general anxiety what can I do?

[pancakequeen]

I had DD 7 weeks ago I also have a ds 2.4 yrs old, after I had him I had terrible anxiety which had eased over time. I thought that this time I would find things easier.

I wake up in the morning with a sense of dread and knots in my stomach, I worry about how I am going to walk the dog, if I will have time to exercise, whether ds will have a nap, if dd will feed at this time or that blah blah blah all pretty stupid things really but I cannot turn my brain off. I also have a history of eating disorder mainly binging and then purging through exercise which I find myself doing or thinking about doing at the moment.

When out of the house I tend to feel fine but when I am in I feel trapped and the sense of dread immediately returns.

I try to cope, I do get out on my own for an hour or two when I can and dh is here but when I am on my own for long periods I cannot concentrate on books, magazines or even a tv programme I envy people who can just sit and be because I can't. I am not sure what to do, I know I am not at my best and it is probably also just having a new baby and not enough sleep. I am just not sure what to do to cope with this.

[sausagerolemodel]

hey there pancake - you are doing OK.
Suggest you have a chat with GP about symptoms as these are classic anxiety/depression signs that you describe. There are various treatments including CBT and or mild ADs (citalopram is effective for helping anxiety symptoms). In either case you may just need a little support for a couple of months til you get yourself feeling on top of things again. Something that helped me was trying to re-establish some routines in my life after DD was born, as I had similar experience to you and found that days just drifted into one another. Going along to baby clubs and things helped a lot. But do speak to your GP if you can.

[pancakequeen]

thanks sausage I appreciate your reply, I spend so much of my time in my own head in some ways it helps just to write it down! I will chat to gp but feel a bit of a fraud as I seem pretty together in the main..... I am not sure how much this is triggered by my current situation rather than me in genaeral iykwim

I am fine when I get out and do things but am having one of those weeks where groups/friends have cancelled etc so has felt like a long week and it's only wednesday! Thanks so much for your advice though, I will take it!

[sausagerolemodel]

I am sure a lot of it is to do with the fact you have a toddler and a tiny baby to look after! You must be exhausted and that certainly wont help. Spending time in your own head is one of the typical things that happens - I used to have an hour and a quarter commute to work each way, every day, overground and two tube trains, and I would be almost completely unaware of it passing because I my head would be twirling with stuff. (but then predictably whenever I went to see the doc I would be feeling fine!)

Good luck - maybe make some nice plans for the weekend? And come back here and write it down again if the thoughts start getting on top of you. x