Feeling depressed after stopping the birth control pills?

I've tried to leave my fiancé 3 times in two weeks. Have been off the pill for nearly two months, after taking it for 12 years. We are trying to work through it - but yes, sometimes I feel I am incapable of love. Either someone loving me or to love another....

Hi guys. Im so glad that ive found this site. Ive been on the pill since I was 10 (for acne treatment) im now 25. I took yasmin for years and when I was a teenager I began to experience really bad anxiety and felt very unnatural in myself and just down in thr dumps for no reason. So I decided to stop the pill. It took months and months but I finally got better and was myself again.

after a few years I met my boyfriend and obviously decided to go on the pill again and within weeks of taking the same pill I got the same feelings back so I immediately went to doctors to change it. Then a year ago things started to go really wrong and it severely affected my relationship and continues to. I started thinking of obserd situations with my boyfriend being with other people (females) and has caused us to be on constant eggshells and almost broke up a 7 year relationship. I had (and still have) relationship doubts that never existed before and hes done nothing to provoke anything.

my head feels that bad sometimes and constantly heavy. I try and block out thoughts but they can easily run away with me. Ive no interest in anything like I used to which is straining the relationship as im always too down to go anywhere.

All I can say is ive come off the pill now for about 2 months now and im just hoping things get better for me. Sick of feeling like a crazy woman and not doing things I used to. My period was 2 months late and just started one day so im hoping ive just hormonally unbalanced. I feel for my boyfriend as ive said all kinds of stuff which isnt like me.

There needs to be more awareness about the side effects of the pill and what damage it can do! Stay strong everyone x

Hi. I can completely understand where your coming from about this. Me n my boyfriend are going through a rough time. Me thinking I dont love him and thinking the worst. The pill is synthetic like our feelings xx

Hi, I am currently off the pill and having very similar things to this thread but not anywhere like you I just wanted to say stay strong and don't give up. Maybe you can switch to a doctor you feel you can trust to help you get off the pill.

Hi!
I hope you are feeling better, it will just take time for your hormones to balance out. Be sure you're drinking lots of water and many girls on here and other sites have said taking a good B-complex vitamin really helps since the pill depletes your body of B vitamins (among others).
I have had the same relationship issues, my fiancee has been so supportive through all this but it's definitely stressed him out not knowing what to do or how to help. Talking about it helps, I know it's hard for guys to understand all the hormone stuff. Just remember
it's temporary and it will get better!

Thank god I'm not the only one! Me and my partner are trying for a baby. I have only been off the pill for a week and today I just cannot stop crying ...over nothing! I feel so low and haven't been sleeping well. This happened before when I stopped taking the pull and I just felt depressed. Can't wait to finally feel normal. Luckily I have a good fiance to support me through. X

This forumn may have just saved me. I was beginning to really believe I was losing my mind. I stopped taking the pill a couple of months ago and I was fine at first. All of the sudden I think my body is reacting to not having it after taking it for over 6 years. I've never felt so depressed or had such crazy, sad, scarey thoughts in my life. I don't like taking medication of any sorts which is why I haven't wanted to go talk to a psychiatrist who would prescribe me meds to feel better. The reason I stopped taking birth control was because I don't really want to take any meds anymore or have my body depepndednt on anything unless I really have to. Well, now of am going to just get back on the pill because I can't take this anxiety/depression that getting off it has caused. I just started a new semester of college and this just isn't the right time for me to try and fight through it. I was getting so depressed and having so much anxiety I was even thinking about how much I'd rather be dead than go through this. I thought I was really going crazy and I didn't get why this was happening. I just want to feel like myself again. I told my parents about how I felt because it was to the point where I could barely get out of bed and had to miss several days of work. I'm going to get back on the pill in hopes this will all just go away for now. If it does at least I will know that's what was causing my craziness. Now I'll just have to be prepared to when I get off of it in the future when I'm ready to have babies. At least now I will know that maybe I need to find a holistic way to balance my hormones when I stop taking the pill next time. I hate that I ever really even started taking it in the first place now because this is what happens when our bodies get dependent on a medication. Thanks everyone for making me see the light. Now I know I'm not alone.

I am so grateful for this post. My daughter got married just over a year ago and moved 5 hours away. Just this weekend she came home saying she wanted a divorce and that she was suicidal and wanted out. This is SO NOT my daughter. She has just quit BC and I think it is related. I had some similar issues when I went off the pill but that was 20 years ago!

Hi,
That's awful, I'm sorry that she's going through this! There are many forums like this one out there where all the post BC symptoms are discussed. I didn't want to go on antidepressants or anxiety meds (even though I did end up taking them briefly) so I went to a holistic dr. and had my hormone levels checked. Please encourage your daughter to read things on this site and another "Aphrodite Women's Health" under the "contraception" topic. There are tons of girls going through the same thing after stopping BC. I hope she starts feeling better soon!

Hi everyone!

Just adding my story to the pile, in case anyone still wants to claim it can't have anything to do with the pill... (Just google it, there are so many forums with women with the exact same symptoms! Maybe it only happens to those of us who are more sensitive to it but there really should be more research and warning!)

