Feeling depressed after stopping the birth control pills?

Welcome to the thread Sierra. I'm really glad to hear that it's continuing to help others. All that I went through with birth control pills seems worth it when I read all the others who benefit from our experiences.

I feel like a bit of a post-a-holic lately, but I thought I'd throw out this thought. I was talking to my fiancé last night about how I feel that I can no longer blame my bad days on the hormones, especially when it's not even that time of the month and I'm still having random bad days. After talking with him, he made me realize that it's a mixture of issues. Yes, the hormones are still affecting me, but he also thinks (and I agree), that I've become extra-sensitive to the hormonal fluctuations because of everything I've experienced. Basically, any slight dip in mood, which I used to consider normal, now just takes me back to those days of depression and indifference that I felt while on the pill.

I don't want anyone to think we won't get better (I truly believe we will all heal completely after time), but I do think it takes an additional adjustment in our minds. And that can only be fixed with time.

Sierra--I've never taken Yaz or Ocella personally, but I have friends who have, and they hated it. I did have a friend who had some luck with Yasmine (sp?), but after my own experience with birth control pills, I wouldn't recommend any of them. If you do plan on trying to go on pills again, be sure to warn your fiancé. I truly don't know how I would've coped with any of it if my fiancé hadn't forced me to talk to him. Even now, when I think I'm doing tons better, I always tell him when I have a bad day, and I immediately feel a little better.

Let us know how everything goes and good luck!

Hi Jennifer! Thank you for your input. I thought about that today - how I probably will go through normal mood changes, but because of the experience I had, my mind will automatically go back to that place and focus on how scary it was. Although unfortunate, we all just have to remind ourselves that we're fine, we'll feel better and not to worry so much!

I've decided I don't want to take any birth control ever again. I'm just going to use condoms from now on! I'd rather have zits and five kids running around than feel like I was feeling haha! I think we all need to take a closer look at what we're putting in and on our bodies. Especially all the unnecessary chemicals these companies add to our cosmetics and bath & body products.

I can say that I'm almost excited for this topic!I was on yasminelle for almost 3 years.In the beginning It worked out well,after the first year sometimes i was feeling too...flat emotionally and in the end it launched a complete mess!
 I got my first period today and I'm super excited cause I'm feeling better and more confident!
Jenny I think that your fiance is right!I was discussing it with my best friend she said it's gonna take some time for your body and mind to adjust. :-)Well I am a worrier myself so....i guess it;s gonna take some time for me to be my old self!

Kon,

I'm a worrier too, so that probably doesn't help. Add that to the fact that I'm getting married in a month, and it's just not a good combination :) I wish we could hear more from women who are a year beyond all of this stuff, to see where we might be in the future.

Hi ladies!

I am a worrier too! Wish I wasn't sometimes! Anyway, my nutritionist suggested I take these all-natural homeopathic calming tablets and I must say they are really effective so I thought I'd pass the word along. They're from the brand Heel Inc. They're called Heel Calming - if you just google that it should come up. I take 2 (she said don't take more than 10 in one day) and immediately (no joke... like right away) I feel more calm. It gets rid of the jitters that come with anxiety an even seem to calm my rambling thoughts (just not as fast as the jitters). Also, if you do get them, be sure not to touch them with your hands - just pour a couple into the cap and immediately put them under your tongue to dissolve. She said touching them limits their effectiveness, but putting them directly under your tongue makes it go directly into the bloodstream. I highly suggest trying them! They've definitely calmed me down! It feels great!

