Pregnancy is NOT the time to get your mental health meds figured out

If I could go back to before I was pregnant and do one thing, it would be to work out my psych meds.

I was on amitriptyline 75mg and busiprone and thought I had my depression and anxiety under control. Then once I got pregnant I had to get off amitriptyline and my depression and anxiety have been horrible.

I tried to get on Zoloft but I felt like it increased my anxiety which increased my panic attacks. My panic attacks can last HOURS. They’re traumatic to go through and I try my best to avoid them at all costs but sometimes I don’t even know what triggers them.

I asked my psychiatrist about Wellbutrin because it’s helped in the past and she said it’s not safe and recommended TMS. I was so sick for awhile I couldn’t start TMS, until this week.

I did two sessions and had a full blown panic attack for the first time in weeks and now I’m terrified of continuing treatment even though they are assuring me it wasn’t caused by the TMS treatment.

I’m also frustrated because I looked up Wellbutrin and it’s a category B medication so I have no idea why they were so against prescribing it but they were ok with Zoloft or Prozac, both are category C.

I wish I could have switched to Zoloft prior to getting pregnant because i think I would have had a much easier transition. I’m tired of feeling anxious and depressed. I feel bad that my little guy has a mom who can’t seem to get it together. He deserves better than that. I hope I can get things under control soon because I just want to enjoy this pregnancy and be the best mom for my baby.

But if you’re a lurker and TTC, I hope you take this advice and get it figured out prior to pregnancy. It would have been so much easier to just up the dose on something that was already working for me than go through all this trial and error now.