Since the birth of my second child I feel anxious all the time. Not about everything, and not necessarily what you'd expect (I tend to be fairly relaxed about their health, even though they both have colds constantly at the moment), but I get fixated on something and then build it up to the point where I can't stop thinking about it and feel unbelievably anxious - for example a few weeks ago I noticed a few hairline cracks in the plaster in one of my walls. I'm now convinced the house is subsiding, have spent hours googling subsidence, cracks etc, examine the exterior walls of the house every time I leave or enter the house... you get the idea. My rational side knows my house isn't falling down, but if I go to friend's houses I find myself looking to see if they too have cracks so I can reassure myself. This'll work for a while and I'll feel ok about that concern while I concentrate on another (I usually have several concerns on the go at once that take it in turns to be my main issue), but without a doubt I'll return to it and have to start the process of reassuring myself all over again. The concerns can be anything (my health - I'm sure something terrible is going to happen to me soon and I'll leave my children mother-less), the house falling down, whether something I've said to a friend has been taken out of context and she now hates me....
Anyway, pre-DS2 I wasn't like this. I did have occasional obsessive thoughts but I was generally very good at managing them. Now it all feels completely beyond my control and it's starting to affect my day-to-day life. My husband is so fed up with me constantly looking for reassurance 'see that crack - was it there yesterday?', I lie awake for hours worrying,, I feel tearful a lot of the time.
I was at the Doctors with one of my children (legitimate illness concerns!) and I saw a poster about post-natal anxiety and I wondered if this could possibly be what is causing this? Has anyone any experience of it?