Anxiety Disorder

[bev26]

Has anyone here had to deal with anxiety disorder without meds whilst pregnant? I'm 23 weeks and have been doing great, then last week my anxiety came back so badly it's unreal! Doctors don't want to put me on anything even though the anxiety is making my blood pressure go up (no protein in my urine). They have refered me to counselling on Monday just gone and I've applied for hypnobirthing to be told the next one in my area is start of March (4 weeks before I'm due!)
Anyone found it hard then found coping strategies that helped them?

No experience but please keep in close touch with your midwife and get them to push for the counselling asap.

What strategies have you used previously? I don't know whether you find exercise helpful but swimming is perfectly safe in pregnancy and can be comfortably done till late on. Would that be a possibility? You also get antenatal swimming classes in some areas which might be a good thing to try. Also antenatal yoga - lots of emphasis in relaxation in that.

I've never been able to find any strategies in the past, I have serevre trouble clearing my head when I get stressed.
It was my GP who referred me to the counsellor but I'm going to be speaking to my GP again on Monday and asking her what can be done in the meantime.
I can't swim as silly as it sounds lol, but I will give my local pool a call and see what they have on offer regarding leasons for pregnant women xx

Doesn't sound silly at all to me - speaking as somebody who couldn't swim till I was 34!

bev26 I know exactly where you're coming from. Suffered from anxiety before pregnancy (several miscarriages and death in family had left me quite crippled with health anxiety and panic attacks) but had got it under control with CBT and similar talking therapy. Then got pg unexpectedl. To my surprise I was ok until 14 weeks, then anxiety started getting worse and worse until around week 20 I felt like I could not handle it anymore.

Keep asking for help- talking therapy/counselling did work for me, as did meditation (I had done some before and used an app called Buddify on my phone for ten mins each morning).

I also found keeping a journal and 'writing myself our out of my panic" helped and still does. I am now 33 weeks and have the occasional flare-up, but generally feel better. Also, once I have been through a bad patch and it goes I can always think to myself "I've done it before,, so I can do it again" which gives me confidence.

Please take care of yourself and keep asking for the help y need! Hope y feel better soon!

There are some anti anxiety/anti depressant drugs which are known to be safe to take in pregnancy. Obviously nobody wants to take ADs during pregnancy. But It's a case discussing the the risks with your GP - are the small risks of taking the drugs actually worse than the risks of feeling so panicky and anxious all the time without treatment?

I'm going to go to the gp and have a good talk with her on Monday and see what she suggests. I hinted at meds the last time spoke to her but all she said was that I've done good to get to 23 weeks and doesn't want to start me on them, but I'm still going to have a good talk with her. Do you know the names of the anti anxiety meds that are safe during pregnancy? I can write them down and go through the list with her. Thanks for the replies everyone xxx

Not sure if applicable, but I was prescribed some sort of antihistamines, which are also (surprisingly) used as anti-anxiety medication. I'm in different country so not sure of NHS guidelines, but I know it's something they do in the states too. Hydroxyzine (atarax) is used for both anxiety disorders and allergic skin conditions. I was told to take a v v small dose and in fact only ever used it twice, but it actually felt good to know that if I had a panic attack again I could take something.
Good luck tomorrow!