Anxiety in the early weeks of a first pregnancy

[Sunny45]

I am around 5 weeks pregnant - first pregnancy. I am really struggling with anxiety about something going wrong and it’s all I can think about!
I would love to hear some positive stories about first time pregnancies or any advice you have for dealing with the first few lonely weeks. I have been to the GP due to struggling so much mentally but didn’t help too much.

Hi, yup, that was me! The pregnancy I was so worried about starts school on September! Is there anything specifically you’re worried about? Try to remember that the odds are overwhelmingly in your favour and that even if something does go wrong, that’s already been decided and nothing you can do will have any influence on it.

Anxiety in early pregnancy is really common, I've had it several times.

My best advice would be to book an early private scan around 7 weeks to give yourself something to work towards and then just keep busy and distract yourself until then. Films, reading, walks, whatever works!

honestly the early weeks are their own special kind of lonely, you cant really tell anyone yet so your brain just spirals in private. i'm a few weeks ahead of you (first timer too, american who moved here mid pregnancy so double the overthinking lol) and the thing that helped me most was letting myself be quietly excited in tiny ways, i started a little notes file on my phone just talking to the bean. didnt make the anxiety vanish but it gave all the feelings somewhere to go. you're already doing so much just by reaching out here.

They really are, I wasn’t expecting to feel so anxious once I was actually pregnant! Thank you for the advice, I hope you are doing well and settling in ok 😊

Thank you! I already suffer with anxiety but it’s ramped up a whole level. I overthink and catastrophise everything so mainly worried about the worst. It does help thinking the odds are in my favour and I keep having to remind myself! Early scan booked for two weeks so trying to keep busy until then

The catastrophising brain is so real, mine runs the exact same worst-case reels on loop, especially in these early weeks. Counting down to a scan is its own kind of torture, but keeping busy genuinely helped me more than anything else did, so you're onto the right idea. Two weeks will go faster than your anxiety is telling you it will.