When To See a Therapist for Pregnancy Anxiety?
1 in 7 women experience what we call a perinatal mood and anxiety disorder in either pregnancy or postpartum. This can be scary for women and not at all what women imagined being pregnant to be like. However, anxiety during pregnancy is highly treatable and there are may evidenced based methods that a pregnant woman can utilize to feel like herself again. Below are some various types of anxiety that women experience while expectant. If you find you meet criteria for any of the below symptoms, reach out to a mental health therapist.
General Pregnancy Anxiety
There’s definitely typical anxiety that pops up during new life stages, such as pregnancy. However, if you are finding these below symptoms are often and causing a disruption in your daily life, it may be something to chat with a therapist about. Below you will find general pregnancy anxiety symptoms.
Racing Thoughts
Disturbances of sleep and appetite
Physical Symptoms like nausea
Feeling like something bad is going to happen
Constant Worry
Pregnancy Panic Disorder
Symptoms of a panic attack in pregnancy can include: sweating, chest pain, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, dizziness and numbness and tingling in the arms and legs. Many people describe panic attacks as an extremely overwhelming experience. They can sometimes come out of the blue and can cause many women to worry about when the next one might be.
Pregnancy Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
OCD during pregnancy can be scary for any pregnant mom. If you have any of the below thoughts talk, to a trusted therapist today.
Obsessive-Compulsive symptoms can include:
Obsessions, also called intrusive thoughts, which are frequent and repetitive thoughts related to the pregnancy. These thoughts can be very upsetting to an expectant mom.
Compulsions, where the mom may do certain things over and over again to reduce her fears and obsessions. This may include things like needing to clean constantly, check things many times, count or reorder things.
A sense of horror about the obsessions
Hypervigilance in protecting the infant