anxiety attacks after stopping birth control

I just want to say that all these have helped me a ton. I ended the pill a little over 2 months ago and I am feeling the full wrath of anxiety and fear. I have absolutely never felt this way in my entire life and now I can barely control my fears (which are completely irrational lol). But thank you all again for making me feel normal. I cant wait for this to end!

Hey everyone. I’ve posted before but always forget to leave my name. I’m Beth! :) So... I have been off of birth control now for 9 months. It wasn’t until about 5 months in where I was starting to feel only slightly better. In the last month I have felt so much better though. I still get nervous and anxious, but I can actually go out and not feel like I want to crawl in a hole or go home. I used to feel light headed and it was awful. The anxiety caused that. I’m also 6 months pregnant right now also. In the last month I have had some really great days. I’ve been using essential oils (diluting because of my pregnancy) and that seems to help a ton. Also I have recently been eating healthier and that seems to help. Less processed food. I hope this helps and let’s you all know it get better.

Beth

Hey Beth what symptoms do you still have at 9 months?

Just a note on anti-depressants. I too have been struggling. I resisted anti-depressants because I felt embarassed or that it would be "weak" if I took them. I want to tell you that for myself, taking antidepressants was exactly what I needed. I felt like myself a month or so later. Everyone is different. I'm not saying it's for you, but please don't be afraid to consider an anti-depressant. I started on Paxil, but eventually switched to Zoloft. It helps with sleep issues and also with panic disorders. I am not "promoting" it, but just saying - don't write it off. I wish you all the best, dear girl! :-)

For those who are doing blood hormonal test. Make sure you are going to someone who knows. i believe it should only be tested on day 21 of your cycle if not its not even worth testing. The blood test is not as accurate. I heard saliva hormonal test is the most accurate, with urine being second. I had 3 blood test done which cane out normal, went to nautropath did a urine test they said I had estrogen Dominance high estrogen/low progestorone now I’m going to try the saliva one why? Because I trust no doctor...a doctor did give us birthcontrol after all. So I’m going to another nautropath with different test and if she says The same thing.

You know thinking about this makes me f**** mad why? All of us are going through hell! To regulate has taken peopke months, or years or some still waiting. All while these m**** f**** are just banking on these people just buying these hormones every month or having these peoples insurance pay it. F*** that sh** we should get thousands of girls to write petitions the people funding these pills need to throw their hand in pockets and furrther look into withdrawal symptoms and research how to fix it and for the ones struggling ways for them to heal themselves. I have been going through this for a long time and what a coincides that it all occur aftter stopping the birthcontrok I was good now My life has shattered bc of this I was diagnosed with ocd, anxiety disorders, estrogen dominance,adrenal issues... when I was fine before. We should be mad! We should be gathering documenting, hiring a lawyer among us and protesting they are banking and putting our mental,physical and emotional health in jeopardy and to millions of women thats not right!

Does anyone else get weird stomach pain only when trying to fall asleep? I feel like all my other symptoms have finally cleared except this one. It’s a weird stomach drop feeling when I’m falling asleep with a rush of coldness down my legs. So weird!

Sorry for the delayed response. I feel anxious going out at times. If I have an appointment coming up I get very anxious, but after I arrive for my appointments I am feeling better. I just feel so much better than I did when I first got off of birth control though. I’m definitely not back to 100%, but it seems like I’ve made progress.

