Hormonal birth control, or stress?

[ms-octopus-lady.livejournal.com]

I have been rather moody and really tired these past few months. I honestly can't tell if it is because I'm amazingly stressed out here at college, and things in terms of school and my relationships with friends and my boyfriend are only going to get much, much worse, or if it's because of my hormonal birth control. The slightest thing can turn a great day into a terrible day. For example, I had a really nice day today, but when I came home and called my boyfriend, he only had a few minutes to talk and spent that time complaining about what a bad day he had. He usually never does that, he just had a really bad day. When I hung up the phone, I actually felt so crushed that I didn't get to tell him about my day that I almost felt like he broke up with me. And I'm seeing him tomorrow night, so I have not a clue why I am so sad about this.

I'm taking Levlen 28, been on it for about nine or ten months.

I'm tired of being so easy to upset, and situations that I once looked forward to now seem to cause dread in me, but again that might be because of academic and social issues. How can I tell if my current emotional is caused by outside interactions, or interactions my body is having to my pill? I would see a doctor, but the nearest appointment I could get with my therapist is 3 weeks from now, and my gynecologist appointment is in a month and half.

Comments

[loonylupinlover.livejournal.com]

Mood disturbances are most likely in the first 3 months of hormonal birth control, when your body is still adjusting, but that doesn't mean the pill can't have an effect at this point in the game. One thing you might try is taking a multivitamin with a B6/B12 supplement -- B vitamins can really help hormone-related mood swings in some cases. I know they really saved me from completely unwarranted mood issues when I first started the Ring. I would go ahead and make that therapist appointment for 3 weeks from now. If the B vitamins are going to help, they should help in that time period.

Can you schedule an appointment to talk with a counselor at your college? I didn't have the school's insurance but it still only cost me a few bucks (on my student account, I didn't have to pay up front), or possibly even nothing (can't remember) to just go in and talk to someone. Even just one session of talking to someone who didn't know anything about me was such a relief. You might try that to tide you over until you can get to your regular therapist.

It's hard to say for sure if it's your BC, outside stressors, or some combination that are stressing you out. Either way, though, make sure to get plenty of sleep, eat and drink well, and exercise regularly to try and keep yourself on an even keel. Good luck!

[elettaria.livejournal.com]

I find that charting my symptoms at www.mymonthlycycles.com is a very good way of spotting patterns and thus keeping perspective, though you need to pay for their premium rate to use the symptom charts. You can chart tension and stress as well as a few psychological (and lots of physical) symptoms, which helps separate out the hormonal ones from the ones caused by external stress. It also gives you a good overview. For instance, I ran a chart on the psychological symptoms after I'd been recording them for a few months, and noticed not only that my mood is worse before my period, which I'd already realised, but that overall it had been worsening steadily for the last few months, which I hadn't. At which point I realised that I really needed to get to the doctor.

That said, since you've been on the pill for nine or ten months and the moodiness started up more recently, it's possible that it's the hormones but I'd guess that if so, they're more likely exacerbating underlying factors than being the main cause. Getting to your doctor sounds like an excellent idea. Hang in there meanwhile, try to explain to your boyfriend how crap you're feeling if you haven't already, since this sort of thing is difficult for a partner to respond to if they're not being told exactly what's going on. I have a bad habit of expecting my boyfriend to mindread when I'm curled up feeling absolutely miserable with PMS, it makes me terribly irrational, and I often manage to piss him off by being ratty without realising it when I'm in that state.

[dayglow.livejournal.com]

I think that it's very likely just the stress. I remember about a month ago, my car had just died, my computer just died, it was finals week, and I had one hour of work that week to try and pay for everything. And the night before that one hour, I was at my boyfriend's house (because he was my ride everywhere and it was easier for me just to hang out there) and he had a band practice and told me he'd be home at a reasonable time. He came home an hour later than he had said, and was pretty drunk. (The drinking thing isn't a problem, since I know and accept that at band practice, there's gonna be beer and lots of it.) The problem was that I had left my work shoes at my old apartment, since I was in the middle of moving, which was all the way across town. He didn't feel that it would be safe to drive that far, and I was pretty much useless since I was running on 20 hours without sleep. So we didn't get my shoes until shortly after 3 am. I went to bed at 4:30. I had to be up at 6.

I spent most of that night nearly on the verge of tears. Normally stuff like that is no big deal, but because of the stress, I was more or less freaking out.

Plus, I think everyone would feel the same way you did after that call. I hate it when I get my hopes up to talk to someone for a really long time, and tell them about whatever's making me really happy or really not, and they end up just talking about how awful they feel for 5 minutes and then they have to go and I'm left going 'but what about me?'

My advice is to try to reduce/deal better with the outside sources of stress first, and if that doesn't work, then it's the BC. And even if it is the BC, reducing your stress levels will probably make you feel loads better in the first place.