Hi i just read your post and the oppisite happened to me.....i was on Yaz for tw years and decided to come off it. And i was having mood swings all the time and i had headaches all the time and was sleepy all the time. And then about two months after stopping the pill just one day out of the blue i had this panic attack were i really though my world was ending.....my boyfriend really didnt know what was going on because i felt so numb and my feelings towards him i didnt know how i felt like i adore him and want to havekids and get married but i was having all these negative thoughts and they werent helping i didnt wat to go out an all i did was sit in.........wat did not help me was there was three deaths in my family in 6 months and my dad was sick also my boyfiend wasgoing out with his friends and he was alwayshappy and beause i was sitting t home sad all the time and depressed i too it out on him which we were fighting all the time about silly things and this also effected me so what dint elp was these negative thoughts took over my head and convinced me i was going crazy and me and my bofriend were splitting up and that to me was the end of my world cos my heart was breaking cos i love him so much.

After reading all these stories on this site it made me feel alot better because these are all the symptoms i was having coming off the pill.

Im seeing a therapist at the moment and i had to move ack home because things just go too much for me.

But my advice to you is take your time take one day at a time accupunture is good but i will say this if this pill is mking you feel like thiscome off it because it should ot efect you like this .

Hope to here back from you

Jen

Hi Jen,

I just quit a couple days ago, so I'm hoping it'll have the opposite effect on me and I'll get better instead of worse! I can't figure out if I was having all these symptoms because I was switched to Ocella (and therefore technically going off Yaz) or if it was Ocella itself doing it to me. Either way I am never going to take any hormonal birth control ever again!

This will all pass - I'm sure of it. Keep your head up :)

Hello again everyone,

Hi Jen,

I just read your thread and i completely agree with what you are saying because i have been having a good two weeks and then today when i felt a little mood dip and i felt like i was back to that place again and i said it to my boyfriend and he was reasuring that everything is ok.

I have realised that since coming off the pill it really messed up with my hormones and certain things that where happening in my life did not help and aswell im a HUGE worrier and that doesnt help me at all. I will say i will never ever go on the pill again.

Hope you are doing well x

Also jen i have heard that it takes exactly 3 to six months for your body to get back to any hormonal changes in your body so i wouldnt worry.

I really understand what you are going trough i really do......when your head is having all these doubtful thoughts one thing i do is i ask myself what my heart is feeling and 100% i always feel im in love with my boyfriend and all i wanna do is spend the rest of my life with him.

We are so lucky to have such supportive men in or life they are hard to come by hun.

Hope this helps

I am so happy my post helped you. I am sorry I haven't responded in a while but here is the good news, I am doing better! I haven't taken a xanex in 2 months. I haven't had a panic attack in about a month. I still have occasional anxiety though but it is not nearly as bad as it was. SO HAVE FAITH! I can't believe how far I have come. I read my last post when I was still in the middle of everything and I really have come so far. Time is key. I am feeling less depressed and me and my boyfriend are back on track. I am so happy we stayed together because this was yet just another side effect of going off the pill. So please stay strong. You can do this naturally without antidepressants. Each and everyday is another step closer to the old you. Keep repeating that to yourself. YOU CAN DO THIS TOO.