Hi Ladies,

First off I would like to thank all of you who shared your stories on here. I'm so so so glad I discovered this when I did because knowing I wasn't alone or crazy helped me stay sane though this. Here is my story for anyone who is looking for comfort. I was on a total of 3 birth controls over the course of 8 months. My OBGYN suggested I try LoLoestrin and gave me a 3 month sample which I started taking in April. Fast forward to early June I was on 3rd month then things took a drastic turn. I started having a MULTITUDE of symptoms I've never ever felt before. Mind you- I was going though some (stressful) life changes at the time, moving out, and planning my wedding. At first I assumed it was a mixture of stress and homesickness but I was THRILLED to be moving out and to be getting married. Why was I feeling this way? I didn't get it. Few weeks in with no improvement I did some googling and found this page. BOOM. Answer to all my problems. I was experiencing the EXACT same things everyone has said here. I stopped taking the pill cold turkey that night. After I stopped everything got worse. The anxiety, panic attacks, racing heart, racing thoughts, heart palpitations, chest pains, nausea, diarrhea, insonmnia, intrusive thoughts like something was horribly horribly wrong and I didn't know what, thoughts like something bad was going to happen to me or my family at any second. Thoughts that I or my loved ones were going to die. The panic attacks were the worst thing. I couldn't snap myself out of it. It felt like I was losing my mind and couldn't get a grip on reality. All the things that made me happy didn't matter anymore. I stopped planning my wedding, felt disconnected from my fiance, had breakdowns every day. I could not function. I would just sit and cry and send myself into a panic attack if I worried too much about when my next panic attack would be. I was a wreck. I can't even put into words how much I terrified and scared I was. I literally thought I would end up in a mental hospital. I couldn't eat or sleep. I lost 12 lbs in 2 months. Only thing that kept me going was reading these posts and hope. I also prayed a lot. I saw a therapist and explained to her what was going on. She helped explain to me that I didn’t have an anxiety disorder and that Birth Control shuts off your brain and your reproductive organs while supplying fake hormones. Once you stop cold turkey your body needs to re-start and re-figure out what’s what. I left her office in tears of relief. Knowing this wasn't forever and this that wasn't the end. After that I started doing things to help my body and mind through this. Here are the things I did that helped me:

Took Oil of Evening Primrose (My period was 6 weeks late after I stopped bc after taking this my period came back) VITAMIN B12 OR B-COMPLEX HELPED A LOT (it supports a healthy nervous system and gave me energy) Try your best to eat clean or as healthy as possible (no fast food) Avoid Caffeine and alcohol like the plague. One sip of wine or coffee sent me into an anxiety mindset and it just wasn't worth it at the time. Drink water. Meditate, Pray, Talk to someone-anyone who will listen. Seeing a therapist also helped me a LOT. I needed someone else to vent to other than my mom and poor fiance. Keep track of your symptoms or anxiety levels with a notebook. I write down the date, and level from 1-10 of my anxiety that day. It helps to actually SEE your progress.

I'm currently on my 2nd month off the pill and my anxiety now is almost nonexistent. I haven't had a panic attack in weeks. All other symptoms have pretty much stopped except occasional chest pains and sometimes shortness of breath. Some days are better than others but I'm extremely grateful that this is passing. Someone posted here some time ago to "ride the rollercoaster until it eventually stops" that's what I did. I know it's hard but it stopped for me and It WILL stop for you too. Also my therapist said that if you're worried about going crazy that's a good indicator that you're NOT because people who are actually going crazy don't realize it at all. I Hope this helps someone.

What’s your email

I don’t think it will let me post my email here. How are you? Did you recently stop bc too?

I've been having a rough past few weeks. I am 6 months off the pill and now have fallen into a constant anxious state and having panic attacks almost twice daily. I have intrusive thoughts about what if I hurt myself, suicide like thoughts that I would never thought of before, I do not want to but it is the fear i think that I am not myself and the what if I do and that then sends me into a spiral and a panic attack happens.

I don't think I can handle this anymore as all my strength is gone, so I think I will be returning to the pill.

I know exactly how you feel. I was having the exact same thoughts like what it I hurt myself. It was the scariest thing I’ve experienced along with the panick attacks. I was in a dark place. I went to my regular doctor and told her about the panick attacks. I was given the lowest dose of Ativan which I took when I really needed it. When I felt like I couldn’t handle it anymore. It helped slow/stop my intrusive thoughts. It gave me peace from the terrible thoughts. Did this just recently start or have you been feeling this for the past 6 months? My advice to you is keep pushing through it. I would Explore some other options to help yourself feel better. Ativan? I know how hard it is. I’m never going back on the pill I never want to experience this again. I’m here if you want to talk.

Just remember it’s not YOU thinking this. It’s your hormones going haywire. It’s not you. You will feel normal again you just have keep pushing. You are strong to have made it this far :)

i am 6 months off and thought i was past the worst of it.. turns out I'm not.
Since 2 weeks before my period, I have had a panic attack everyday, I am depressed and am having intrusive thoughts as well. It is so scary, it is the emotional numbness that throws me into a panic attack and then recovering is brutal and then I do it again the next day. I am so exhausted and can't do this anymore. Does anyone have anything that will help? I have ativan but I try not to use to all the time