A mum believed her mother-in-law was plotting against her and hiding her medication as she suffered from postpartum psychosis.
Charity Horton gave birth to triplets Raine, Poppy and River, in March 2021 and looked after the healthy kids at home with wife Sarah, 34. Once she got home from the hospital, Charity 'barely slept' for a week and soon became convinced she was starving her babies, when this cas not the case.
The 35-year-old initially believed she was just a "bit down" but eventually "lost control of everything" and started to believe that her mother-in-law, Cheryl Horton, 54, was hiding her medication.
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Charity was even convinced Cheryl's dog was going to eat her babies, Sarah was leaving her, and she could see through walls of their home in St Austell, Cornwall.
She said: "I kept having these thoughts about shaking the babies as a hospital letter said you shouldn't do that if they're screaming. I kept thinking they were going to die.
"Because we'd had a miscarriage the previous year and I just thought that these three little babies were going to die. Sarah's mum moved in with the dog, who's the softest you'll ever meet, but worrying that they were going to be attacked.
"And that tipped over into thinking Cheryl was hiding my medication and convincing Sarah to leave. I was acting out of character and I wrote a lot of notes as well as having really scrambled thoughts."
After a month, Charity was admitted to hospital after bravely confessing to having suicidal thoughts.
Despite being sent home after two weeks, Charity suffered "breakthrough symptoms" and was still feeling angry towards her mother-in-law and experiencing paranoia.
Charity, a CCTV manager, said: "I had 18 months of still feeling bitter and confused by it. I felt like I wasn't getting over the experience of what happened.
"It was still very traumatic and I was quite bitter about it. December 2022 I got back in touch with the psychosis team and we were doing talking therapy.
"I'll never get my chance for raising the triplets to be a lovely experience again. But I feel like Sarah and I are so much more together as a couple now after the therapy."
During her psychosis battle, Charity said she would fixate on the band Nirvana, losing a pair of Nirvana socks and associating some of the band's lyrics with her real life.
She said: "Everything I felt had a link to reality. When you've got psychosis you think your reality is actually what's happened.
"You feel torn between thinking that it's real and knowing you've got a mental health condition."
Charity now wants to encourage others who may be suffering to speak out and seek help.
She said: "This exists and it's a real thing. Be aware of it and try and recognise the signs.
"I know I wanted to be with my babies but I was quite suicidal – I just felt like there was no escape. I feel because it's so rare we didn't know what it was.
"What I had was massive and people hear the word psychosis and think you're a 'psycho' whereas in reality, I was really frightened and vulnerable. I really want to help people and she's been worried about the same things as I was, but it's not a life sentence.
"I never thought I'd speak to someone who I know that would have it. So maybe it is common, we're just not picking up on it as much."