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Post-adoption Depression
What You Don't Know Can Hurt You By Ninotchka Beavers
Diagnosing and Treating PADOn that account, how does one know if they are suffering from depression versus the normal period of adjustment following new parenthood? Dunnewold tells us it is a question of balance. You must consider the ratio of normal feelings to negative ones. If you're having more good days than bad, then most likely you are not suffering from depression. It is when the bad days dramatically surpass the good that you should take notice and seek help.
Medications are not typically the primary form of treatment for PAD. Often, working these feelings out with a therapist puts most new parents on the road to recovery. Unfortunately, no statistics are available about the duration of the condition and its treatment. Dunnewold advises adoptive 
parents to seek information on postpartum depression, as it very much parallels post-adoption depression.
Unfortunately, information specifically on PAD is not as widespread and available. Sadly, many agencies, adoption lawyers and social workers are so busy helping couples become parents that they rarely advise them of the challenges they may face shortly after doing so. "...I was not told by my adoption agency about any of this at least from what I can remember," Twit says. "The whole process was such an emotional ride that I am sure I don't remember everything."
It is imperative that potential and newly adoptive parents arm themselves with as much information as possible so that they may detect the symptoms of PAD at the onset and seek help accordingly. As the old saying goes, "Knowing is half the battle." The most important thig to remember is that post-adoption depression is real, and there is help.