Feeling depressed after stopping the birth control pills?

Hi everyone, I posted on here a couple of months back saying I was 6 months off the pill. I am now at 8 months and I can honestly say i'm doing so much better than I was since I last posted. I still have the odd anxiety thoughts and moments but those are way less than I had before. I've started to feel like my old self again. I honestly think this is hormonal imbalances from stopping the pill.

I noticed I started to heal more when my cycle adjusted to a set time every month. My cycle would only be a day or 2 different each month in stead of like a week or so like it did at the start. Then as each month past my mood swings got less severe as time went on. I'm not on any anti depressants and the only thing I take to help is a multivitamin for hormonal balance.

It seems like from my own experience and from what I read of other people on this forum that is that time is the best healer. As hard as it is at the start there is an end to it.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Very glad that you are feeling better! I’m six months off now and i still experience unwanted thoughts/feelings etc. but I’m much better than i was a few months ago! glad you feel better and I’m glad there is an end to this!

May i ask what symptoms you were feeling?

Wow this is crazy! I can’t believe there’s still new discussions on this topic. This makes me a little relieved that I’m not alone on this one. Let me tell you guys my experience with birth control pills, So I’ve been on birth control pills (Ortho tri-cyclen and Lo) for about 2 years. When I was on the the first one I felt like a hormonal mess. I was moody, crying over everything and anything, I had a bf at the time so I was always questioning him of our relationship, I was very controlling and that’s what led to the point of our breakup. So I felt even worse after the breakup, but then later on I decided to give up on my pills and start a new life you can say. So after I stopped it, I felt fine mentally! Physically, I had the WORSE cramps, nausea, and dizziness. But eventually, I started to get better! Then 6 months later, my bf and I got back together and I decided to go back on the pills but a different kind so my gp suggested Ortho Lo. When I got on it the first week I had slight cramps here and there, then eventually after the whole pack I felt completely fine! But I noticed a lot of my body changing, I gained A LOT of weight, I would eat everything it felt uncontrollable, I never wanted to have sex with my bf because it would hurt every time and I never felt in the mood to, tender breasts, I would have mood swings but not as bad as the first bc’s I took. I think what really changed me was my weight gain!! Then after 4 months I felt fine, then that was when the 5th month hit me and my life has changed COMPLETELY! Starting at my last 3rd pack going to the placebo pills, I started getting anxiety but not just a mild one, a full blown on attack!! My heart just wouldn’t stop pounding, and the crazy thing is I had no reason to be having an attack, then my mind started racing and I started over thinking about my life and how it is. I felt like a big rock was on top of me and I was stuck. My life felt so unreal. I didn’t want to talk to anyone not even my bf could help. I felt so attacked with my mind. While I was struggling, I decided to stop my pills completely after my period, so I did. Let me toyou guys, nothing changed after that. I still felt like absolute c**p. physically and mentally!! But even worse, my anxiety kept happening especially at work and school. I think the only time I really am relaxed or have relief is getting off of work knowing I’m going back home. Then my depressive thoughts started happening... this had to be worse and with anxiety combined it is dreadful. So now, it’s been over a month and a half now without my pills, my depression and anxiety has been with me still. What’s even worse is that I feel like my life has no meaning and I don’t feel like my life is taking me anywhere, what scares me even more is that I have this suicidal ideation to prepare for which in reality I wouldn’t do and there’s no reason for me to do it!! But it still pops out in my head like what if it’s my last day here? It’s a scary scary thought!! And I hate myself so much for it because I know this isn’t ME!!! I have no reason for it, I have a mom, supporting grandparents, a sister, even my bf, I go to college and I work. Like what’s there more to it? I feel like my whole life is unreal... and I blame the pills for it. I just want to know if anyone is experiencing this like me? Or has. I just want some reassurance that things will get better!

I also feel that I have severe PMDD I started my first actual period yesterday and I feel like this is driving me even more INSANE!! I still experience those unwanted thoughts of being suicidal when I shouldn’t even be thinking about it. I was at the mall yesterday with my best friend hoping it will give me some kind of therapy but it didn’t really help those thoughts still popped up in my mind..like why? It’s just not me. I know who I am I’m usually a happy person but why do I have to suffer from this. I know days will get better for me but it’s coming to the point where it just feels hopeless

