Bipolar and battling anixety.It's a whole new challenge - Anxiety Message Board

MillaRose · 01-24-2009, 03:04 PM

I'm Bipolar and battling Anixety.It's a whole new challenge. I have a one year old daughter and just returned back to work. I realize this normally would cause anxiety but what's happening to me is just ridiculous. I'm scared to drive in the dark. Scared at night if I'm downstairs by myself. It's really annoying. I keep having to rely on everone which is not what I expected retuning to work to be like. This anxiety truly started back in the summer when we bought and moved into our first home. It was very unexpected then as well. I was really afraid of dogs so I wouldn't bring the baby out in the stroller or to the park on my own. We were stuck in the house till her Dad got home. My fear of driving was worse then. I wouldn't even drive in the daylight. I also had a specific fear of an intruder coming in through the basement.
I'm so new to this and I think it's really starting to cause depression. Maybe depression is causing this? Very confusing. I take Lithium which seems to have work. untill now?? Diagnosed with Bipolar disorder 17 years ago.
Any help or words of wisdom, similar experiences would be appreciated. PS. My doc is pretty useless

zekat · 01-24-2009, 06:28 PM

You know, I don't think it's all that uncommon for new moms. I swear, I think we are getting some weird hormone - or after hormone that makes us hyper alert while they are still little. I remember worrying about the oddest things - and one of them was driving at night. It was really hard to get used to again after having my son & I still am not sure why. I also breastfed and wonder if it had something to do with those hormones? A few friends of mine had similar experiences with their anxiety being heightened. We decided (very unscientifically) that it must be something biological that happens to women after childbirth. Once we started talking, we also realized we all had very vivid fears... like we could see ourselves accidentally falling down the stairs holding the baby or something. When my son was 10 months, I went on Zoloft and that seemed to help me a lot. I went off after three months and still did well for a really long time.

You obviously have had a LOT of changes over the last year, so that's only going to increase your stress. I don't really have much to offer as far as advice goes, but I did want to let you know that someone understood. Hang in there.