeling like she could and we've done an episode on this about feeling how she couldn't give the attention to her third child the way she was get she Speaker 1 (2:07) gave her first and we did a whole guilt episode Speaker 2 (2:10) of that right Speaker 1 (2:10) yeah so the thing is i think most of us moms really can relate to the journal entries that lindsey had you know that she wanted to Speaker 1 (2:26) I guess get everything right. The nap schedules, the feeding schedules, you know, leaving a note for Patrick of say, hey, put Callen down at this time. All of that, like keeping track of everything and how she wanted to be the fun mom. But then she was also so ridden with anxiety of I have to get everything just right and just perfect. And, you know, we also look at she was a labor and delivery nurse. Speaker 1 (2:53) And I do feel like, especially in medicine, but in these serving professions where sometimes you can be dealing with life or death, that type A, that perfectionism does come out very strongly in motherhood. And it's hard to accept, but we can't get motherhood right. Speaker 2 (3:13) And I Speaker 1 (3:15) think that that was a struggle that she experienced. Obviously, we don't have a verdict. And I would never condone anybody killing their child. But I do think if we look at it from the scope of a psychosis, that if she did do it, she certainly was not thinking in Lindsay's mind. Because I have done therapy with a few women who have experienced postpartum psychosis. And one of them told me vividly that she went to the OB's office just a few days after delivery. And one of the tiles in the OB's waiting room was floating. One of the four tiles was floating. She had that hallucination. And she looked at her husband. She said, I know that this isn't real, but that tile over there is floating in the air. And he goes, no, it's not. And she goes, logically, I know that, but I'm seeing that right now. And when we look at Lindsay Clancy, she reached out for help frequently. Speaker 2 (4:16) One Speaker 1 (4:17) issue I really take, and this is one area that I think she was failed in, is the amount of medications and the variety of medications that she was prescribed. I'm not a doctor, not a nurse, not a PA, so I don't have a degree in medical anything. But I do fear that maybe serotonin syndrome. took place because she did not respond well to the Zoloft and it wasn't removed, more things got added to it. And all of that can overload the brain with serotonin. And that can feel and appear like serotonin syndrome. Speaker 2 (4:59) Yeah. You know, and I think what people are going, and there's a lot of feelings about this because again, Speaker 2 (5:12) They, people cannot. see that a mom could be struggling, having intrusive thoughts, having experiences with psychosis, like, you know, but still take a kid to the pediatrician, to still build snowmans, still be Speaker 1 (5:32) Googling Speaker 2 (5:32) unicorn coloring sheets to... Yes, Speaker 1 (5:36) fluffy Speaker 2 (5:36) slime. You know, they can't, they're like, but, and it's like, You know, I never had psychosis. I had severe depression. I had PTSD. I still every, you know, I kept a house. I, or we had groceries. I made pediatrician appointments. I still plan trips. I, you know, tried new recipes. I Googled those because. Speaker 2 (6:02) And I, you know, the same thing when people say people who have lost a loved one to suicide, right? And if you talk to them, they'll usually say. Speaker 2 (6:16) He was, I had no idea. Speaker 1 (6:18) It Speaker 2 (6:18) was perfectly fine.