Anxiety is driving me insane

[Kathm84]

Hi guys,

I've suffered with anxiety for 20 years and normally have it under control without medication however the closer my due date gets (5/3/21) the worse my attacks are getting and I'm having them over stupid things such as the house being a mess staying on top of things as well as things like Covid, catching Covid and dying , money after baby is here as my childcare costs are going to increase by a few hundred £££ a month. Things going wrong again at the birth even though I'm making sure I have more control this time.
Basically anything that can trigger an attack is and I'm too anxious to talk to anyone about what's going on which is I know is making things worse.

Has anyone else found that they've suffered with anxiety whilst pregnant?

Yes. I have OCD and pregnancy triggered a relapse of symptoms for me. The good news - my anxiety pretty much evaporated after I’d given birth, so for me the ante-natal stage was the absolute worst.

I took ADs from week 20 for first pregnancy and week 12 for second. I was under the care of a psychiatrist and MH team who were brilliant - we developed a care plan together and I felt like I was treated like an adult throughout. For the second pregnancy I was linked with a MH specialist midwife too.

Can you see your GP to get the ball rolling on support for you? From your post it might be worth having some therapy relating to your birth experience if you haven’t already.

Hi OP, I completely relate to you.
A friend of mine had horrendous anxiety throughout both pregnancies and beyond and took Sertraline through the pregnancy and post partum and she’s doing really well.

I took sertraline when DD was small and it was a revelation I felt so much less anxious even after 3 days of taking them.

From what I could gather from research, our brains have adapted to become hyper-vigilant to help us keep our children safe. This causes us a lot of anxiety.

Don’t dismiss medication. It helps.

Oh god yeah!! Crippling crippling anxiety in pregnancy. Nearly hospitalised with it. Felt unsafe and terrified all the time. Anti depressants helped in the end.

It went straight away after the birth.

If you go back to cavemen times, anxiety in pregnancy would be a normal protective response. It’s all hormones. I didn’t believe my psychiatrist. But she was right.

Cheers everyone, phoned my dr but had a better few days which has helped things xxx