Anxiety Disorder

Burberry0421 · January 2014

Anyone else suffer from this? I have a long family history of anxiety disorder (my mom is absolutely the worst culprit), and I have dealt with it on & off since I was 17. In the last 2 weeks, it has flared up horribly. Anyone else dealing with major anxiety during your pregnancy?

LegallyBlonde217 · February 2014

Mine stayed pretty mild while I was pregnant, but it came back x 10 after I delivered. If your anxiety is really bad you should talk to your OB. They will put on anxiety meds if it's so bad that it could cause stress to the baby. The meds are safer for the baby than the stress is.

JKGymnast · February 2014

I would talk to your primary care as well. My anxiety always minimizes during pregnancy but returns postpartum. Good luck.

Rynleigh · February 2014

I have Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Being med free during my pregnancy was not easy. I was in here spilling my fears pretty regularly.... but now that the pregnancy is passed, I am able to look back and appreciate that some of the exposure to that stress has instilled new coping skills in me. The typical med they will put you on if you are going to medicate during pregnancy and breastfeeding is Zoloft... the problem with Zoloft is that it is generally more effective for depression than anxiety (until you get into the upper OCD level doses, 200mg+).

If you don't mind sharing publicly, do you have any major triggers besides your mother (I'm not really sure if you just meant that your mother has the worst anxiety of your family, if she rubs off on you, or if you are anxious when she's around, or all of the above)? Are you in a position where you are able to be free from your mother's influence during your pregnancy, or is it a situation where she lives near by and is getting over-involved? None of us can fix it all for you, but we can offer validation and support and perspective.

cukimerrydoll · February 2014

Oh, you are not alone! I couldn't be happier that my OB got me back into therapy. Since I didn't want to start meds while pregnant, we've been doing a lot with deep breathing exercises and identifying stress triggers. Even just knowing what triggers my big issues helps me to avoid all out panic. The other thing we've looked at are some relaxation exercises and guided breathing on YouTube. It's definitely helped lower my anxious stress response when it starts to get out of control. Hope that helps!

Burberry0421 · February 2014

@Rynleigh I'm just a really fearful person. This was instilled in me at an early age, so when my anxiety started at 16 or so, I should have seen it coming. I fear that I am crazy, that no one else knows how I feel, that my daughter will get this horrible affliction, that I am harming the boys when I do have these attacks, that I won't be able to be a good mom, that I am a bad person because I'm not that excited at this point & I'm scared this will be so so hard.

I went back on Zoloft 4 days ago (it's what I've taken for years), but the frustrating part is that I was off of it for 2 years, then started a cycle of miscarriages, infertility & then a twin pregnancy. I think my hormones are just out of whack BUT that pisses me off. I feel like a loser that I can't deal with this, control my thoughts & the fight or flight response even though I know it's not up to me. I know that it's a chemical imbalance but it makes me feel like a huge loser.

Being put on MBR at 18 weeks made this all much worse too. I'm a very social, active person & to be confined to my house & have to have everyone do everything for me has been really hard. As soon as he said the words, I knew I would get to this point again. It's not good to just lay around all day, so doing this for months on end has only made me feel worse.

cukimerrydoll · February 2014

@Burberry0421 I understand about the MBR making it worse: it's been my life for the past 14 weeks. Try to remind yourself that your feelings don't make you a loser at all! (Or you and I can be losers together - just know you're not alone in this). My therapist says these problems are very common with long term MBR and BR. I've struggled with a lot of same fears and feelings, and I honestly could have written your last comment on some days. Is there anyone you can talk to for support? Even if it's just a friend, sibling, etc to help decompress your feelings? If you need to PM me your details, I'm available too.

SVandy14 · February 2014

I have awful anxiety. My brain always goes to the worst-case-scenario. I'm trying to stay positive. My husband is great at talking me down. I also find if I take a warm bath and turn off the lights (or just a night light) and sip warm water I usually bring myself back down.

I've never been put on drugs for it, though honest -- I should be and should have been. I have a hard time LEAVING the house. Like so bad. I worry about all my animals at home. When I have the kids I'm afraid I'm going to be a total shut in. Right now my anxiety is that I know I'm pregnant but because I'm only 14 weeks I can't feel anything and I just want to know everyone is okay. I have doctors appts every 2 weeks but this time I went three (I'm on the third week now) and I'm a wreck. My next appt is Monday and I just want to hear those HB and see strong bouncy babies on the screen. If you need someone to talk to, I'm always here...WE ALL ARE. Does your hospital offer any counseling? Mine has one-on-one and a group for multiple mama's. I would ask.

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