Hello! I am also a college student which means we both have our whole lives ahead of us! I was on junel fe which i believe to be a generic brand of ortho tri cyclen. I only stayed on for about 2 months due to the terrible mood swings i was going through. Thinking i would get better after coming off was wrong. It’s been six months and let me tell you i am doing so much better! I felt like a stranger in my own body. My friends didn’t make me feel the same, my boyfriend didn’t make me feel the same, nothing felt the same! I developed really bad anxiety and depression during this process. But, the biggest problem i faced were the feelings towards my boyfriend. At one point in my relationship i doubted absolutely everything about this perfect man who brought so much happiness into my life. I believe the negative thoughts about him really played a major role in the anxiety and depression caused for me. Six months later and I’m feeling much better. The negative thoughts still occur and i would say I’m about 50% better. I heard this could last a very long time so don’t get discouraged if you aren’t seeing results. Only time will heal you. Just keep in mind that this isn’t you and that you will feel better soon. You will get through this although it is an extremely hard time. Best of luck to you.

I'm going through the same exact thing. Birth control gave me terrible mood swings, anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts, so I stopped taking them. Only thing is the depression and thoughts are still here. It's been three months off for me, and I do see improvement in myself, so they don't lie when they say time heals all.
II totally get what you mean with the PMDD too. I never had that problem before I started the pill, but I'm pretty sure the pill gave me PMDD and it's lovely lasting effects.
Just hang in there because it's going to get better.

I’m really sorry to hear that! But I’m so so glad you feel much better now!! Yes I feel the same with my bf, is it bad that I find him annoying when I’m around him? I just feel this disinterest with him and I get second thoughts of our relationship every time and what gets me even MORE anxiety is the fact that he doesn’t understand the whole hormone imbalance and what I’m going through with feeling depressed.. I think i just annoy him too much about it so I just decide not to speak about it with him anymore. But I’m honestly happy that I can share my thoughts and experience on here it helps a lot!

Thank you! I’m just scared I’m going to lose my mind one day but I know days are going to get better and I just have to toughen up, I hate feeling this below myself and i’ve been getting so much tension headaches from thinking so much it’s exhausting!

Trust me it’s okay! I felt the same way for a really long time. My love for him just doesn’t feel the same and i view him under a “different light” it gets a lot better. I used to feel really bored with him and i would think that i would be bored with him every time we hungout. I get super irritated with my boyfriend too. Don’t worry it will be okay.

Hey there, its a bit of a long read but i'll try and explain as best I can.

During the start I suffered from severe depression and anxiety. It was so sudden I had no idea what was happening or why I felt like that. I would experience having heart palpitations and feelings of being incredibly nervous for no reason at all as well as switching to feeling overwhelmingly depressed and wanting to cry. I think because of these unexplained nervous feelings I then started to experience obsessive worrying over things that I never would have worried about before. This would always increase during my time of the month and I noticed after a few months I could tell when certain mood swings would hit during certain weeks of each month. I also noticed especially early on when stopping that I got really noticeable cramps around my pelvic area even when I wasn't on my period. I've experienced cramps like that before when not on the pill in previous years but these felt very noticeable so for me this was unusual.

I also experienced really bad hormonal facial spots during the early stages as well. One of the strangest symptoms I had early on was I would sometime have the strange fear that I couldn't swallow even though I physically could. I think I read on here a few posts back that another woman experienced something similar to that as well.

Fortunately a lot of that has calmed down now, such as the heart palpitations and the cramps. The feelings of depression and needing to cry for no reason have gone as well and i'm starting to feel like my old self again. I do sometimes worry over things but no where near as obsessively as I have before. I think in a few more months the symptoms will go down even more as they have been doing for the past 8 months.

I hope this helps. From what i've read it can vary from woman to woman but this is what I have experienced personally.

I'm almost three months off the pill and I'm having trouble dealing with the depression. I've had my hormones tested, and they're all normal. My adrenal glands are all normal. Everything is normal, which is making this harder to deal with.

I don't want to have to go on any more medication, but I feel like anti-depressants might be the only thing that helps me now. Has anyone tried them after quitting the pill?

I have not tried them after quitting the pill but i deal with some severe depression after stopping. Im 7 months off and i can tell you that although i don’t feel completely better I’ve definitely gotten better! The depression seems to get less every months and although it may suck i think it would be better to not take any meds because it’s just putting another thing into your body. I believe i felt the worse during that time so just keep in mind that it does get better.

does anyone feels particularly down, depressed and negative during times of their period? I feel bad amount my SO during this time.

I've just been assuming that's it's because I've tried stopping bc, but of course that brings on a period. Thinking about hormones, it makes sense. I just started searching because I'm losing it over here, and I was hoping I wasn't just crazy. Maybe that's part of the reason I skip placebos for months on end; this sucks.