Feeling depressed after stopping the birth control pills?

Hi - sorry to hear that - but your case is quite often....my short advice - never come back to pill or IUD - Do you know that complications arising from the use of the pill and the coil are very frequent? Infertility after its use for 7-15 years is a very serious problem and for each year the pill is taken, the cervix ages by an extra year, not saying about cancer or health complications....as I mention in my previous posts here - start follow natural methods of birth control (Creighton, Roetzer, Billings - or connect them all in one -htay are really, really effective if used properly - or if you just afraid to start with them - use Lady-Comp natural birth control monitor, that what I do and I'm big supporter of Lady-Comp....also it is good to remember that all pills and IUD has anty-nidation function (third mechanism of the pill), which make your endometrium hositle for a newly conceived embryo (baby)....

I finally starting looking into the effects of going off the Pill today and am thrilled to find this thread.  I've been on the Pill for a whopping 20 years!  Yep - went on them when I was 16, partly to regulate my period but mostly because my family GP said my mom was nuts to let me have sex with my boyfriend and not put me on the pill.  Bless her, she did take some convincing.  And it's been a very convenient 20 years, regarding regularity of periods.  Obviously I've never been at a place where I want to have a kid, hence the prolonged use.

It's been lovely to read a few of the shared stories here, so in thanks I'd like to share mine.

I went off the Pill at the end of September 2012, so it's been almost 6 months now.  I did not get any advice from doctors or the web at the time.  My mom still sends me pills from the family planning clinic back home in South Africa (I'm in Taiwan) and it just so happened that her parcel was delayed, so I decided to go off the Pill and see what it felt like.  All the women around me moan very loudly about the effects of the Pill on their mood and figure, though I've never noticed any long-lasting adverse effects in me.  I've always been pretty moody and my weight fluctuates, too, both of which become stable when I'm eating healthily, exercising, and taking part in interesting and stimulating activities, so I've never attributed these things to being ON the pill.  Never the less I've always been curious, and the opportunity presented itself to try life without the Pill. Needless to say, the packs I finally got just before Christmas are still lying unused in my drawer.

So what happened? Lethargy, listlessness, disinterest, irritability have all been rearing their nasty heads in large and small doses, punctuated with moments of feeling absolutely fantastic.  But I have to say that the experience has been largely positive.  It is amazing, first of all, to have taken control of my body without talking to some quack that's just going to shoot me an opinion and nothing actually useful to me.  (The last ob gyn I asked about going off the Pill after 16 years - after laughing, really, laughing continuously at my "tiny womb" - said 'Do you want to get pregnant?" No, was my reply.  "Then don't go off the Pill."  So helpful, right? as****e)

Back to the positive - being in control of my own body and being able to feel its rhythms is a blessing.  My skin was quite soft before, but now it's simply amazing.  Pity there's no one around right now to enjoy that, but it'll happen soon enough ;-) I am taking control of the depressed emotions and lethargy by exercising much more regularly, and with greater variety than I ever have.  I am also eating well all the time and am steering well clear of processed foods, giving my body nutrients instead of junk and refined sugars and flours.  We shouldn't be eating them anyway!  Basically, I am giving my body what it needs and only what it needs so it can work on healing and finding its balance instead of spending time trying to deal with unwanted toxins. Dark chocolate and red wine are the perfect "treats".  And if I feel like cookies or something sweet, I bake it myself or buy homemade.

Someone asked if anyone has had gastric problems.  Yes.  I feel much more prone to bloating if I let myself get too hungry, or overeat.  Definitely increased levels of discomfort there. By being more careful of how much and when I eat, and feeding my hunger, those symptoms are disappearing. And i eat quite a lot of plain natural yogurt every week.  On a similar note, my tolerance for alcohol has dropped.  Not a bad thing!  But particularly during PMS, I have to be careful not to have more than one drink, if any. Last night was the first time in 6 months I've had 5 drinks and didn't black out before getting home.  Yes, scary stuff! But we live and learn - listen to your body and test it's boundaries to know yourself better.

