Anxiety Before, not During... After?

sharaya

I'm in my 30th week of my first pregnancy, I'm 26. I suffered from general anxiety (though very specific situational triggers caused panic attacks) from the age of 20-25 and have never taken any medication for it, only did counseling to learn how to help manage it. When I became pregnant: all anxiety GONE! Sure I still stress, but i manage it in a more or less level-headed (albeit hormone-driven) way. I have really grown to love this new level-headedness and I really don't want it to go away. I am trying to find any studies that have been performed on this, with no luck thus far. I'm worried that the anxiety will come raging back after baby is born. I'm curious if the hormones are just blocking the anxiety in some way, if there has been some chemical shift enabling this to be a permanent fix (though potentially get re-wired in the next pregnancy since pregnancy is oh so popular at changing things) or if it could go either way?

Saragoeswest

I'm in the same boat as you. I am loving whatever hormone cocktail this is because I do not miss my anxiety at all! But I'm afraid, it's going to rear its ugly head post-partum. 

bohemianlc

Argh, I can't believe that I now can't find the link to the program to share with you, but there was a special on NPR a few weeks ago about postpartum depression and its link to anxiety; I found it to be really interesting. The doctors and counselors on the program were discussing how women with anxiety are not guaranteed to experience more mental health issues after the baby is born than they had prior to pregnancy, but there is growing evidence that they are more likely to develop postpartum. I'm not a doctor, so obviously I don't have the answers. But your hormones and chemicals are always changing, so based on that and personal experience, I unfortunately highly doubt that pregnancy would permanently affect anxiety. I wish it could! 

I'm in the same boat as you. I have had anxiety for years, and while I've never been medicated, I have had to work really hard to keep it in check at the most stressful points in my life. I made my doctor's office aware of my anxiety at the beginning of my pregnancy, but amazingly, it hasn't been much of an issue. Personally, I'm planning on being diligent about my mental health after the baby comes and communicating openly with my family and my doctor about how I'm really feeling post-pregnancy because it could go either way.