So I stopped birth control 5 months ago, I had just switched pills and forgotten to take the new ones in the third week, I decided to wait till I'd start the new pack, and suddenly I found myself having a panic attack. In a really quiet train. For no reason. The panic didn't really go away that entire day.
Desperate for a solution I went to the doctor, i need to take the train to get to uni so i couldn't afford the fear I now had for getting back in the train. the doctor prescribed anti-depressants. Not a good idea I might add, because while they do work for and are prescribed for panic disorders, they take 2-6 weeks to work and i needed to get into the train the next day! Also, they can make anxiety worse before they make it better!
At any rate, i took the first one, pushed myself in that train - you do not want to know what that looked like - and it was the last day before the weekend so I thought that would let me recover. I took the second pill, even though after the first one I was feeling so anxious I couldn't sleep. Well that was bad, really bad. I couldn't sleep. The next day I couldn't do anything but sit in bed vibrating with fear, unable to do anything, feeling like I'd rather jump off a bridge. I have social anxiety, and especially phone calls, but not that bad and I forced myself to call the doctor because I was terrified of myself. The doctor wasn't there, and the replacement was so startled by me she prescribed me a sedative.
With more effort than I have ever put into anything, I managed to get the prescription filled. My boyfriend had to convince me to take it though because I couldn't because I was too scared. It worked and i finally got some relieve. I even laughed a little. I had to take them for some days after before I felt secure enough to just take them when needed - when taking the train which had now become a fullblown phobia.
I managed to get to the end of the schoolyear. During the break I felt better until I didn't. One morning I woke up with just panic rushing through me. I eventually took something to make me feel calm again and while I felt calm I now felt down and worried. This continued for about a month, gradually getting better. Then school started. I kept pushing myself and pushing myself, sedating myself to be able to cope with the train, but it was always a push and there were days when it didn't work in time.
And then last week I had a complete breakdown. I woke up terrified again - hadn't in a while - and it wouldn't subside. None of the coping things worked. I ended up sedating myself again, even though I didn't want to. It helped. I felt much better. But the next morning I woke up the same way and this time taking the meds calmed me down, but I now felt really really really depressed. No words can describe how I felt, but despair is close. I stopped functioning. I stopped eating, I stopped taking care of myself, I barely managed to feed the cats. My boyfriend had to do everything and he said he'd already feared this would happen. I had just pushed too far too much. This went on all week. I saw my psychologist on Monday and she said I had to take a break from school. She wasn't sure if the depression was a sign of anxiety or a new one all together but I needed to calm down before any treatment. (I was there on her lunchbreak and hadn't stopped crying during the entire session.)
Tuesday was the first day I managed without a sedative but the depression is still there and it is terrifying. I am genuinely terrified of myself.
I just want to tell everyone experiencing symptomps, give yourself time to heal. Please. If there is any way to get rid of stresses do it, ecplain to people what is going on, don't push push push. It isn't worth your health.
I'm seeing her friday again and we'll see what she has to say, like many of you I am hesitant going on anti-depressants - especially after last time. But it is everyone's choice to make, just outweigh the possible side-effects against how you feel now and what you think you can do.
I mean, right now I think it's an accomplishment that I have gotten out of bed and gotten the mail. That is about all I can do now. So what side-effect is going to stop me from doing even that?
There are some natural ways to try if you want (there's a thread on aphroditewomenshealth in the forums you might want to check). Please take care of yourself. It isn't weak of you or selfish of you. Also don't be afraid to approach a psychologist for help, you can tell them you don't want to medicate unless there is no other way, you just have to find one willing to work with you and one you feel you can trust.

Your depression started about same time mine did and six months later, I am still dealing. How are you doing?

I'm 26 and have been on birth control since I was 18, non-stop, almost completely on one kind. I always took a week of the placebos, but in April, I woke up one morning wanting to scream, cry, and get out of my own skin. I cried all day for no reason and was more sensitive than I have ever been. After a few days of trying to ignore these crazy feelings, I completely had a melt down and stayed in my room all day trying to drag some spiritual reason from my situation. I got progressively better over the month and exactly four weeks later, I woke up with the same strange, pressing feeling on my chest. I have had depression in my life before, but this felt like it started with my body, like a strange weight on me, but without anxiety.

At this point, it hit me that something was WRONG. I have been to many doctors since,without taking anything except for ativan to sleep at night. The depression was a 10, and despite my beliefs and all my protective mechanisms, I began having suicidal ideation and just wishing desperately I would just go away. It was all just too painful. Finally, last month, out of desperation and worry that I would jump off a bridge, I went to an all-natural doctor I know through a family friend...had tests of hormones, neurotransmitters, heavy metals, etc. Turns out, MANY things are very, very wrong with me and my heart health is compromised due to the severe stress I have been under, including low serotonin, low progesterone, etc. It is costly and long, but I am getting better all naturally. For over two weeks, I have felt better and despite having that pressing feeling for two days, it was very slight and manageable. Things are finally looking up after six months. This is a huge problem that doctors reject and people blink at but it is REAL. This has been the worst time in my 26 years, and that is saying something.

I tried going to your blog and it seems as though the website is no longer functioning. Do you have another site or blog that I can visit and read up on? Thanks.

What are you doing naturally? Are you taking supplements? I would like to look in to what you are doing naturally. Thanks.

What I am doing is based on the testing I got to tell what was wrong in my system, you would have to go to an alternative dr and get testing. For mood, I am on 10000 IU vitamin D per day, 8 5htp (really helping), and 3 SamE