Hello, everyone. I'm new to posting on this forum, even though I've been following it for months now. Thank you so much for your stories; they've greatly helped me through this horrible ordeal. My nightmare started in February when my pharmacy switched me from Orthotricyclen to the generic TriSprintec. (I've been on Ortho for approx. 12years; I'm 30 yrs old ). I thought nothing of the switch, and figured hey, generic is the same as brand, right? WRONG! That following week after the swtich, I experienced some of the scariest feelings of my life...I felt SO spaced out and "out of it" almost like I was walking around in a dream. I had NO CLUE what was going on with me...a panick attack before work on day 8 of TrSprintec truly made me think I was losing my mind. Then all of a sudden I came to the realization that these symtoms showed up right after the pharmacy switched my pills...a nurse at my gyno office also told me that this was very possible and told me to stop the pills and switch back to Ortho, which I did. However, since this incident I have not been the same. Going back on Ortho somewhat diminished the debilitating "spaced out" feeling...but then it was horrible depression, anxiety, lack of feeling and weird thoughts that plagued me. Everyone told me that it was probably because I was getting married in May and that I had a lot on my plate...I didn't agree. I've always been somewhat of an anxious person, but NOTHING like this...and I've NEVER been depressed in my life! So I decided to stop taking birth control pills altogether, thinking that my body might need a break. This is now month 3 of being pill free and I am SO SCARED because I am still experiencing these symtoms...yes, I do have some good days, but mostly these thoughts of me never getting better or that there is something mentally wrong with me CONSUME me. What's so strange is that on my "good" days I think to myself "How silly I was to feel like that; I'm fine!" but then I'll have a stretch of days where I'm right back to where I started! Does this happen to anyone else? This is the most FRUSTRATING and SCARY thing I've EVER experienced and I feel like I'm at the end of my rope. What REALLY irks me is that this affected my honeymoon...I should have been having the most wonderful time of my life, but there were those days where I just felt so horrible. One day on the trip I even had an emotional breakdown and started crying like crazy because I was just so frustrated with this whole ordeal. I remember sitting there in my hotel room, looking out the window at this beautiful tropical Carribbean paradise thinking "What the hell is wrong with me? There is no reason to feel like this!" But it's almost like I have no control over it. No matter how many times I tell myself I shouldn't feel depressed/hopeless...I still feel it! I am happily married, employed, have a great family and friends....no real problems yet I still get crazy bouts of depression/axiety and weird thoughts of just "not feeling like myself"...I literally feel like a different person... That's the only way I can describe it.

I guess I just want to know if anyone can give me a ball park time frame of how long it will take for me to be "normal" again? I am starting to fear that the more time goes by this might not be birth control related and that scares me more than anything. It makes the hopelessness worse (and so does my CONSTANT thinking about it)...yet I can trace the beginning of all this back to when the pharmacy switched my pills.

When will this nightmare end?

-Heather C.

PS -- I apologize for the novel, but it DID feel really good to get that all out.

Heather,

I'm glad that our discussions have helped you some, I hope you continue to post here! Your post was like ripping a page out of my diary. On my bad days, I too begin to doubt that it can still be the hormones affecting me. However, as many have pointed out on this forum (and on several health websites), it takes up to 6 months to return to "normal". For some women, it has taken longer, though most women seem to see improvement each month either way. Yes, my good days are just like yours, I consider myself back to normal and feel "silly" for having felt so terrible over nothing. When the bad days do return though, there is very little that can pull me out of the depression and incessant negative thoughts. I'm getting married in August, and I too have been worried that my bad days will occur during the honeymoon.

I have some general tips for you that I've given to everyone, but also a new one I just discovered yesterday. First, keep a mood diary. You will begin to see a pattern of improvement. It won't be super consistent, but ultimately you will see your "good days" outnumbering your bad. Next, be sure to talk to your husband, family, and friends, whoever can give you comfort during the bad days and remind you that it's just the hormones talking. Last, and this is the newest one...on a good day, write a note to your "bad day" self. Basically this note should remind you how you felt on your good day so that when you do feel bad, you can go back to it and remember that the bad feelings won't last forever.

Though I sometimes feel completely healed, I still have days (like yesterday) where I had to have serious chats with several people before I could feel better. In addition, I've had to continually learn how to cope with the negative thoughts that want to invade. It's difficult, but I'm trying to have patience and faith. It's not easy, but it DOES get better little by little. Please keep us update, and I hope this helps!

One more thing, many people also told me that I was just stressed over the wedding, but I never believed that either. I do agree however that my negative thoughts tended to be focused on my relationship, which I think is simply due to the fact that it is a major life change. If I weren't getting married, I'd probably be focused on my job or something like that. Though it's amazing to have such support from my fiancé, it's also painful because my worst thoughts tend to center around irrational worries about our relationship, which usually leave me feeling guilty afterward.

Hi Jen,

I find you post really helpful......the past week has been so good but yesterday and today those negative thoughts start invading a little and i feel im not getting better. I have started to keep a mood diary and im going to monitor myself and see how i get on.

Thanks Jen