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9475243 tn?1405300275

Anxiety caused by birth control?

Hello 26 year old female been on ortho tri cyclen lo for about 5 years. I noticed it ramped up my anxiety when I first took it so long ago but it seemed to level off but I never handled stress properly since taking it. I have now become anxious cant sleep can barely eat...i gag everyday I feel depersonalized and derealized...do you guys think it could be the birth control causing this. My life is good but I'm scared and obsessed with my health feels like in dying...any experiences let me know!
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973741 tn?1342342773
Hi there, welcome.  I'm here to tell you from personal experience that hormones absolutely can trigger anxiety!  And you are manipulating yours through your BCP.  Things like  reduction in estrogen or imbalance due to adding estrogen can trigger it.  I mean, really, we can't win sometimes. LOL  So, how long has this been going on?  5 years now?  I think too that hormones can trigger it but it usually would happen to someone that may be predisposed to it.  Now, I have it but am in general an even keep person.  So, it's kind of cyclic for me with regards to my cycle.  Do you feel any better on your 'off' week of the pill?  Do you do anything for treatment of anxiety regardless of the origin?  I'm thinking of things like counseling or therapy to learn coping skills.  Meditation. Breathing exercises.  And the other possibility of adding on medicine to help.  I do absolutely have more stabilized mood when I get enough rest and exercise regularly too.  Are you going through a particularly stressful time right now in your life?
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2 Comments
I'm actually not stressed with my life right now! The Anxiety started to get bad again after a fight with my bf. I was always anxious though the birth control made it way worse. I hadnt panicked since I was 13 then at 20 when I started the pill I had the first panic attack in a while...idk I just feel crazy and detached from my body :\  I need some kind of relief and feel like I know I became more anxious after starting the pill.
Oh and I have am appointment with a psychiatrist in December so maybe I can get some help there.
973741 tn?1342342773
Ugh, ya. It's hard.  I'm so glad you are going to see a psychiatrist as I think that will help.  I also will say wonderful things about therapists. There are good and bad ones out there but they can really help with skills needed to work through panic attacks and bad times in general.  Did you make up with your boyfriend? I'm the cl on the relationships forum here . . .   we are always happy to chat about relationships there!!  :>)  You can find it under R's in the community list.  
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1 Comments
Oh thank you! And yes we made up the next day which is why I dont get why I'm still anxious :/ Oh well thanks for answering. :)
Avatar universal
If your problem is actually your hormones, seeing a psychiatrist in my opinion is the exact wrong thing to do.  They don't do hormones, they dispense drugs for mental illness.  It would seem the most logical thing to have done long ago would be to stop taking the birth control pills and see if the problem goes away.  If there's any chance it is the pill causing the problem, you're trying to fix what isn't broken and might end up on difficult medication intended for other problems.  Because I've lived long enough to get old, I've seen a lot of evolution in the women I've known and how they deal with birth control.  There was a time many years ago when every female I knew got on the pill, but then that changed because of the effects of it.  After a time, every woman I knew was instead using diaphragms and the men condoms if they wanted more protection or were having sex with men outside of long-term relationships.  My advice, which you're perfectly free to ignore completely, is to stop taking the particular birth control you're on before you do anything else.  If that fixes the problem, you don't have to do anything else and can address your birth control in other ways that don't involve playing around with your hormones.  This is a pretty much a standard advice -- if you start taking something new, it can even be a supplement or a new food, if you notice new problems, just stop doing the new thing and see if that fixes the problem.  If it does, it's the easiest way to fix it.  Again, it sounds like you're trying to force something here that might be best just not being used.  If stopping the pill doesn't solve the problem, you'll know that wasn't the problem as well, and then you can pursue other avenues of fixing the problem.  Whatever you decide to do, all the best.
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