Post natal anxiety and Trump

[MarjorySunshineDust]

I feel really silly posting this. I had my daughter a week ago and since then I've been feeling really anxious. I can't stop reading the news about Trump and it's giving me such anxiety. I read a thread earlier with everyone saying there is going to be a world war and I felt on the verge of a panic attack. This is not normal is it? Or is everyone genuinely this worried? I should be enjoying my beautiful newborn but instead I feel dread about the future and what I have brought her into. I have spoken to the midwives about the general anxiety I've been feeling but not sure if it's more serious than just hormones and baby blues. I have suffered depression and anxiety in the past.
I just don't know what to do, I hate this feeling but can't seem to stop reading the news, I'm spending all night feeds thinking about it.
I may get this deleted as I feel like an idiot but it's getting ridiculous now.

[Smiffle]

I think reading some of the hysterical scaremongering nonsense on this site in the media would drive anyone into anxiety overdrive.

Have a media blackout, see your GP and concentrate on your wonderful baby.

The world will still be here in a few weeks.

Do ask for help though

[MarjorySunshineDust]

I think I need to. It's not normal to feel this anxious is it? I am under the perinatal mental health team anyway but didn't want to jump into treatment too soon. I had a shower to try and calm down but I'm still sat upstairs in tears.

[FellOutOfBed2wice]

I definitely felt that anxious after the birth of both my children. This was how the "baby blues" seemed to manifest itself for me. I am ordinarily quite prone to anxiety but not to depression so this kind of makes sense. It did go away within a couple of weeks but worth mentioning again to midwife/health visitor/GP and following up at 6 week check.

[RocketQueenP]

I have had to stop going on fb as my feed is full of it. And I've stopped reading the threads.

So no advice really but I wanted to say you're not alone and also remember your emotions will be running so much higher at the moment.

[MarjorySunshineDust]

Did you fell? I never thought it would make me feel this anxious. I have suffered anxiety in the past. Really hope it passes soon, it's such a horrible feeling. It's like a low level anxiety most of the day, then I will do something stupid like read a Trump thread and end up feeling really awful. I got so worked up I was almost imagining an imminent air strike. From where I have no idea!

I've downloaded some mind numbing games onto my phone to keep me distracted during feeds tonight.

[BeverlyGoldberg]

I had my baby at the height of the refugee crisis in '15. I felt utterly distraught. It was months before I could watch the news without sobbing.

It's normal, you're worried about your baby's future, the safety of your family. I feel the same now about Trump but I do have a tendency to overthink things.

Concentrate on your beautiful baby, enjoy this time, and make sure you educate your baby to be the sort of person who will speak out against people like Trump.

Have an un-mumnsetty hug. It's going to be ok.

[2014newme]

It's the baby blues totally normal.
Switch off the news

[jackieeee]

Yes i remember this after the birth of both my children. I used to sit in tears at the uncertainty of their future. Dc are now 2 and 4 and its not as bad, but i do still worry, but im a worrier in general!

[musicmomma]

I completely and utterly understand exactly what you're going through. In 2008 I had a nervous break down from anxiety and I've never been the same since. Then in 2009 when swine flu hit the headlines I completely lost it again. Then there was the whole thing about 2012 doomsday (remember that??) and North Korea were nuclear testing all over again and I convinced myself the world was going to end. This all seems so silly now, but I wasn't well. Now we have brexit and trump and a whole new load of total crap to worry about, but I am much better. I have been to cbt, counselling and seen a psychiatrist as I have struggled so much with anxiety. It's not anxiety, it's pure terror every day that your mind convinces you is real. I lived in a horror story but now I am so much better. I was prescribed citalopram and that really really helped me. Please see your GP this can be easily treated I promise. I'm 30 weeks pregnant now so no medication and no drinking to make it all go away, but I'm coping well (if I do say so myself!). When the baby's born I will go straight back on my meds because obviously I'm a risk for pnd and I know it will probably manifest itself in crippling anxiety again, but apparently citalopram is very good for pnd and not dangerous for breastfeeding either. Please please get some help, there's plenty out there I promise. I remember what it was like being too terrified to look at the news, and just ignoring doesn't address the problem. Now I can read the news and think how crap it is, but know that the world will keep on turning and try and focus on my own life and happiness xxxx

[MsSampson]

I don't have a new baby, but deleted Twitter and all news apps from my phone just after trump got elected. I have insomnia and anxiety anyway, and was on Twitter the night of the election, and I don't think I have ever been more anxious in my life. I was a total mess. So, you're not being ridiculous, or if you are, you're in good company

Definitely follow the advice and stop watching the news. Combined with new baby hormones and sleep deprivation no good can come of it! The man is an utter disaster, but the truth is, his awfulness is very unlikely to affect you.

Enjoy your baby! And line up some comedy on Netflix and forget the dumpster fire that is global politics for a few weeks.

[RocketQueenP]

My youngest was born in the midst of the Ebola crisis. I was terrified and couldn't stop reading news and scaremongering threads on Facebook and here

[Itisnoteasybeingdifferent]

I see a pattern here...
New baby ... then huge anxeity ... Or as PP's have said, baby blues. But that doesn't mean whay you feel is not real.

Don't watch the news for a few weeks. The meeja ara having a field day to see who can shout down President T the most loud. Not to say there is no cause for serious consideration, but instead to take everything the meeja say with a handful of salt.

[RocketQueenP]

Yeah agree with Itsnoteasy

Take care of yourself Op and enjoy your new baby. X

[MarjorySunshineDust]

Thank you all. I spent the night feeds playing a game on my phone instead and was much less anxious. Even though my older dd woke up and ended up in bed with us, chesty cough and all!

[bobbinpop]

Well done
Leave the worrying to other people for now and keep off the news and fb for a good three weeks if you can. I was still at a weepy, anxious stage for a couple of weeks after births. Exhaustion also heightens my anxieties. You're doing brilliantly

[RocketQueenP]

Well done Marjorie

[MarjorySunshineDust]

I will do my best, as long as someone promises to tell me if the world is about to end (half joking !)
Still feel anxious but will see how it goes.

[Itisnoteasybeingdifferent]

Can I offer a bit of perspective?

Yesterday we got the phone call. The one where someone has been take ill etc. We have a lot of elderly relatives and for us it is now the funeral season. WE are simply waiting..

Not my parents who are both past 80 but the father of my nephew's fiancee..he had a mahoosive heart attack and was dead before the air ambulance could get to him. He was only 50 and a bit so younger than me..

[MarjorySunshineDust]

Sorry for your loss.
It's hard to have perspective when anxiety is so irrational.

[helzapoppin2]

Marjory, I had exactly the same when DS1 was born. It was 1983, and Ronald Reagan sent planes to bomb Libya, (So a while ago!) I was petrified it was all going to escalate and the media was having a field day. I realised a bit later a lot of it was post natal hormones, but it was horrible at the time. I sympathise!

[MarjorySunshineDust]

How long did you feel like that for helz?
Today is the best I've felt so far, I had a bit of creeping anxiety late afternoon so I went for a hot shower and found it really helped.

[helzapoppin2]

I can't remember, but I do remember the feelings were intense, and those days were pre-Internet and pre-24 hour news coverage, so it would be harder today to get away from current events.
Your body and mind are geared up to protect this young life you've just created, and that's why you feel extra anxious. My only advice is to give yourself a bit of a holiday from worrying about the world. It will take care of itself.
Sometimes our minds go round and round with unproductive thoughts but we do have the power to say "no", and switch them onto another track, or so a Mindfulness expert once told me!
Distractions, like the hot shower are your best friend!