OCD spiking in late pregnancy

[leil]

I’m currently 38 weeks pregnant and recently my OCD symptoms have spiked a lot, it’s making me feel really unprepared for everything and very anxious.  My OCD predominantly revolves around hyper-responsibility/inadvertently causing harm towards others (mostly total strangers), and a complete intolerance for any mistakes I think that I’ve made no matter how minor.  My symptoms had been playing up over the last month or so anyway but then they were spurred on by the fact that in the last two weeks I’ve had 2 minor scrapes in the car, one in a car park and another during a 3 point turn. Driving is a trigger of mine anyway; I always try to be so careful and aware and this is the first time anything like it has happened in 18 years of driving so I can’t believe it’s happened twice in such a short period of time.

Because of this I’ve lost a lot of confidence in myself as a driver and have stopped now for the remainder of my pregnancy as asides from the fact I’ve apparently lost all sense of spatial awareness it was just too uncomfortable anyway. I’ve found it really difficult to not beat myself up endlessly to the point that it’s keeping me awake at night and it’s causing me to drag up and rehash old obsessions where I ‘might have’ done something wrong.

I’ve been seeing an excellent psychologist who is really helping me to understand my thought processes and addressing the underlying issues/core beliefs, but I’ve not had an appointment for a few weeks and have my last this week until after the baby and when things have settled down. I felt like I’d been making really good progress but as I’m reaching the end of this pregnancy I feel like now I seem to be taking steps backwards again. The same thing happened at the end of my first pregnancy as well with symptoms suddenly spiking and I wonder if it’s down to hormones or if it’s natural for anxiety to play up before big life events.  It’s just getting me down as I just want to feel excited and as relaxed as I can before our impending arrival but OCD always seems to have a way of creeping in at the worst times.  If anyone has any advice or experience I’d really appreciate it!  Thanks for reading

[Handy]

Yes, OCD has an estrogen component. Remember your first pregnancy so this one should be similar. 

[malina]

Hi Leil,

I have read that hormones play a part in OCD, I wouldn't be surprised if this was the case for you too. I think you're also right that there may be stress over a huge life change as well, it's probably a mix of the two. I hope everything goes well!