Feeling depressed after stopping the birth control pills?

Hello everyone. I'm new to posting but have been following this forum for awhile. I'm 22 years old and hav been off birth control for 3 months. I stopped bc me and my husband r trying to get pregnant. The symptoms I hav now r so much worse than they were 2 weeks after stopping my birth control which is when my hormones started to take there toll on me. I had no problem eating til about 2 weeks ago. Now I hav nausea so bad that I've dropped 10 lbs. I went to the dr and they did blood work and a urine test. Blood work came bak fine, also not pregnant darn :/ but still waiting on the urine tests. What they're testing I honestly don't kno. I just don't understand y I am getting worse half way through the battle instead of getting better! Has n e one else had the nausea so bad u can't eat? It's got me pretty scared. Ive never had trouble eating before! I hav noticed that I tend to eat better on the weekends when I don't work then on the weekdays. I just need someone, anyone to tell me things r gonna get better and I'm not going crazy! My poor husband is noticing what's going on and that's what makes me feel the worst!!! Please help!!!

Sara what all symptoms are you experiencingi am about 2 months off the pill and i too and really nauseous i cant eat ive been that way since the beginning i have dropped 34 pounds

My symptoms are dry mouth, depression, anxiety( especially when I first wake up), I can't stay asleep but yet I'm tired all day, and my periods are out of whack. This last one was heavy for 2 days, then it was gone for a day, then heavy again, gone again, medium flow, and then I finally stopped. The nausea has only been for a few weeks and I just got a call back from my doctor saying I have a uti, I've had several since the age of 17 so they r referring me to a urologist. I'm hoping that the uti is the cause of the nausea since it is a more recent symptom then the rest.

Do u have all the symptoms that comes with anxiety i just feel very off and empty did u get the obessive thoughts and thats not good u have a uti i hope it goes away fast and did ur depression ever lift at all i have no motivation to do anything

Thanx, i hope so too! My main anxiety symptom is just the heart palpitations, it's mainly when I first wake up in the morning though which is probably y I hav trouble falling back asleep. And the depression has lifted some but I haven't exercised all week so that's honestly probably a huge part of my problem! I do super circuit on Tuesday's and Thursday's and on Thursday after super circuit I do zumba. I also try and run once a week. It seems to really help! Sweating gets rid of ur excess hormones and releases endorphins to make u feel better so that's what I would highly recommend!

I see that we have some new posters, that's great! I was reading through some of your issues, and though I never experienced nausea as a result of the pills, I do experience it as a result of riding in a car :) The thing I've found that helps, though seems silly at first, are sea-bands. You can buy them at a drugstore. They are tight bands you place around your wrists that have plastic balls which naturally hit these pressure points. I wasn't convinced when I first heard about them, but I've gone on long trips using them with success. Also, I've heard of many pregnant women using them for relief of morning sickness as well. They're no fashion statement, but very effective!

Hi Jennifer!


So glad to hear you're feeling better! And congrats on getting married! I'm glad to hear it went well!


I think exercise definitely helps. It just annoys me because for the last 9 months I have been going to the gym and doing a bootcamp style workout for 4-5 days a week non-stop. I've never been that consistent, and I'm proud of myself. It just bothers me because I started going right around the time I switched to the generic form of Yasmin and that's when all this started. So in a way I feel like I'm doing everything right, and I should be feeling better than I did before I started going to the gym, but because of switching and then ultimately quitting the pill I'm not =/


All last week I felt back to normal. But since the weekend I've been having dull, nagging headaches and fatigue. It's also been hard to focus on the computer all day at work (my eyes start to hurt) but I think that's part of the headache. Also today at lunch I went to window shop at Old Navy and felt really dizzy and weak. I just had to leave. I don't know if it was anxiety or because I was hungry, or both, but it was not fun. My depression came back on Sunday night again where I was questioning my relationship and just felt really sad but couldn't really pin it on anything. I hate those moments! What I hate most about them is that I know if I cry I'll feel better... but I can never get myself to cry on my own, but if my fiance asks me what's wrong I'll immediately start balling. Just wish I could take 5 minutes and cry on my own and feel better instead of having to drag him into it!


I recently read that a Vitamin D deficiency can lead to fatigue and depression, and I am fair skinned and don't spend much time in the sun, so I decided to get some vitamin D to take daily. My mood seems to have improved, but not my fatigue... but then again it's only been 2 days!


I was supposed to get my first period off the pill on Friday but didn't =/ I feel like it wants to start, but it just isn't. I really want it to because I think I'll feel better. I was never regular to begin with, hence the reason I went on the pill at 18, so now that I'm 25 I have no idea if I will be eventually or not.


So how's married life?? Are you on your honeymoon right now?

Sierra,

Thanks for the quick response! Yes, I'm on my honeymoon right now...lol. It just goes to show how important this forum has become to me :)

Your description of your sadness could have been a page out of my diary it is so similar to how I feel. I too can't seem to pinpoint the sadness on anything and can never cry until my husband asks me about my feelings. I too feel like I'm dragging him into something that he doesn't deserve. He reminds me constantly that he loves me no matter what, but it's still hard because I know my sadness affects him too. He wants me to be happy or at least back to normal.

