anxiety attacks after stopping birth control

Im on month 4 of this crazy ride and you are correct about all the above. Thank you so for posting! Just curious how long til you felt completely like yourself?

I went off my birth control (generic for yasmin) about 4 months ago because it was making me anxious.. as soon as I stopped taking it, they got 1000 times worse. I was having anxiety attacks all day long. As well as depression, irrational thoughts, and horrible mood swings. It stayed that way for a few months and even though I went to the ER and they prescribed me anti-anxiety meds, I refused to take them. I did my research and hoped this would all pass with time alone, because I've always been a postivie, outgoing, happy person. As of now I have anxiety a lot less and I still have irrational thoughts but I'm so much better than I was before. I read that it could take up to 2 years for your hormones to get back to normal. So hang in there! You are strong!!

Me again...Me it was at its worse between 1 1/3 to 3/4 weeks off the pill. Then it started to subside but I noticed it rears its head a bit especially just after my period. I think an increase in stress/anxiety after your period can be common though anyway. But I get the feeling its my body continuing to get used to being off the pill. Hang on in there, it does fade away and make day-to-day living normal again.

Well I said it was at its worst around Christmas. Its now May and I've been feeling really good for a month or two now. I occasionally get anxiety anyway so I may not be the person to ask in terms of getting 100% back to 'normal'. But I would say I've barely had any rushes of adrenaline/panic, and when I have I've been much better at gently pushing it away. It's really worth trying out the different approaches I mentioned if you feel you're still struggling.

Firstly I'd like to say how much this thread has helped me. I dread to think where I'd be if I hadn't read all of your stories I'd have had no idea as to why I felt like I was loosing my mind. I'd just like to tell you my story and see if you guys have had any similar symtoms. 

I came off the pill at the end of November 2013. I'd been on Yazmin for 8 years and was keen to get off it for phyiscal health reasons. My periods had also started messing up and were becoming less and less, sometimes I wasn't even having a period. So I decided to stop. About three weeks later, around the same time of my 24th birthday I had the worst panic attack. I've only ever had one other, before I started the pill when I was 15 and this one was much worse, it crept up on me completely unprovoked in the middle of work, (I work in a massive retail store, I looked insane) and ever since then I have been suffering with anxiety. For the last 8 years I've generally been a calm, confident person and since I have come off the pill I have been anything but. 

Thankfully I stumbled on this thread when I looked at the side effects of coming off the pill and now I am certain that this is the problem. I have had sleepless nights, general anxiety, feeling completely disconnected, nonchalant and what I can only decribe as 'foggy'. This is so unlike me, I'm normally a bit too empathetic and feeling towards others. Now sometimes I feel as if my brain is racing and others I feel as if there's nothing there. The worst is what I think is 'depersonalisation'. I read up on it and it can be caused by panic attacks. Its making me feel like I'm not even in my own head. Please reply to me if any of you have been feeling the same, I'd love to know your own experiences. 

It's about 8 months down the line today and although I have found myself dealing with the anxiety better its still very much there and bad days are really bad days. I'm looking to get my hormones tested (does anyone know how? Can I just go to a normal doctor?) and sort myself out through diet and suppliments as I really don't want to rely on meds but i'm dubious as to what the doctors would say, reading you stories. 

Anyway thank you if you have read this far down, sometimes I feel like I'm at my wits end and I feel so angry that it isn't more broadly advertised as to these symptoms we're all feeling after coming off it. It just seems like too many of us have felt like this for it to be anything else. 

Your Md might be willing to do blood tests. I used saliva testing through my ND. I would rec. finding an ND. You will most likely find them to be more compassionate and open minded. Both my MD and OBGYN were worthless in helping me. Said my horrible anxiety and insomnia had nothing to do with bcp or hormones. Really dumb. You can order a saliva test online w/o a doctor I am pretty sure. Zrt labs is a very good place to start.

Birth controls discontinuation and anxiety; why it happens?

Can I just say, reading this has been the biggest help to me. I came off Yasmin after being on it for 2 years. Straight away I started getting a few pimples, big appetite, increased sex drive, I felt amazing and then a couple of weeks later just before my first period I was having hot flushes, nausea, and suffering from the strangest panic attacks that would literally come from nowhere and it was absolutely horrible! Since reading this I feel so much better, and although the side effects are still there the anxiety is going just knowing what this is! Thank you for sharing your stories ladies, hang in there.. What feels like forever certainly won't be. Breathe, and trust this will soon pass.