The irritability has probably been the hardest to deal with.  I teach little kids for most of the day and I really beat myself up mentally when I end up snapping at them. I have started some deep breathing exercises, which are bringing me into living in the moment.  When you are present in the moment and just experiencing it for what it is, irritability loses its place   Hard to do all the time for sure, but small steps are steps on the road of progress. One very useful thing to do is to get in touch with your emotions before stepping into a room (for want of a better word). Being aware of how you feel and acknowledging it makes it much easier to present yourself in the way you'd like to be seen.  Feeling an emotion does not mean it has to control you - emotions are such transcendental things, even though they feel very real, and make very real things happen, like floods of tears on the subway! To sum that up, you are you, and not your feelings, and I can assure you, you are pretty amazing.

Hope this has helped you in some way, or just made you smile.

all the best,

Vanessa

 

Dear ladies, i want to firstly start off by saying how much this blog has helped me. once i stopped taking the pill (i was on the pill for a little bit more than one year) , my whole world changed, both emotionally and physically. now i just wanted to share my experience with you! i hope this is as helpful as ALL the previous posts were to me when i was going through a rough hormonal transition period.

i took my last birth control pill on Tuesday 19/02/2013. on the 23rd of the same month I had my first period [ which is not really a period, it's called withdrawal bleeding]. Three weeks later [approx. 16 March] the major changes in my mood had started to take place. I want to start off by saying that i had always been a very happy person, full of energy etc. Three-four weeks after stopping the pill, I started to literally fall into DEPRESSION. i used to cry non-stop without any particular reason and i was generally very grumpy. it was honestly one of the toughest periods in my life, i just felt like SH*T all the time and nobody could really understand me; neither my boyfriend nor my friends and family. and that was when i found this amazing blog which helped me TREMENDOUSLY :)I read in this blog that the depression lasted for much longer for many women, and i was expecting the worst. On 26/03 i had my first normal period after stopping the pill [ approx. 30 days after the withdrawal bleeding]. I have to admit, after my first normal period my depression started to go away and i was generally feeling a lot better, and i keep feeling better and better each and every day now. However after my first normal period i have started to notice the physical changes of stopping the pill. For example: acne, greasy skin, greasy hair etc. To me these are just unimportant things, as long as i am in a good mood, nothing else matters!LADIES IN THIS BLOG: thank you so much for helping me get through this rough time. reading all these posts had given me so much courage.!To anyone who needs any further help, i'm here for you!Take care & Good luck!Think positively :)

Thank you for your post, its so nice to hear all those things, as well as everyone else who has posted on the site. I went on birth control in early December and went off of it in late February because of a migraine, headaches, and slight anxiety. I figured going off the pill would just make all these symptoms disappear. A couple days later, my anxiety spiked during a class and I had to leave to calm myself down. I was sobbing, and my mom came to pick me up (luckily my family lives close by to my University). I was feeling so upset and I couldn't stop crying, but it was all just physical symptoms, mentally I didn't even feel sad. Over the next week, I was suffering from severe anxiety and depression symptoms and the negative cycling spiraling thoughts started to take over. I couldn't stop feeling this horrible impending doom, and I couldn't handle watching the news or anything serious. I was constantly thinking about death and losing my family and boyfriend and I would just terrify myself but I couldn't stop it, life just seemed so impermanent and scary and dangerous. I went to the doctor midweek who prescribed me some low dosage valiums which I used a few times but it didn't really help and I didn't want any more medication in my system anyways. Then things gradually started to improve after that week, although I never got to the point that i felt "myself." I figured it was getting better though, and I was able to start going to some classes again and staying at the dorm that I live in (I had spent the previous week at home just trying not to sob, barely eating and trying to sleep). Then, a few weeks later I felt the panic and anxiety coming back. My period was late, and it ended up coming 6 weeks after the one before, but the timing of the returning anxiety made sense, it must have been going along with my natural hormonal changes during the month. It was during this week that I had my first full blown panic attack. I was at the dining common eating dinner with my boyfriend and some friends and I had to leave with my boyfriend in tears and when I got outside I started hyperventilating and sobbing, I felt like I was literally going crazy and I thought I was literally dying. I went into my dorm and just sobbed on my bed uncontrollably while my boyfriend called my mom who came and picked me up. She had a depression in college and was able to relate to my feelings and help me through it. My panic attack lasted about half an hour, and I felt so alone and like I was losing grip with reality, it felt like I was so ungrounded and I worried I was getting schizophrenia or had a brain tumor or was just going crazy. The rest of the week was very rough, but was slowly getting better again. I started going to an acupuncturist which seems to be helping, as well as taking b6 vitamin supplements and just recently got Dr. Bach's rescue remedy. Not sure if the last one is just the placebo affect or not but either way it seems to be helping. I definitely still don't feel myself, and it has been just over 7 weeks since I went off the pill so I know I still have some time ahead of me before my hormones get back to normal, but this has been the worst thing thats ever happened to me, seriously a living hell. Again, after I got my period I felt much better but its still so hard to keep my thoughts from escalating. I'm so tired of working so hard just to not feel awful, it gets so exhausting. Luckily I have an amazing boyfriend and family who have been extremely supportive and helpful, but it still doesn't make the problem go away. Sorry for the long post but it definitely feels therapeutic to get it all out. Thank all of you for your stories and support, it has helped tremendously to know that I'm not alone going through all this and hearing people come out of it is great inspiration. I wish you all the best of luck, no one should have to go through this! <3

