Extreme anxiety at 5 weeks postpartum. Will I have to stop breastfeeding to get help?
ByWhat I mean is are there any medications that won’t effect breastfeeding? My counselor says that I am more than likely going to need help with the anxiety because it has gotten out of control but I don’t want to take breastfeeding away from my baby. Are there medications that are safe? Has anyone else gone through this?
I friend of mine had this happen to her; she started having such severe panic attacks that she needed to be on medication. First she tried Zoloft b/c it was ok for breastfeeding, but it wasn’t the right medication for her. She eventually did stop breastfeeding to go on a medication that could relieve her anxiety better. I think she was put on Lexapro or something like that. She also was having some trouble breastfeeding which was complicating the anxiety. Ultimately, while she was initially bummed, she feels so much better and feels so much better about the type of parent she is now that her anxiety is under control.
While breastfeeding is super important, so is your mental health. You may be doing great things for your baby by breastfeeding and not so great things for your baby by not getting the proper help you need with anxiety medication. Of course, do what you can to try to use meds approved for breastfeeding. Also try cognitive behavioral therapy or something else to help you cope without meds. But remember that being super anxious all the time isn’t helping you be a good parent. And in the long run, if it’s truly out of control, doing what’s best for you is definitely doing what’s best for your baby.
6 Comments
October 28th, 2008 at 7:56 pm
just stand your ground and tell them that you’re not going to sacrifice breastfeeding because you need medication and that they have to find something that you can have while breastfeeding…. simple as that, they will not put the life of you or your baby at risk and will find something for you.
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October 28th, 2008 at 8:01 pm
hi there, no you wont have to stop breastfeeding there are meds that they can give you that will be safe during breastfeeding, i am so sorry to hear your suffering so much, i hope you get the help you need, and if its Postnatal depression which it sounds like its best to get it treated right away
good luck
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mummy to 16month old, 6angel babies & 11months TTC
October 28th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
zoloft is considered the safest out there, and perfect for anxiety!!! i was going to use that for my anxiety, while i breastfed, but my anxiety went away on its own in a few wks. my baby got older, and everything settled down, so you might want to wait a few wks! if you just cant, its no big deal, trust me! my gyno wrote a book about medication and the breastfeeding mother, shes also a lactation consultant, so i trust her!!!!
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October 28th, 2008 at 8:17 pm
I friend of mine had this happen to her; she started having such severe panic attacks that she needed to be on medication. First she tried Zoloft b/c it was ok for breastfeeding, but it wasn’t the right medication for her. She eventually did stop breastfeeding to go on a medication that could relieve her anxiety better. I think she was put on Lexapro or something like that. She also was having some trouble breastfeeding which was complicating the anxiety. Ultimately, while she was initially bummed, she feels so much better and feels so much better about the type of parent she is now that her anxiety is under control.
While breastfeeding is super important, so is your mental health. You may be doing great things for your baby by breastfeeding and not so great things for your baby by not getting the proper help you need with anxiety medication. Of course, do what you can to try to use meds approved for breastfeeding. Also try cognitive behavioral therapy or something else to help you cope without meds. But remember that being super anxious all the time isn’t helping you be a good parent. And in the long run, if it’s truly out of control, doing what’s best for you is definitely doing what’s best for your baby.
References :
personal experience
friends experience
October 28th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
I have anxiety too. But I’ve learned to deal with it without meds, since all the anti anxiety meds do the complete opposite effect on me. I know that sometimes they can some on out of the blue and there is nothing that you can do about that. When that happens to me, I just keep telling myself, its only an anxiety attack and it will go away. That’s the good thing about anxiety, is it doesn’t last forever. For the times you can feel it come on, try to get your mind off of it. Anxiety is all in your mind, and I’m not trying to be mean, but it is. It’s a real thing, but it is your mind playing tricks on you to make you get that fight or flight feeling. What’s hard is once you have an anxiety attack, you have anxiety about having another one. When I can feel them come on, I will either call someone and just start talking about random things, and that helps me get my mind off of it, or I will take a cold shower, that helps lower my pulse and then it gets your mind on how cold you are rather than the anxiety. Another thing that helps is to take slow deep breaths, you tend to hyperventilate, the deep breaths will help you, then you concentrate on your breathing too rather then your anxiety. I hope you can get thru it without meds, but some people can’t, don’t feel bad if you have to be on meds. I had no choice. Good Luck!!!
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I have had anxiety for 9 years. Got it a year after my son was born
October 28th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
Negative emotions (like sadness, stress, anger, etc.) causes your Serotonin production to be low; when your Serotonin level is low, you are more prone to getting Anxiety, Panic Attacks, Depression, etc.
Medication like Antidepressants (SSRI - Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor) helps to boost Serotonin level.
But there are natural ways to do it without medication. There’s this strange herb called “St John’s Wort” - it is said to be more effective than Prozac. No, it is not for mild depression only and ignore those sayings. In fact, it does help anxiety and panic-attacks as St John’s Wort works like prozac. Other natural ways will be exercise, diet, more exposure to light, etc.
The problem is that, even if your Serotonin is balanced… you have that “learned behavior” in your mind. You need to break that initial cycle to destroy that learned behavior - Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) does this. A technique that you can use without CBT will be Distraction… There are several other techniques to help cope them!
Ok, to use Distraction: Firstly, try to….
Extracted from Source.
References :
http://PanicAttackResearch.blogspot.com