I'm fair-skinned as well and hadn't thought of whether or not I'm getting enough Vitamin D. I know I've been neglecting my vitamins for a long time, and probably shouldn't. I thought I was getting better and stopped taking them, which was probably too optimistic of me. It's still hard to be patient with myself, especially when I've reached the point where I'm not sure if it's still the hormones or if my body has just become extra-sensitive to fluctuations due to my experience.

I can see why you'd be frustrated with a workout routine that doesn't seem to be helping. But who knows, you might have been a lot worse off without it. It's hard to tell how much of an effect it's had since you've been so consistent, but I bet it has.

Married life so far is great, minus my random mood swings of course. So many people said all my anxiousness and sadness would go away the moment the ceremony was over, but they weren't completely right. Plus, the people who said that didn't know my whole history of the pill. However, I haven't got any worse, and I consider that a blessing. Plus, it's nice to know that someone was willing to take vows to be with me forever despite the past few months of ups and downs. I guess that's what we need to focus on instead of feeling guilty for feelings that we can't control or explain.

Hi I am a new poster and like many of you I cannot express how much your posts have helped me although I still feel awful about myself. I am only 18 and came off BC about 5 weeks ago after being on it for around 3 years, and I feel like I am going crazy. When I first came off BC I had the nausea, headaches etc and now they have gone I just feel anxious all the time. Constantly having worrying and racing thoughts, I am reluctant to leave the house and I just want to be alone but when I am alone that is when it is worse. This is not the normal me and I just don't know what else to do, I feel like if this carries on I'll go into full depression which would just be a disaster as I am starting university soon and moving away from home. Just want to know if it ever gets any better? :(

So here an update ive been off the pills for about 2 months now i still have anxiety but my depression feels like it has got worse i still have some sleeping issues and my appetite is still horrible ive lost 34 pounds in 2 months ive had my hormones checked and it showed i had high estrogen and high testosterone but the doctors keep thinking its just anxiety and want to pit me on anti depressants and that's my last resort i already have to take beta blockers because my heart rate is up all the time i feel completely empty inside and not myself at all i just wanns feel normal and alive again could somebody please give me advice that it does get better

I definitely agree that exercise helps! As for the nausea I was experiencing I told the doctor and he gave me nausea pills which work wonders! I've already gained half my weight back and am just happy to actually b hungry again! I went to the dr and they did blood work and a urine test and everything came back normal except I have a bladder infection. I've never thought about using seabands but I know that when I get pregnant, cause of me stopping bc, that is definitely something I will use if I have nausea since they don't let u take nausea pills! I did have a sharp pain in my lower left abdomen that traveled to my lower right abdomen yesterday while I was on the treadmill and doing jumping jacks. For right now I'm gonna blame it on the uti.It most definitely does get better though! I look back at my last post and think who is that person! :)

Its been a little over 3 months after coming off of Alesse for depression and anxiety and I still don't feel better yet. I am so upset, frustrated, sad and ANGRY that this hasn't gone away. I seriously feel like somethings wrong with me and I keep worrying that it's never going to go away even thought everyone is reminding me that it will. I am sick and tired of hearing those in the medical field say "its impossible that the pill could have done this" HOW COULD IT NOT? This happens during menopause and after child birth too does it NOT? It's possible during any time of hormonal change. Their way of helping is anti depressants? How about taking this c**p off the market or testing a womens hormones levels before putting her on the wrong dose????? I am so upset, and do not see the end to this. I hope I will soon. Glad this forum exists because it sure does make me feel better that I am not alone. I want this nightmare to end...

I see that we have several new posters here, which is great. However, I also know how frustrated and down you must be to post on this forum. I know I stalked for a while before getting the nerve to post anything. I'm still recovering in many ways, and while most days I feel okay, I still have mood swings and slumps in mood that seem almost as bad as when all of this started. What I've learned is that there doesn't seem to be one thing that makes it all better, it's more of a variety of things. For example, keeping a journal of moods helps you to better know what's coming, and see the patters in your improvements. Writing a "happy letter" to yourself can truly help bring you out of slumps if you use it correctly. Exercise can definitely help you keep your mind off things while also boosting your mood. For me, having someone to talk to has been the most priceless, not just on here, but in my personal life. Sometimes, the only way I could get out of a slump was to cry on my husband's shoulder. After a good cry, I usually felt better and much more calm. 

Hey Girls,



Firstly i would like to congratulate jen on getting married im delighted for you.



Now onto our topic. All i want to say is hang in there girls i know it seems awful now but it does get easier,



I agree with jen when she says that whatever we are going through in our lives at the moment obviously doesnt help because these side effects we are experiencing amplify everything. The past 3 months have been hell for me, at my lowest i questioned everything my relationship, my job, my family and my life which at the lowest of my low i tried to commit suicide. It makes me angry because doctors told me that the pill cannot have these side effects but after you have a baby you can get severly depressed and during menapause as my mam went through hell.



What did not help for me was i was going through personal things in my life and then with the side effects also did not help it just made things worse like a bad day to me was ah im just having a bad day but now what happens to me it when im having a bad day it brings everything back to me.



I took jens advice and i keep a mood diary and also a letter to my bad day and it really does help girls honestly.



Im off the pill now 5 months and im having more good days then nad which im greatful for. I joined Zumba which i love its so much fun and im going out more.



It does get better girls it really does hang in there and keep me posted.



Jen xxxxxx

Hello again.