Hi All :)My heart goes out to anyone going through this, it's really tough. My health issues began while taking the pill. I was having terrible anxiety, my hair was falling out and I never slept. After alot of research I believe the pill made me estrogen dominant. Now I have stopped taking the pill and I feel very depressed sometimes. I can have days were I just feel like me again and then I have days were I am just very depressed. I am 28 years old and have never had acne this bad in my entire life. It's been over a year since stopping the pill and I have gotten better, but I just don't know if I can do this anymore. I was on the pill for 12 years all up, somebody please give me some hope that it will get better, please...

 

Hi, I'm do sorry you are going through this, my heart goes out to everyone who has been dealing with this because it has been probably the most challenging thing I've dealt with. But I do have good news, it does get better. I was only on birth control for 3 months and now I'm coming on my third month off of birth control and feeling soo much better. I think it is proportional to how long you were taking it so it makes sense that you've been having these symptoms for much longer, but regardless you will be out of this soon. When I first found this thread I was so desperate for any bit of hope because I felt so lost and alone and I thought it was impossible that I could ever be my normal self again after what I went through but just in the past week or so I would say I am just about fully recovered. My anxiety and depression was constant and then the week before my period it would sky rocket and get so much worse, but I just got my period yesterday (on time) and I felt perfectly normal leading up to it. I know you probably feel very unsure that you will get better but trust me I was there and now I am coming out the other end and only now do I see that everyone will feel better you just need to wait it out. Also I believe acupuncture helped me very much so I would recommend that if you can find somewhere affordable. If you have any questions or want to talk feel free to respond and I can try to help. You will be better soon! :)

Thank you for your response, I do really appreciate it :) I do hope it ends soon, honestly it will be like winning the lottery for me. For me I'm all over the place, when I first came off the pill I just felt miserable. Then I would start having days were I felt me again! I'm talking before ever taking the pill, when I was 14! Long time ago, then I had a miscarriage, which I am certain it was from my hormones being so out of order. And I got worse, now I have days were I feel miserable but not as bad and days were I feel anxious. My skin has improved alot, but still pretty bad. I had my friends Wedding back in December (when I had the miscarriage) and I was covered in red spots. Chest, back, face, it was horrible. They had to put loads of make up all over me and you could still see it clear as day. But alot of unpleasant things have happend in the last few years I was on the pill and now off the pill. It has gotten better, but it has been such a slow process and I guess having a miscarriage during this has made it even more difficult. I wish everyday that I could just be my happy and healthy self again....thanks again for your words of support :)