Hi ladies. I've posted on here a few times as jas86 and as a quest. It has been 1 year and 2 months since I had my very first episode. Just to recap, I was on yazmine for 4 years and in my final month of using the pill tried the genaric version Isabelle. A week to the day after stopping the pill, I started having severe anxiety and depression which than led to what I assume was intrusive thoughts/ OCD. Doctors didn't want to acknowledge it was hormonal, cardiologist did, hypnotherapist was supportive and very helpful and this thread was a god send. But by the time I had found this thread, I was already too deep in. And eventually when I finally built up enough courage to see a therapist, she said what I was experiencing was exactly that of a woman that is going through post natal depression.

But...It does get better. You honestly just have to ride out the rollercoaster. I remember reading that very statement at the beginning of it all and thinking I can't hold on but you do, you honestly do. Just take it day by day.

through my research (and I've done a lot), I've come to learn that while you are on the pill, you are being fed genetic hormones, fake hormones that trick your body into thinking it is pregnant. So you're never actually having a 'real' period while you are on the pill. When you stop taking the pill so abruptly, your body is depleted of hormones, your empty, unbalanced. Which then leads us to feeling the way we do. Your body needs to build it's hormones back up and this varies different for everyone.

What I've come to realise is, when we first get our period we're usually early teens and then when most of us start taking the pill we've had our periods for a few years, we're use to our body. What I don't think we realise is when most of us take the pill, we feel good! We don't have pms and all that is associated with getting your natural period and we get use to this! Then when we get off the pill, there is this shock to the body and then we start to go through what I honestly think is puberty...again. And then because we have gone through all this c**p we are more inclined to notice things our body does before, during and after our periods which when you think really hard about it, were probably always there, before ever using the pill, it's just our bodies were use to it! For example, when I started to get my mind back, some of the anxious feelings I was having before ovulating were familiar to me. This is what my body had always done prior to ever starting the pill, it's just I never gave it any though. 4 years on the pill, I never had that icky feeling. I only knew when my periods were coming by the tablets on the pack. Now having hone through what I did, I was associating those feelings with the severe anxiety and depression I had in the early stages.

But a year on and I almost completely there. My bad day now is my heart fluttering the day before ovulating. I now just have to disassociate my mind from thinking I'm relapsing. This is my body! And I just have to get re-use to it. But I am stronger and I have my confidence back. It's all about re-programming your mind and body. I found Jodie Whitley's hypnosis YouTube clip very helpful and acupuncture. I honestly wish in the early weeks I had come across them sooner.

Good luck ladies. I know it can be a very long, lonely, dark tunnel but there is light at the end of it. There really is.

Hi girls, **IMPORTANT** I stopped the pill 7 months ago and experienced all the symptoms that everyone on this forum have mentioned. I would recommend seeing a nathropath who specalises in hormones. I recommend Sensible-Alternative Naturopathic Clinic it is in sydney. I dont believe doctors can help with this problem as they will not admit to the pill causing these problems. The nathropath can prescibe natural supplements to help with anxiety and hormonal support. I hope this helps, i know what you are all going through and we can get through this together. It does get better but very slowly. hang in there girls.

