does anyone else have extreme anxiety after having their baby?
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@Meg i think my issue is that im so comfortable at home with no anxiety and when im leaving the house my anxiety just takes over. i’ve been on anti anxiety meds for about 5 years now but honestly dont think its helping now. thank you for your message❤️
I had PPA and PPD. After my first babies (twins) my PPA was so bad and would manifest as rage, it was kinda scary, I would literally yell over spilled milk. I started taking an antidepressant that helps with both and within a week I felt like a calmer, better person. I'm still on the meds and I often look back and cringe at how much I yelled at my twins the first few years before I accepted that I needed medication
Oh god, once you're anxious about feeling anxious, you're done. It's a self fulfilling prophecy. I have had anxiety probably for about 15 years. I self managed. But PPA levelled it up. I started meds finally (Sertraline) and it does help! I also did some really helpful therapy for anxiety, I learnt so much about it and so many techniques. Go talk to your doctor. Be raw and honest. Get on a mental health plan .
@Sharaya it’s so so difficult to cope with especially when you have the added stress of one baby, nevermind two!!!! so glad you’re doing better xx
@Ella i’m on medication and started therapy about a month ago, but yes the anxiety about feeling anxious is so hard because it’s like i’m destined to feel like this!! and i don’t want to. i hope ill get over this hurdle. but thank you!! and hope you’re doing well x
Next session, ask for techniques to deal with intrusive thoughts. Your brain is not YOU. It's just another organ. And it's like an untrained puppy. You have to train it.
As an autistic person who didn’t know I was autistic until my kids were born… my anxiety did go up when they were born… and yeah now I deal with a mild case of agoraphobia… cuz of trauma and my autism… so yeah I like staying home more now then before I had kids… especially after the pandemic…
Anxiety and rage is how my pp experience has been random moments of sadness but mostly just anxiety and rage
I had REALLY bad PPA with my second. It got to the point that I was hallucinating and my intrusive thoughts were getting far too much to handle. Family Doctor did some tests with me to see how I would score for PPA & PPD, ended up needing to be on anti depressants, anti anxiety and anti psychotics. Thankfully they were temporary fixes while he found me a really good psychologist as well to treat the issues more permanently so that I could get off the meds quickly. Was only on them for 2 months.
https://a.co/d/coif7yw My ob/gyn recommended this book and it was very helpful, especially with intrusive thoughts and realizing I wasn't a bad mom/person for having them
I didn't think/know i had anxiety, but it makes sense now I had it bad when my son was like 15/16 months i finally got the courage to see my doctor and she said had had severe post natal depression (but now days I've talked to psychologists and other therapists and suggest ptsd) but I wonder about anxiety, too. I was put on antidepressants for about a couple of years, and that helped somewhat. I was anxious due to my son being born with a rare medical condition and basically no immune system, so i was keeping him home all the time and me too, so that really got to me. I hope you can get the help you need.