Im so sorry :( Its so hard to just do normal every day things let alone go through hard things in life while dealing with this anxiety and depression. I remember being terrified to just take a shower or go into my room by myself because I was so scared of everything. That was when it was at its worst. I just really can't stress enough that time will heal you, I know getting through each day is a challenge, and be sure to feel grateful for the good days and on the bad days just keep telling yourself things will get better. If there is anything in the world that makes you feel any better then just turn to that anytime you start feeling bad. I know with me it was such a snowball affect, I would feel a twinge of anxiety and then so quickly it would get almost unbearable. I really like the quote "stand porter at the door of thought." To me, this means that you don't have to claim all these negative thoughts as your own, just let them pass and decide that they don't have to be yours. Don't let the negative ones in, anytime they start just push them out. Trust me it gets easier and easier the more you try to practice this. I really wish you the best of luck!

I will make sure when I am better to write about this, I really want to make the women out there aware of the effects of the pill, while taking it and stopping the pill. Everyone just takes it without much thought, but at the end of the day the pill is still a drug.

I am 22 years old and have tried 3 different kinds of birth control. When I was 19 I went on Nuvaring. I had no sex drive whatsoever, terrbile mood all the time, severely depressed, EXTREMELY high anxiety. My anxiety was so terrbile I was afraid to drive and had to force myself to do most things. After almost 3 years, I quit taking it. I was in a strange relationship at the time. About 2 months before our split is when I quit using Nuvaring. It took about 3 months to feel better so I wasn't sure if the breakup was really that good for me, lifting my spirits, or if it was the Nuvaring. I knew that it probably effected my sex drive and natural lubrication system, so I insisted to my gyno that she find me a pill that had a low dose of hormones. After about 4 months of no bc I tried LoEstrin Fe 24. After about 2 or 3 months, I noticed the depression coming back. I visited my gyno again and she gave me Lo LoEstrin Fe, she said this was the lowest dose of hormones in pills that was available. I was fine for about 2 months, I then became very tired, almost weak. I'm in college, and with every new assignment I felt like I was drowning. Some nights when I had assignments due the next day I would come close to having a panic attack, but was able to talk myself down and literally force myself to complete the task, taking everything I had in me. I don't think I've ever had to push myself so hard. College is hard, I know. But it was like having a conversation with myself, I am prone to depression but this isn't how I have ever felt before. It's like the old me was in my head saying I had no reason to be this sad or upset and that I could do this if I really wanted to, but the depression brought on by the pills was fighting me every step of the way. Not just about school work, everything. But school was really my biggest obstacle. Now it's hard for me to go to work. I don't want to hang out with my friends, I don't have much to say about anything. I really could care less about most things, and I am NOT that kind of person. About a week ago I quit taking the Lo LoEstrin Fe. I am now more depressed than I was before. I feel so sorry for my boyfriend. We moved in together this past weeked, and though I'm happy with our new place and happy to start this journey together and love him very much, I am SO sad. I can't reason with myself, I can't be happy no matter how hard I try. I'm afraid if these symptoms don't subside soon, I'll make him miserable. I know from experience it takes time to feel better, but I'm wondering since I was on Nuvaring first, if the withdraw from that is different than the withdraw from BCP. I just really want the happy, fun me back. I will NEVER take birth control pills again. I have never felt so hopeless and miserable.

 

Before I made the decision to quit taking Lo LoEstrin Fe, I did a lot of research and talked to my gyno several times. I found a statistic on the Mayo website stating that 94% of women have no side effects, including depression while taking the pill. Reading what all of you ladies have had to say, and seeing all the other forums and posts on other sites, I don't think there's any way that stat is right. I suggest we all do so serious digging. Something isn't right. Birth control is obviously not natural, and therefore can make your body feel very strange, and with doctors and pharmaceuticals being backed by big business, of course they're not going to tell you what BC does to your body. (Or they just don't care about women's health and a real study linking the two hasn't been seriously done yet.) I have had so many issues at such a young age, and I've seen posts and stories from girls younger than I. This is SCARY and extremely unhealthy. Do research on your own, talk to your friends, women relatives, co-workers. I have yet to talk to a woman I know, besides my mother, that said they didn't see a change in their mood (depression) or sex drive while on the pill. We shouldn't have to live like this just to prevent having a child. I have some other lady issues, but once I'm cleared I'm looking into ParaGard. I may have a nickel allergy, so I don't know what's going to happen. Condoms from now on, I suppose? But feeling this way is unacceptable. Good luck to all of you strong, wonderful women! May our journey to finding a healthier way to prevent pregnancy be a great and successful one!