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I too had panic and anxiety really really bad after I stopped birth control last year. Since it started a month after I stoppped on the day of my first non birth control induced period it logically assumed it was the birth control. The panic and anxiety very gradually got better over the course of a year but never went fully away. I would have times where my heart would race just for a second but it still did it. And I still had insomnia which I took sleeping pills for. I though my body just needed time to heal after the birth control but almost a year later I had another big anxiety panic attack and decided that something wasn't right. Now I know that it is my thyroid causing all my problems. I had this for years before I started the birth control but was just told by my doctor that my thyroid was "underfunctiong" take this pill (Synthroid) and all will be fine. What he neglected to tell me was that I have an autoimmune disease where my immune system is killing my thyroid. Know what happens when it does? It dumps a bunch of the stored thyroid hormone in my blood stream causing anxiety, panic, heart palpitations, insomnia, diarreah, mental disturbances, nervousness, hair loss, shortness of breath, tremors, shakiness, dizziness, loss of appetite, the list goes on. I knew about and had felt the hypo symptoms such as fatigue, unexplained weight gain, depression, but was never told that I could have the hyper symptoms too. And guess who gets Hashimoto's? Premodiantely women (lucky us!). And it occurs freguently during pregnancy and after giving birth due to the shifts in hormones taking place. Sound familiar? Not saing that all people that have anxiety of panic after stopping birth control has an underlying thyroid problem but it was the case for me. And if you do decide to get your thyroid tested make sure they test NOT just the TSH but also the Free T4 and Free T3 and most importantly the two thyroid antibody test. You must get both. Your thyroid levels can be fine but if you test positive for the antibodies you have Hashimotos and your immune system is attacking your thyroid. For a while you adrenals can help compensate but after a while you will start to have hypo symptoms. I hope this helps someone.

Hi everyone - I posted this on another thread, and wanted to add it here too -- I remember the feeling of hopelessness, waiting for someone to responsd that they got better! GOOD NEWS, THERES HOPE! - I have been reading this website since my symptoms started in April, and I can tell you that it's helped me through so much. Like everyone says on here, you are NOT alone. I know when it started though, I would read the stories and think "yeah that sounds the same, but MINE is different". Most likely not, it's your HORMONES and YES they can do these crazy stuff to your mind and body.

I'll give you a little background of my story. I'm 27, recently got married in April. Planning my destination wedding was stressful enough, but on top of that I had a dog who started having seizures, a new sales job that I completely hated, a car accident that led to therapy and all kinds of little things adding to my stress. Seems simple enough, right? Well I had been on beyaz for a few years, before switching to Yaz because my new insurance didn't cover beyaz anymore. Didn't notice much of a difference, I've been on birth control since I was 14. I had TERRIBLE acne my whole life, HORRIBLE migraines almost every day and I was always, always, always tired. Never thought much of it.

Fast forward to when the symptoms started: I was on my HONEYMOON in Mexico after a long day excursion, and BOOM out of nowhere, PANIC. Full blown. Never had that before in my life, had NO clue what was happening to me. I went down to the concierge to have him check my temperature because I felt like I had a fever (chills, shaking uncontrollably). I thought for sure I ate something and had food poisoning, which threw me into a further panic (OMG, I'm in Mexico, the health system here is TERRIBLE! I'm definitely dying here. IRRATIONAL thoughts! lol). Well we flew home the next day, and the panic continued. Panic attacks, CONSTANT state of fear, the world was scary, nothing made sense... I called psychiatric hotlines and prayed a lot!

So my mom told me she read that it could be from the pill so I decided to stop it cold turkey, I had had enough of that (I think I called my primary doctor and gynecologist 10 times one day asking what to do, they thought I had lost it too!). I wanted my body to be clean of chemicals anyway, and although my husband and I didn't want a child right away, I was married so we would be fine. DONE! No more pill, that will solve my problem!

WRONG. The full blown panic attacks had stopped, not sure if I was getting better at stopping them, or if the pill was causing such a surge or what. But here's where it gets interesting... WEIRD thoughts started. I'm talking WEIRD, like I couldn't look at people because they looked like aliens, I wasn't connected to my body, what does life mean? Why are we here? Every thing I looked at looked weird and freaked me out. I’ve never done drugs, but I can imagine this is what a ‘bad acid trip’ feels like. WEIRD thoughts. I woke up one night in a panic from a bad dream, came out to the kitchen and an irrational thought came in to my head that said stay away from the knives, you will kill yourself....! WTF! I had never had suicidal thoughts in my life. I felt like I had no control of my own body. I also had weird symptoms in my body, internal tremors (like my chest was shaking inside), like my skin was crawling (some nights I couldn't even lay down, its like you have to shake off a chill, but can't), dizzy, brain fog, lightheaded, some nights I would sleep amazing and other nights I couldn't sleep at all... it was TERRIBLE! I was scared of BREATHING. BREATHING! Oh, and one night I woke up and the left side of my face was numb and the top of my head was numb and tingling... RUSHED to the ER, they said it was from a possible pinched nerve in my neck from the car accident, did X-rays, hooked me up to machine and IV's and BOOM. PANIC attack in the ER.. I thought I was dying, my heart rate skyrocketed (doesn't make it any better when you are hooked up to a machine that is reminding you how fast your heart is beating) and the nurse was so kind and was like well you're in the right place if you are (thanks buddy, lol). The depression was bad too.. If I didn’t have anxiety, I had the depression. Hopelessness, worthless, crying all of the time.

