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Hello everyone and welcome back to my channel if you’re new here my name is erica dodds this is my second video on my channel so i’m really really excited because this is an important topic that i’m going to talk about today i’m going to be talking about anxiety and maybe some depression but mainly anxiety because that is what i have been challenged with these
Past couple of months maybe even years um but before i get into the whole spiel make sure you are subscribed turn your post notifications i’m super super happy that you all are here we have about 200 subscribers which is a lot more than i expected and i’m really really excited to be filming more mommy content and more personal content with you guys um so to get
Started i have some notes down below in my notebook so if you see me glaring about it’s because i have my notes and i don’t want to miss like any topics or any sort of important things but to get started on the whole story i have had i think anxiety mainly separation anxiety since i was a kid um but i didn’t really admit it or know what it was but now fully
Understand understanding what anxiety is i can now identify that that was separation anxiety that i had experienced when i was a kid recently though now being a mother specifically a stay-at-home mother to one baby i have a son named kylan if you guys don’t know he is 17 months specifically to being a mother i have grown to have a lot more intense anxiety and
While doing a lot of research and talking to my doctors i have been able to identify my triggers uh how i react when i am having like an anxiety attack what helps me calm down in those types of things to get started though i want to say that i am not a medical professional at all i’m just an average mommy going through what every other mom goes through so if you
Feel like you have anxiety or battling depression i would strongly advise you to either seek help with a family member or with a medical professional or whatever makes you feel more comfortable i was at first not comfortable at all with talking to a medical professional or a therapist so i spoke to my husband patrick and after having a conversation with my husband
Patrick is when i was comfortable enough to talk with my doctor my ob gyn dr fish she’s amazing and has helped me a lot with my anxiety so how it started or how i feel i started to notice i had severe anxiety was these things that would trigger me really easy like i would be really easily triggered by small things changes in kylin’s schedule or interruptions in
Kylin’s schedule like his nap schedule or his feeding schedule slight changes or things that would get in the way of it would trigger me really bad and i would get a lot of anger towards anyone around me or anything that is messing up the schedule also i would be very fatigued really sleepy for no reason throughout the day i would just want to sleep and i would
Ignore things like brushing my teeth or brushing my hair or washing my face or cleaning up i would only take care of kylin gladly he’s very well taken care of but i wouldn’t be taking care of myself or my household oh family related issues were very triggering to me and i didn’t know how to handle them properly also i would say starting things like starting
Assignments when i was in school starting assignments gave me a lot of anxiety or starting anything starting a project at home starting a vlog starting this channel gave me a lot of anxiety which is why i put it off i put starting things off where i would procrastinate um but it’s until now that i realized that it’s anxiety and that’s what it is a couple of the
Feelings that i would go through would include panic fatigue anger especially when i couldn’t control things i had a lot of frustration um procrastination i had sadness and just a lot of confusion because i was like what the heck am i feeling why am i feeling this way and it took me a lot to identify why i was feeling this way or what was like triggering me
So that’s why i started writing in my notebook and i wrote down all of my triggers and i tried to make sure that i could breathe and take a moment like this is something that’s probably going to trigger me and i should be more aware of what i’m saying of my actions because it would come out as anger and in turn would harm my relationship with my husband or a
Relationship with a loved one i struggled though with identifying if it was anxiety that i was feeling or depression because i have learned that those two things kind of intertwine especially postpartum um sometimes what you feel and you think is anxiety could also be involved with depression which is why i had a long talk with my doctor and she kind of explained
To me the differences and that it’s very common for women to experience both anxiety and depression postpartum some things that i listed as anxiety would be like i had a fear of everything specifically leaving my house and driving you guys always know that me and patrick always joke around about like how i don’t drive or i don’t want to leave the house or stuff
Like that but it’s a genuine fear that i had and i really needed to work on getting over it because if worse came to worse and i had to leave the house in an emergency it took a lot out of me to have to drive or if i didn’t have to drive i would want to plan in days in advance and hours in advance i would be looking at google maps like planning my route or
Just like if i encountered something on the road that isn’t planned out on my route i would have a meltdown and like freak out and that’s not okay that’s not normal granted i did want to blame me having a fear of driving over a previous car accident that i had but that was over two years ago and even after that car accident i was still driving normally and i
