My postnatal OCD left me terrified of my own brain

The intrusive thoughts of OCD had been with me, in some form, my entire life (Picture: Zoe Burke)

I woke up very suddenly and checked my daughter’s crib, like I always did.

In reality, she was only five days old and couldn’t move by herself. But in my mind, she wasn’t there.

Immediately I panicked, and tried – as best you can at five days postpartum – to leap out of bed; because my brain was telling me I’d left her on the bookshelf downstairs.

I could see it so clearly in my mind: placing her on the shelf, and how she would fall and hit her head and die if I didn’t get down there...