‘After having my baby I suffered from sleep paralysis and horrifying intrusive thoughts’

Lina knew she needed help, after experiencing intrusive thoughts, images and episodes of complete panic (Picture: Supplied) Six weeks after the birth of her second child, Lina Perez knew she wasn’t coping and rang six helplines in an attempt to access support. ‘I told each one that I hadn’t stopped crying since my son was born,’ Lina, 31, tells Metro. ‘But I just kept being told to ring another number. One person even told me that if I was struggling to take care of my children, I shouldn’t share it, because I could have them taken away from me.’ It was soon after her son was born in July 2025, that Lina began to experience extreme anxiety, sleep paralysis and intrusive thoughts. Her first ‘wave of panic’ hit when she arrived home following a straightforward birth. The new mum was hit by a ‘wave of panic’ when returning home from her birth (Picture: Supplied) Look beyond the headlines Get a curated list of the most important stories of the weekend every Sunday from our weekend editor Jess Austin. Look beyond the headlines with exclusive articles, emotive interviews and must-read explainers from our expert team of reporters across news, lifestyle and entertainment. Sign up here. ‘I felt a heaviness at the pit of my stomach,’ she remembers. ‘My mouth tasted sour. My throat tightened. The anxiety waves would freeze and trap me. I felt completely out of control of my body.’ Nothing had triggered the feelings, recalls Lina, who says they came completely out of the blue, despite her being a second-time mother who had felt prepared for bringing her new baby home. Lasting between one and five minutes, the episodes continued frequently, sometimes several times a day, leaving Lina exhausted and terrified. She was juggling having a child, a baby, and running multiple businesses (Picture: Supplied) ‘On the outside, I was functioning – no one knew I was having these bouts of extreme panic and anxiety,’ she admits. Ask Metro Use AI to go deeper into the stories you care about – powered by Metro and trusted publications. The new mum tried to push through, running multiple businesses and caring for her two young children – despite her body sending her warning signs that something wasn’t right. ‘When I would sleep, my dreams and thoughts were frightening,’ she explains. ‘Usually, the dreams would be of fatal catastrophes that I led my family into. It felt so real. I would say to myself to wake up and fight my way out of the dream.Eventually, I’d wake up convinced that everything I had experienced had just happened. I would be sweating, crying and disoriented.’ Lina’s husband, Louie, would often keep the children away from the bedroom so they didn’t see their mum completely distraught after the dreams. ‘He could see that I wasn’t myself,’ she remembers. ‘I was overwhelmed and physically distressed, but because I hadn’t told him about the intrusive thoughts, he couldn’t fully understand what was happening. ‘I wasn’t myself’, says the mum of two (Picture: Supplied) ‘It was difficult to explain that although I seemed able and was getting on with a basic chore, that inside my anxiety had me crippled.’ Soon, Lina began to dread closing her eyes – but even when she was awake, she would be overwhelmed by unwanted intrusive thoughts. ‘I’d be cooking dinner and suddenly have a mental image of something terrible happening with whatever cutlery I was using,’ she explains. ‘Or I’d be driving and my mind would create an awful scenario where something terrible happened to my family. Lina reached out to multiple care providers before getting any support (Picture: Supplied) ‘I started avoiding tasks like cooking and driving – the most ordinary of things – because I feared having the thoughts while doing them. Suddenly my own thoughts were making me question everyday situations.’ Lina held it all in until one day, she simply couldn’t anymore and began calling the helplines listed in her baby record ‘little red book’. However, she says no one offered the help she needed and instead was left fearful that if she told professionals she was struggling, her children could be removed from her care. ‘So I silenced myself,’ says Lina. A month later, while cooking together in the kitchen, she found herself telling her husband for the first time just how frequent and debilitating her anxiety attacks were. ‘Everyone quietly hoped, as I did, that I would get through it,’ she says (Pucture: Getty Images) In response, Louie simply asked what she needed. ‘The truth was, I didn’t know. But saying it out loud immediately felt like I had shared some of the weight,’ she recalls. Eventually, when her baby was four months old, Lina decided to speak to her GP to ask for help. When she called to make an appointment, she specifically requested a female doctor, ‘but the GP I saw was a man,’ she says. ‘After just a couple of questions, he told me it sounded like depression and gave me anti-anxiety tablets and antidepressants.’ The GP sent Lina away with a prescription for anti-anxiety tablets and antidepressants (Picture: Supplied) ‘But I was frightened of becoming dependent on medication and of starting something I might never be able to stop.’ Although she took the prescription written by the GP, Lina knew she didn’t want to take the medication, and instead continued to look for ways to support her mental health. When she was unable to fine somewhere she could go for the support she craved, she decided to create herself and came up with the idea for a postpartum retreat where mums like her, could get some much-needed understanding and guidance. Lina describes these women as the ‘missing middle’ – those who don’t want medication to be their only option, but also don’t connect with spiritual practices that may conflict with their faith or beliefs. The mum designed a retreat, where mothers could go and talk about their postpartum experiences (Picture: Getty Images) Despite still being in the grip of her anxiety, the businesswoman put her plan into action and launched four retreats designed for women who are sitting in a space that is neither crisis nor ‘fine’, with a host of expertstohelp mums navigate the changes that come after having a baby. ‘The retreats are intentionally small and combine proper rest with beautiful meals prepared by a private chef, treatments such as massage, facials and osteopathy, time to use the spa, meaningful conversations and evidence-based discussions around motherhood and matrescence.’ Calling her business RestoreHER, Lina discovered they weren’t just for other women’s healing, but also helped with her own struggles. ‘Having conversations with like-minded women regulated my nervous system and made me feel normal,’ she says. Lina refound her sense of self through organising her retreats (Picture: Supplied) Slowly, Lina began to see the ‘light at the end of the dark tunnel’. While she continues to make progress, she admit she felt ‘triggered’ by the recent case of Lindsay Clancy, the American mother currently facing three counts of first-degree murder trial for killing her children, whose lawyers argue was suffering from extreme postpartum psychosis. ‘I immediately felt empathy for her,’ Lina says. ‘I may not have been diagnosed with postpartum psychosis, but I know what it’s like to be sleep-deprived, to feel exhausted, to not be believed, to struggle with extreme anxiety postpartum. Lindsay Clancy’s case has brought severe postpartum psychosis into the spotlight (Picture: via REUTERS) ‘I was able to keep going – but that’s not the case with postpartum psychosis.’ Lina adds that her recovery hasn’t been about finding her old self, but carrying forward the woman she has always been. She is also hopeful that, by advocating for the ‘forgotten middle’, more mums will get the right support they need. ‘Until we start recognising them, we’re going to keep missing a huge number of mothers who need support – long before they reach a breaking point.’ Arrow MORE: My Grandma’s trans best friend was an inspiration to us both Arrow MORE: We earned more than £200,000 a year — but struggled to afford childcare Arrow MORE: He disappeared for 10 minutes during sex and did something I couldn’t believe The Sunday Edit Look beyond the headlines with exclusive articles, emotive interviews and must-read explainers from our expert team of reporters across news, lifestyle and entertainment.