Was fully capable of you know driving properly so i needed to stop using that as an excuse and just be aware that it’s my anxiety that was causing this and it’s an issue that i need to tackle i had a really fast mood changes also i would be happy for one moment and then out of nowhere i would be really really sad or i would be sad one moment and then i would
Get really angry out of nowhere and i couldn’t identify like why am i mad why am i sad like this is really weird and it’s one of those things that’s like i don’t know how to explain it to someone else like i didn’t know how to explain it to my husband and he would also get frustrated because he would be like i don’t know how to help you dude i mean he wouldn’t
Call me dude but he’d be like i don’t know how to help you and he’s obviously never experienced this sort of feeling so it was hard for us to kind of connect and get to the root of the issue what i have done to help my anxiety and i don’t like seeing depression i don’t like calling it a depression because i i don’t know i was still capable of doing stuff and i
I never had the thought of harming myself or having my child or any such thing but it was a deep sadness that i had so what i did for my anxiety and my sadness was i started working out i kind of changed my diet um i tried putting myself on a stricter schedule so that i had a purpose during the day okay i had a checklist i wake up i take a medication you know
Brush my teeth wash my face those simple things well to some might seem simple but to me it was like okay a great accomplishment that i did that day because i wouldn’t be doing those things when i was under these sad episodes um that’s what i would do but it wouldn’t stick and i still felt very anxious and frustrated so that’s when i decided it was time to go to
My doctor and it was amazing it was the best decision that i could have made for myself and my family and i do truly feel a lot better i’m currently on an off-brand medication of i think it’s so loft i’m not quite sure i have written down and i will show you in a second it’s called circle line search your lanes that you’re lying something like that 50 mg daily i
Take that i’ve been on that for two and a half weeks and i have noticed a couple things i’ve noticed right away that the first couple days that i was on it it gave me an upset stomach um it gave me a headache and nausea which i was like oh no am i bragging but i wasn’t pregnant thank god i mean i thank god because i would love to have another baby but not right
Now especially going through all this so i was freaking out um but i talked to my doctor she was like oh it’s just the side of specs which it wore off in maybe three days it wore off those side effects i have noticed though that i react better taking it at night than taking it in the morning right before i go to bed i take it when i used to take it during the day
It would make me very sleepy and i just couldn’t get much done so i take it at night um and i think it has helped a lot with my mood swings my frustration and especially just my anxiety i don’t i i don’t get this overwhelming like debilitating feeling anymore i just feel like okay it’s something that happens and i can accomplish the rest of my day you know so i’m
Very thankful to my doctor for getting me this medication it’s it’s a one i am fearful of it though because i have noticed that a lot of women tend to gain weight on it which i’m like i don’t really want to gain weight but my mental health i think is like the most important thing for me right now especially now that it’s like getting in the way of my relationship
But everything’s good right now i feel good i was very scared that i would have a lot of anxiety on kylan’s baptism day um if you’re interested in the baptism patrick has a video on our vlog channel the dog’s family you can go see that there but that day i had a lot a lot a lot of anxiety but i took my medication that day i did some journaling and i was like you
Know what it’s good and the day was actually really good and i was very thankful of that because leading up until that day gave me a lot of anxiety which is another reason why we are not having a wedding this year because i had a lot of anxiety planning it behind the scenes family stuff so that’s why we’re not having our wedding which i’m really sad about but
It’s probably for the best because now i feel a lot better and i know that i can do it more prepared down the road so uh to wrap this whole thing up if you are battling with anxiety and depression whether you’re a mother or not a mother please don’t feel alone you’re not alone i’m here to talk to you or i would really like this channel to be a page where other
Mothers can like connect with one another or girls my age we can connect with one another because we truly do need to stick together and just help other moms who are feeling this way i don’t have a lot of friends in my area so i’m hoping this channel can be just like a community for all of us to get along we can all be badass together i hope everyone is staying
Happy and healthy most importantly both physically and mentally mental taken care of or like mental spa day is very very important for every woman every man as well but specifically for women because we go through a lot with our freaking hormones man like i swear hormones and you know i’ve been acting this way and i’m not even on birth control i mean never mind
Don’t either i can’t say that anyways i hope that everyone enjoyed this video please feel free to comment down below your experience with medication or what has helped you with your anxiety or depression what are things that you think that are good for other women to try out and hopefully we can all be better but yeah make sure to follow me on my social media
Subscribe if you’re not already subscribed and i love you guys bye
Transcribed from video
Postpartum anxiety as a stay at home mom (Sertraline) By Ericka Dodds
