Sam Murrell describes an intense bond with her three-year-old daughter, saying she couldn’t imagine life without her. Yet in the weeks following Luna’s birth, she was plagued by thoughts of harming her – fuelling an anxiety so intense she feared her child would be taken away.
Walking into the kitchen, Sam experienced horrifying, unwanted thoughts of injuring Luna. Just seeing large knives on the draining board was enough to trigger disturbing thoughts of deliberately hurting her baby, a strikingly honest admission for any parent.
Recalling the memory of entering her kitchen in those raw, early weeks, Sam, 39, says: “I would think, ‘I can’t be in here, I can’t be near those knives. What if I had some sort of random, uncontrollable rage and hurt her?’”
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