Well that'll really freak you out! I had started therapy, and she let me know what anxiety is, and how it works in your brain. I thought for sure I was going literally insane (wouldn't you?!) or that I had a brain tumor that was distorting my reality. I kept thinking, NO WAY is this hormones or just anxiety.... Well anxiety does a lot of crazy things to your mind and body, and hormones are a huge contributor to it. I saw a hormone doctor and had my bloodwork done (although they don't really like to do it because your levels can change every day based on where you are in your cycle). My testosterone was off the charts high, my estrogen was low and progesterone was high. I'm still waiting for a follow up with her next week to see what to do, but she did say it takes at least 3 months for your hormones to start leveling out to normal, so there's not much you can do in the meantime hormone-wise.

Okay -- So I saw my primary doctor twice, he prescribed me xanex and later zoloft. I had taken the xanex a few times and it has helped (I have .25 and I break them in to quarters, so it's probably more of a placebo than anything). I saw a hormone doctor, two different therapists, had REIKI done, started yoga teacher training thinking that it's just like therapy (and it is). I was determined to beat this without medication (although just having it with me sometimes helps, knowing I can start it at any time). I QUIT my job, ALMOST ended my marriage, ran home to mom for 3 weeks, flew my mom down here... I tried EVERYTHING I could think of to get past this.

So it's been 14 weeks since this all started and I can tell you I'm about 80% better. I started logging my days on a calendar as either an up arrow or a down arrow so that I can track it and see if it's really around my cycle. At first, it was almost every day was a down arrow and then they started getting less and less. Now it is pretty much just around when I ovulate and when I had my period. I can tell its coming because the internal tremors start, and I know my hormones are fluctuating someway.

I can recommend that if you are starting to feel this way and don't want to go on medication, then go see a good therapist. Do not wait. Reach out to friends and family and let them know whats going on. YOU ARE NOT ALONE. My story feels like a lifetime, even though its been a few months. I have a totally different perspective on life now, most days it's for the better. I didn't think I would make it through this and some days I still feel that way. But I know that God has given me this for a reason, and that led me to starting yoga teacher training and telling people my story. I have such compassion for everyone who is going through anxiety and depression and I'm determined to help.

So it GETS better. I promise. But make sure you have the support in the meantime. I’m available to talk as well if you need. I would love to help. Don’t obsess over it like I did. Remember what’s important in your life, and push those crazy thoughts out. They’re just thoughts. YOU CAN DO THIS LADIES! We are all here for you!

PS - I know my response is really long, but I wanted to make sure I got it all out there because I think I checked all of the boxes of symptoms and wanted you to be able to compare :)

I am experiencing anxiety since I've been off the pill and it's just been a month. I had to get off the pill because I'm on fibristal and shouldn't be taken together but I don't know if I can do it I feel awful all the time. My doctor says I have anxiety and wants me in anti depressants but I know my body and I'm usually happy and love being around people but lately I'm scared because I don't know when it's coming on. Been to the ER twice and both times thy say all blood tests are great!! Cardiologist says same thing so now all I know is the pill was keeping everything in check. I don't know what to do if anyone can help please do.

hi im going through the same thing... please tell me you are better now.. i need some hope?:(

Hi, I wanted to tell you that i am going through same thing. I stopped taking birth control pills almost 3 months ago. 2 weeks after quitting i started to have many different symptoms. I have all the anxiety symptoms like heart palpitations, irrational thoughts, muscle cramps and shortness of breath, floaters in the eye. I even got real panic attack once. Even though it seems like i am recovering, i can still say that i am struggling with hormonal imbalance. I am sick of feeling sick and weak and crazy all the time. For those who recovered, can you please share with us how long does it take for you to recover completely? Thanks---