Mum and professional ballroom dancer Sharna Burgess has admitted to some 'super dark' intrusive thoughts about her baby son.
The Dancing With the Stars pro gave birth to Zane Walker Green back in June, and has provided her followers with updates on being a mum since that day.
And in a recent post, Burgess spoke about 'intrusive mom thoughts', that she says are a 'real thing'.
In a video of herself and her son posted on Instagram on 9 December, she captioned it with: "Honestly I thought it was something wrong with my brain at first.
Advert
"These super dark thoughts of all the things that could go wrong. All the ways I or life could accidentally hurt my baby.
"All the ways I or life could accidentally hurt my baby. Falling down stairs holding him, sickness, a car accident... the list is long but I won’t share it. If you know you know."
But the new mum admitted that despite having these thoughts five months in, she has since learnt to 'tame them and understand them'.
Advert
She continued: "We have this massive responsibility suddenly upon us when we leave that hospital… in a diaper.. sleep deprived, emotionally charged but also depleted, trying to piece ourselves back together and let’s not forget .. in pain.
"That new responsibility is filled with so much love, wonder and awe but nobody warns you about the equal amount of fear that now lives within you.
"It’s the most excruciating love you’ve ever felt and its overwhelming, at least for me it was."
Later in the post, Burgess provided some 'tools' to parents who may be going through something similar, which may help them like they helped her.
Advert
Her first tip was to take some deep cleansing breaths where you breath in as much air as you can and hold while you say 'I release all thoughts that do not serve me'.
Burgess's second tip said: "When I need a quicker fix I physically swipe my hand in front of my eyes and say 'no' and imagine that image being destroyed and gone.
"I shake it off and call in a memory that I can’t wait to make with Zane. All of the firsts that he has coming."
Advert
Many mums to the comment section of the Instagram post to say they could relate and also praise Burgess for being so open.
One of those was ABC News meteorologist Ginger Zee, who said: "I didn’t want anyone to carry the baby and walk down the stairs with Socks… for fear we would slip.
"Bare feet or rubber soled slippers ONLY. Fears progressed — and then I found meditation. Thank goodness."