Hi there, just a quick response. People who do not agree that hormones affect the way you feel are in denial. Throughout my time of feeling unwell I have felt very miss understood. I am much better these days but I still have my tough days. I will probably be going to see a Natropath in the coming weeks if I feel I need to. I feel like they are someone in the medical field who would support the therory that birth control pills are no good. My advise to you is to give your body and mind time to get back into its natural swing. Time will heal you, take good care of yourself.

Hi, I would definitely recommend acupuncture I think it really helped me when I was at my worst. I feel like it is so important for all of us to come back to these forums and let the girls going through this now know that it DOES get better and you will heal and be yourself!! Even now, about 4 and a half months after coming off the pill I still have days where the anxiety or sadness lingers, but its just a tiny part of my day, it no longer runs my life. I just think its so important to stress that even though waiting months to be better feels like an eternity, or at least it did to me at the time, I was able to get through it and I really do feel like good things came from this experience. It was the most challenging thing I've ever been though in terms of my emotions being SO up and down (mostly down) but now I feel so in tune with my body and I know now how important it is to respect my body and take care of myself before putting anything in my body that can mess with it so badly. I am still in disbelief that all of this came from a little tiny pill. But if anyone reading this posts feels helpless or scared or like things won't get better, please feel free to respond to this and we can talk over email or phone or another way. I know that when it was at the worst of it for me talking to people who had gone through the same thing but felt much better was EXTREMELY helpful. I would love to help someone else make their way out of this.

I am pretty sure the depression and pain I am feeling is due to getting off birth control pills. I eat healthy daily and workout daily, and try to surround myself with good people. It has only been about 2 weeks since I got off of the pill and know it can take up to 3-12 months for everything to get out of my system and everyone is different but what I would like to know is the average time it took most to start to feel better? Are there things I can do to help my mood?

It is really bringing me down and a few other pains in my body. I have a hard time getting out of bed and crying a lot or just feeling so low about life. I do not think I can last 3-12 months like this.

I would rather not take another pill to sort it out since I am trying to "cleanse my body", and I do not have medical coverage/afford to do so.

 

Thank you for you help.

I definitely do not recommend taking any other pills to cope with the sadness. I was tempted at times but I'm so glad I didn't put yet another pill in my body when I was trying to  cleanse. It's hard to say when I started feeling better because it was a gradual process. The good days become more and more frequent and then begin to outnumber the bad days. I know when I went through this I was totally exhausted so sleeping was helpful but also staying active during the day as much as possible to keep me distracted. acupuncture, b vitamin supplements, and dr bach's rescue remedy all helped me feel better. But just listen to your body and do whatever feels best for you. Try not to worry so much about other people or other problems just surround yourself with positive things. I know when I got stressed out about every day things they seemed totally overwhelming on top of the stress I already felt. Also I noticed that my anxiety and depression got much worse around my period. The first period was horrible, the second was pretty bad. The 3rd was okay and the 4th I was fine so that's sort of how I measured my improvement. Good luck, I hope you feel better!

hi . I was wondering if you could email me regarding your experience with the pill. your post literally made me cry.. this is exactly how I have been feeling for quite some time now.. however i came off the pill ( dianette) which i had been on for two and a half years and my health and personality have completely gone out the window.. I noticed a major change in my personality around december this year so came off the pill in feb.. Ive been diagnosed with fibromyalgia but i know dianette has something to with this ! im constantly crying because I literally "dont know who i am anymore ". Doctors try to give me any depressants but i refuse .. Im not depressed , well i but i am so angry.. I just want the old care free me back..