Abortion, a woman’s choice, isn’t a hard procedure to acquire. In general, assuming you have some cash, all that’s necessary to get an abortion in THE UNITED STATES is setting a scheduled appointment. What many women are unaware of when they’re making this choice – and of particular concern to those with bipolar disorder – is the potential of intense, negative psychological consequences following abortion.
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In the 1970s, in Vancouver, Canada, women considering abortion had to first get the permission of their family doctor, a gynecologist, and a psychiatrist. Some women discovered that it was the psychiatrist who nixed the procedure, telling them they just weren’t capable of handling the trauma and that it could impact them for the others of their lives.
Since then, things have turned to the opposite extreme. Now that abortion has become both legal and mainstream, it’s commonly seen as nothing more than a straightforward procedure.
A woman at the abortion clinic will most likely not find out of the chance of severe negative psychological aftereffects. Nearly all women considering an abortion will never be informed of the documented risk factors of abortion, both physical and psychological. Unfortunately, these hidden risk factors can be even more severely damaging to a female already suffering bipolar disorder.
The possible negative psychological impact of abortion goes by several names: Post Abortion Syndrome , Post Abortion Stress Disorder, Post Abortion Stress Syndrome, Post Abortion Stress, and Post Abortion Trauma. It’s categorized as a kind of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Clinically the recognized diagnosis is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, with abortion because the stressor.
While ladies in post-abortion counseling have reported over 100 negative symptoms, the ones most concerning to women with bipolar disorder will be the tendency to engage in self-destructive acts. In a report of 100 women who suffered PAS, findings reported feelings of self-hatred as most common, followed by substance abuse, and then alcohol. Some women reported becoming addicted to drugs or alcohol following abortion. 60 percent of the ladies reported suicidal ideation, and 28 percent attempted suicide – 1 / 2 of which attempted suicide twice or more.
Usually the first symptom of PAS is denial. If so when this wears off, there might be grief, accompanied by depression, anxiety, irritability, and low frustration tolerance resulting in the possibility of explosions of anger and also violence. There could be a lack of emotional connection, withdrawal in relationships, and sexual promiscuity.
Those acquainted with bipolar disorder will recognize these possible aftereffects as potentially serious complications in this illness. The woman with bipolar disorder has already been at risk for some, if not all these psychological problems before she’s an abortion. Having an abortion may in fact be what pushes her over the edge, and drives her to end her life in suicide.
Those who pressure the girl with bipolar facing an unplanned pregnancy into abortion could be well-meaning, but are uninformed concerning the danger of what they are trying to convince her to do. They may think she actually is ruining her life and the life span of the child by going through with the pregnancy, and consider abortion to become a easy and simple solution. Unfortunately, because the studies show, it isn’t quite so simple. Abortion may actually become the factor that ruins the life of the woman predisposed to mental illness.
Even those who refute the existence of Post Abortion Stress/Trauma will admit that generally the women most negatively impacted by abortion are those who have lower self-esteem in the first place, those that underwent the abortion in circumstances of extreme pressure or abandonment, and those who had a mental illness before abortion.
Quite simply, even those who argue against the possibility of a poor traumatic impact following abortion say that women who aren’t stable to begin with may experience this same negative psychological effect. This brings us back to the abandoned logic of the 70s, when psychiatrists had to OK abortions.
