Jump to content

Pregnancy & OCD.. Or depression?!


Recommended Posts

Hey all! ... Ive not posted in here for a good while now.. my OCD has been in remission / recovery 95% of the time since coming off mirtazapine & completing CBT & ERP.

However, im currently 17weeks pregnant with baby n.4
I didnt have OCD in my 1st or 2nd Pregnancies & my 3rd was so stressful & busy that i didnt really have time to even register moods / OCD etc.

This time around its quite chilled / relaxed. the past week ive had the whole 'Cant be bothered / fed up' mood on and off each day..

My OCD unfortunatly focused on having a huge fear of becoming severely depressed & sucidal inteusive thoughts even though i actually wasnt. Unfortunatly due to a miss diagnosis & certainties given that shouldnt have been it progressed into doubts whether i had depression or OCD. I worked through therapy and as i said.. i came to the realisation that it was OCD.

These moods lately ive tried to rationalise as hormone / pregnancy related.. but theres always that doubt that actually im depressed or heading that way & its so unsettling .. ive since messeged 2 people who i know either are pregnant and have a history of depression etc and ive also posted in a mums group & OCD group.. now here.

Im aware now as i type that im most likely reasurrence seeking here and trying to reach a certainty that its still OCD but the doubt im having makes me think its not worth the risk.. I also just (about 15mins ago felt like throwing out all the tablets in the house which was a behaviour/compulsion i had last year)

Not sure why im posting probably is simply for reassurence.

Link to comment
1 hour ago, Gemma7 said:

Did you tackle this worry about depression when you had CBT previously? :)

Yeah, The early session i had was around figuring out if it was depression or OCD  

because i received a misdiagnosis & alot of damaging things said to me during my crisis with the OCD some proffessionals had me doubting myself to the extremes & was trying to tell me i was in denial about my intrusive thoughts & compulsions so it took a while for the therapist to pick it all apart. 

Link to comment

That can't have been easy for and definitely won't help your current worry x

I think that you need to look at this worry about having depression. You mention that you have friends who have had depression, there are lots of people who have, it isn't something to be scared of.  But it's not just as easy as me saying so, you really need to look at applying CBT to your problem as you did for all your OCD problems. Whatever compulsions you're doing, like seeking reassurance is making you have more doubt not less. You can never be 100% sure you don't have depression, no one can. You have to act like you don't care if you do, to feel better x

Link to comment
2 hours ago, Gemma7 said:

That can't have been easy for and definitely won't help your current worry x

I think that you need to look at this worry about having depression. You mention that you have friends who have had depression, there are lots of people who have, it isn't something to be scared of.  But it's not just as easy as me saying so, you really need to look at applying CBT to your problem as you did for all your OCD problems. Whatever compulsions you're doing, like seeking reassurance is making you have more doubt not less. You can never be 100% sure you don't have depression, no one can. You have to act like you don't care if you do, to feel better x

I didnt have depression to begin with.. the idea was put there because the duty MH team didnt really understand my OCD and just saw it as Ideation rather than a fear & heck of alot of safety seeking / self preservation behaviour. My ocd has always centered around harm .. im able to work through harm intrusions about others easily with self guided ERP but somehow i manage to internalise it & it becomes self harm intrusions and it was that which they didnt understand & went ahead risk asessing me as being suicidal which i was far from it. but because of the doubt they put there i was constantly doubting if it was OCD .. which funnily i had come to that conclusion anyway. due to that i became very hyper vigilant over emotions & feelings, checking my responses and becoming afraid of normal lowered moods .. overanalysis and comparing to others depressive symptons to see if the matched  I ended up making the connection that depression meant suicidal.. so low moods now trigger that anxiety off. But im pretty confident that it is just my ocd spiking a little due to pregmancy hormones & recognised ive done a fair amount of reasurrence seeking the last few days, with that knowledge my anxiety has come down massively and my mood has lifted too :)

Link to comment
4 hours ago, beckyboo said:

CBT with ERP is pretty much the best treatment for OCD. 

DBT is CBT plus mindfulness & group therapy. It’s better for those non responsive to CBT which is quite a lot of people based on forum posts. 

ERP is generally considered to be part of CBT so it’s redundant. 

Edited by Handy
Link to comment

ERP is not redundant. It is a critical component of recovery. ERP is a therapy that falls under the B of CBT, which is Behavioral Therapy.

ERP is about challenging obsessions, meeting them head on. It is about thinking or doing what you fear and not responding the ususl way (by doing compulsions). 

 

Link to comment
On 29/08/2019 at 19:01, Gemma7 said:

That's great becky, just stick with ignoring the doubts and I'm sure you'll have a lovely pregnancy.

Congratulations by the way in case I forgot to say, 4 pregnancies, you must be an expert by now :)

I wish ?? this one by far is the hardest!! but thank you very much :)

Link to comment
On 30/08/2019 at 14:41, PolarBear said:

ERP is not redundant. It is a critical component of recovery. ERP is a therapy that falls under the B of CBT, which is Behavioral Therapy.

ERP is about challenging obsessions, meeting them head on. It is about thinking or doing what you fear and not responding the ususl way (by doing compulsions). 

 

Agreed!! .. I found ERP was the most helpful & beneficial part of therapy for me since i understood quite alot about the cognitive side. 

Mindfulness is an amazing tool to use for a multitude of emotional challenges or just worked into a healthy habit of day to day life. 

I also agree its useful to know there are other therapies available if a person becomes treatment resistant. 

Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...