Severe anxiety while pregnant?!
Question: Severe anxiety while pregnant.?
I constantly worry and obsess that something I do (for instance ingest, touch or yell etc..) is going to hurt my baby. I have always been kind of an anxious person but from the moment I found out I am pregnant I worry about everything. I worried about miscarriage and now that I am 24 weeks I worry about pre-term labor. I worry that if I yell or my boyfriend talks loudly into my stomach (which he does a lot) that I will harm the babys hearing or when my bf shined a flashlight on my stomach that the light could hurt his eyes.. I worry about swallowing something that can make me sick, or getting an infection that can cause preterm labor. I worry that I might harm family by feeding them something that might make them sick because it was left out or that if I don't go with them somewhere they may get in a car accident and I will regret not going... It never ends. I am constantly worrying and obsessing.
Is OCD or anxiety made worse by pregnancy.? I thought I was over all of this. I was on meds for 2 years and got off because I was doing better. 3 years later looks like I am on that same road and when I have the baby I am hoping it will all go away so I don't have to get back on meds again.Health Question & Answer
Is OCD or anxiety made worse by pregnancy.? I thought I was over all of this. I was on meds for 2 years and got off because I was doing better. 3 years later looks like I am on that same road and when I have the baby I am hoping it will all go away so I don't have to get back on meds again.Health Question & Answer
Answers:
OMG you sound exactly like I did when I was pregnant! I worried about the most ridiculous of things to the point I couldn't sleep. I ate a prawn by mistake once and convinced myself I'd done some damage. I ended up having 5 scans because I was always convinced something was wrong!!!
Unfortunately it only got worse after my son was born, it got so bad I was afraid to take him out for a walk in the pram in case a car mounted the pavement and crashed into him (I know your thinking how mad!) and at night I wouldn't sleep I would just stare at him sleeping making sure he was still breathing. I started checking things like the gas cooker all the time, cleaned everything to the point I had sores on my hands, I was so worried he would get an infection from something. Once I was giving him a bath and he put his wet hand in his mouth and I was terrified for days that the bath water would infect him. I sterilised things over and over again, and went through litres of antibacterial spray every week.
By the time I actually seeked help everything was so so out of hand, so please be aware that hormonal changes after you give birth may only make things worse, so if you feel your going down the obsessional route see your doctor asap.
Best of luck x
EDIT - I feel so much better after reading you are thinking the same thoughts I did, I thought it was just me! I swear I went through every possible drama there is while pregnant, if my mum went out in her car I would worry until I knew she was home safe, and I cried for 2 weeks solid while she was on holiday as I was convinced something would happen to her and I would never see her again! I know exactly what you're going through!Health Question & Answer
Unfortunately it only got worse after my son was born, it got so bad I was afraid to take him out for a walk in the pram in case a car mounted the pavement and crashed into him (I know your thinking how mad!) and at night I wouldn't sleep I would just stare at him sleeping making sure he was still breathing. I started checking things like the gas cooker all the time, cleaned everything to the point I had sores on my hands, I was so worried he would get an infection from something. Once I was giving him a bath and he put his wet hand in his mouth and I was terrified for days that the bath water would infect him. I sterilised things over and over again, and went through litres of antibacterial spray every week.
By the time I actually seeked help everything was so so out of hand, so please be aware that hormonal changes after you give birth may only make things worse, so if you feel your going down the obsessional route see your doctor asap.
Best of luck x
EDIT - I feel so much better after reading you are thinking the same thoughts I did, I thought it was just me! I swear I went through every possible drama there is while pregnant, if my mum went out in her car I would worry until I knew she was home safe, and I cried for 2 weeks solid while she was on holiday as I was convinced something would happen to her and I would never see her again! I know exactly what you're going through!Health Question & Answer
Pregnant women are prone to hormonal changes. This may affect the mood of the mother.Health Question & Answer
Negative emotions (like sadness, stress, anger, etc.) causes your Serotonin production to be low; when your Serotonin level is low, you are more prone to getting Anxiety, Panic Attacks, Depression, etc.
Medication like Antidepressants (SSRI - Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor) helps to boost Serotonin level.
But there are natural ways to do it without medication. There's this strange herb called "St John's Wort" - it is said to be more effective than Prozac. No, it is not for mild depression only and ignore those sayings. In fact, it does help anxiety and panic-attacks as St John's Wort works like prozac. Other natural ways will be exercise, diet, more exposure to light, etc.
The problem is that, even if your Serotonin is balanced... you have that "learned behavior" in your mind. You need to break that initial cycle to destroy that learned behavior - Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) does this. A technique that you can use without CBT will be Distraction... There are several other techniques to help cope them!
Ok, to use Distraction: Firstly, try to....
Extracted from Source.Health Question & Answer
Medication like Antidepressants (SSRI - Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor) helps to boost Serotonin level.
But there are natural ways to do it without medication. There's this strange herb called "St John's Wort" - it is said to be more effective than Prozac. No, it is not for mild depression only and ignore those sayings. In fact, it does help anxiety and panic-attacks as St John's Wort works like prozac. Other natural ways will be exercise, diet, more exposure to light, etc.
The problem is that, even if your Serotonin is balanced... you have that "learned behavior" in your mind. You need to break that initial cycle to destroy that learned behavior - Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) does this. A technique that you can use without CBT will be Distraction... There are several other techniques to help cope them!
Ok, to use Distraction: Firstly, try to....
Extracted from Source.Health Question & Answer