anxiety attacks after stopping birth control

Hi. Would you mind sharing how you are doing now. My journey is very similar including the celexa so I am very interested to know how you are doing now. Also, might I ask how long you had been on birth control before? Thanks!

Thank you all for posting about your stories! I was on bc for nearly 13yrs, and stopped taking it about 3 months ago. At first I was fine, felt normal, then about two weeks ago my mind got cloudy. I feel like I can't remember things, I'm emotional, I feel sad and depressed for no reason, and I have anxiety. The other day out of the blue my heart began to pound and I felt like I could barely swallow. I think I was having an anxiety attack. I stress about everything, and my mind never stops racing. I feel like I'm going crazy, and I am so scared to go get on medication for it. I work in healthcare and after work I come home and obsess about every detail of my patients that day and hope I didn't overlook something because my mind is in space. I hope this ends soon, I just want to feel like myself again. Just wanted to share with people who can relate.

Girls,

I felt I needed to share my experience because no one would believe me, not even the doctor or psychologists I went to.

After stopping birth control (I wanted to be all natural) I started getting mild anxiety attacks, I had never had them before. It increasingly got worse over 6 months. My fiancé felt uncomfortable around me and very worried, I felt uncomfortable with myself-as if I didn't know who I was. We would be out having fun and suddenly my head would get almost cloudy, my heart would race, my hands got shaky, most of the time I got this I would suddenly be surrounded by horrible thoughts. This happened increasingly throughout the 6 months to about twice a week. That is a lot of time to feel so awful. I saw 2 psychologists in this time (who recommended anxiety medicine or tried to convince me to uncover what I was anxious about??) and I met with one medical doctor who recommended a blood test-which uncovered nothing was wrong either. I know myself and I had a strong feeling it was coming off of the birth control. It greatly and very negatively affected my life. I decided to go back on birth control 6 months after I stopped and IMMEDIATELY the anxiety attacks stopped!! My life feels back to normal and it has now been about 2 months. I had maybe one light anxiety attack in the beginning. Please girls, listen to your body! I have a feeling that the birth control maybe levels out my hormones and prevents the dips throughout my cycle. I never had anxiety attacks before the birth control. Maybe after more time my body would have adjusted to being off of it but it just wasn't worth it to me. 6 months of hell, being at work it would happen, with friends, family and my fiancé, it was so horrible.

Had It Gotten Any Better ?

How Have You Been?

Hi,

I have been watching this thread since I am also going through the terrible effects of stopping birth control pills.

I want to share my story as well; my progress to date and also look for some more assurance hopefully that things will go back to how they used to be.

I stopped BCP Feb/March 2016 and thought nothing of it; I never knew what it does to your body so never considered there might be side effects.
End of March I had my first panic attach while in a narrow tower but didn’t pay it much attention, I thought I might just be a bit claustrophobic. Since then through April and May I kept getting this feeling that I am short of breath, that I can’t take enough air in my lungs and thinking that I won’t be able to breathe and a couple of times numbness in my arms and fingers. At this point I looked up side effects of coming off the pill but nothing was close to this so ruled it out.

One night this feeling was so real that I went into A&E and had all the test done only for the doctor to tell me it’s stress related. The worst one was at the end of May after a night out drinking and this is when I decided to look it up and read about anxiety and GAD. This is when the real symptoms started: feeling in a dream like state, feeling on edge, DP, uncomfortable in my own body, questioning everything I do or say, spaceyness, depression because of the extreme anxiety, constant thinking that I will go crazy or that there’s something wrong with my head, wanting to get away from my own thoughts. These proper symptoms lasted for about 2 months and some days I really don’t know how I got through.

The worst of them was the fact that all I could think of was the anxiety and how I was feeling and then the scary thought that I will never be able to get over this and all my life I will be sad because of this event. Before this I was such a happy person with an almost perfect life (close family, loving partner, good job, nice house etc). The thought that I will never be able to live my life as before because now I have this hanging over me really scared me and then brought the anxiety with it.

