I've been prone to panic attacks during high stress times of my life (death of a loved one, loss of a job leading to having to move back in with parents, etc).
Before I got pregnant, I was on Lexapro and it was working just fine for me, even helped with my insomnia...and by helped, I mean it knocked me out around 10 p.m. and I slept like I was dead until 6 a.m..
Then I got pregnant and went off of the Lexapro.
The panic attacks and rapid cycling kicked in around month 6 of my pregnancy.
My dd is now 4.5 mo and I'm still experiencing the rapid cycling pretty regularly, and have had a number of panic attacks (mostly while driving alone with the baby or at night when everyone else is asleep).
I tried to talk to my primary care doc about this last week when I was seeing her for a sinus infection, but she basically blew me off and said we didn't have time to get into it and I needed to make another appointment. But I will be seeing my ob next week and intend to discuss it with him again...(we talked at 6 wks post-partum, but I was exclusively breastfeeding and he didn't want to prescribe anything just yet).
I honestly don't think I should be taking anything like a maintenance drug (like Lexapro, etc) a) because it makes me sleep very hard through the night, and I've got an infant to care for, and b) because I am still primarily breastfeeding...so I don't want to be on a daily medication. However, I think that I could definitely benefit from an acute-care medication like xanax or valium in low dosages. I don't know, you just hear so much about people drug-seeking that I feel conspicuous going to the doctor with such a well-formed concept of how I could best be treated.
I don't even know if the anxiety would be considered PPD anyway. I guess I'll just have to go talk to him. All I know is something has to give. I feel like I'm going crazy.
Before I got pregnant, I was on Lexapro and it was working just fine for me, even helped with my insomnia...and by helped, I mean it knocked me out around 10 p.m. and I slept like I was dead until 6 a.m..
Then I got pregnant and went off of the Lexapro.
The panic attacks and rapid cycling kicked in around month 6 of my pregnancy.
My dd is now 4.5 mo and I'm still experiencing the rapid cycling pretty regularly, and have had a number of panic attacks (mostly while driving alone with the baby or at night when everyone else is asleep).
I tried to talk to my primary care doc about this last week when I was seeing her for a sinus infection, but she basically blew me off and said we didn't have time to get into it and I needed to make another appointment. But I will be seeing my ob next week and intend to discuss it with him again...(we talked at 6 wks post-partum, but I was exclusively breastfeeding and he didn't want to prescribe anything just yet).
I honestly don't think I should be taking anything like a maintenance drug (like Lexapro, etc) a) because it makes me sleep very hard through the night, and I've got an infant to care for, and b) because I am still primarily breastfeeding...so I don't want to be on a daily medication. However, I think that I could definitely benefit from an acute-care medication like xanax or valium in low dosages. I don't know, you just hear so much about people drug-seeking that I feel conspicuous going to the doctor with such a well-formed concept of how I could best be treated.
I don't even know if the anxiety would be considered PPD anyway. I guess I'll just have to go talk to him. All I know is something has to give. I feel like I'm going crazy.