The GP offered me antidepressants after being to a therapist who tried to uncover childhood events for my anxiety but in the end my partner convinced me not to go on them.
I only found out about the link between BCP and my state around the end of June so a month into my symptoms. By this time I had already read two books on anxiety and googled everything there was to google! This did not do me any good.
It was a real relief to find out that it’s not me, it’s the hormones.
I started taking cod liver oil with evening primrose oil, B vitamin compelx and ashwatanga. I have also recently started acupuncture and exercising. Soon after starting the vitamins, the symptoms started wearing off and every day was better. I think the best thing I did was not to let it stop me from doing anything I wanted to do so going to work, going out, family dinners etc. Although you still feel crappy, it’s better than being at home thinking about it. Meditation also helped.
Every day is getting better. I’m feeling more comfortable with myself after being afraid to be left alone (and this reminds me of how happy I used to get when I had a night on my own, just relaxing but this has taken that pleasure away from me – for now).

The feelings that I still have now is a brain fog almost, forgetfulness and like I can’t concentrate and can’t remember things properly. I do also think about what has happened almost all day, go over the events of how it started, remembering the bad days etc

I also find myself questioning my own thinking, like even if they’re not scary thoughts; I’m thinking ‘where did this thought come from? How did it get here?’ – could it be that I still have a racing mind?

Sometimes I think to myself, why can’t I just accept that I’ve been through something that is completely normal, it’s not an issue in my head, it’s just anxiety which was caused by the hormones. It wasn’t there before and as soon as my hormones balance out, the anxiety will be completely gone.

I think I still need time to completely heal and come to terms with what has happened. I know I need to make peace with it and get it out of my head, almost be happy that it happened, everything happens for a reason and this will make me stronger.

After almost 5 months since it started, the anxiety is completely gone, I’ve not had that feeling for a few days now and I know it won’t come back.
I’m slowly coming to terms with what I’ve been through and have considered going to a therapist to help me get over it but not completely sure at this point, I just want to leave it all behind.

For whoever is looking for re-assurance, it does get better, it does go away with time, just don’t let it stop you doing what you need to do. I don’t think you should question your symptoms and start looking them up, it’s all caused by the hormones.

I went off my birth control in April 2016 and had had several panick attack and increased anxiety I did go on paxil wich had helped I still have a few bad days but more good then bad it is now August I'm hopeing a few more months and my body will just adapt to my normal hormones..I do know that anxiety feels awful...

Just wanted to update. I have been feeling better and a little more like myself. It's only been about a wee since I started to feel better. The anxiety has completely gone away and the emotional roller coaster has its' days.

Hi, I'm just wondering how long it took you to start to feel better since quitting birth control? I'm suffering terrible anxiety at present and I just want some reassurance it will pass. Also what supplements did you take.

It's been about 5 months. I take a multivitamin daily and that's all. Good luck to you!

Hi, i know you posted here some time ago but I was wondering how you are feeling now? I'm in the final stages of recovery but still have this memory with me all the time. Andy advice on how you got over it?

How long has it taken you to get to final stages of recovery? What supplements have you taken.

I'm in month 5 post pill and anxiety is almost completely gone. I've taken a multivitamin complex, cod liver oil with evening primrose oil and ashwagandha. I'm also starting probiotics and vitamin D today. There is still some depression there (I think) and the memory of it but I'm definitely getting better.
Hope this helps

I can’t tell you how happy and relieved I was to find this forum – I thought I was actually going mad! I swapped pills in quick succession and had some bad side effects (including anxiety). The doctor recommended I come off the pill and return to my old pill after a couple of months’ break (the only one I haven’t had side effects with) – but it has been absolutely horrendous so far. I can be quite an anxious person anyway, and have had the odd panic attack, but we’re talking a handful a year – this is like 3 or 4 a week, palpitations, having to drag myself out of bed, imagining the absolute WORST case scenarios about everything, paranoia, hot flushes… my skin has erupted, but tbh that’s been the least of my worries! I am also getting terrible cramps, which I think is ovulation pain?! The negative and distressing thoughts are the worst. I am due my period in a couple of weeks (joy), and then I think I need to go straight back on the pill – I can’t cope with this :-(

This is exactly what I'm going through, did anything help?