Need Advice for a Stay at Home Mom with Anxiety?

[Canadian Mommy]

I am 29, I have a 4 year old son and a 7 month old daughter. I have been having major anxiety issues on a daily basis for months! I am not working because it is easier for us to have me stay home full time instead of daycare. I dont drink or do drugs, but I have constant anxiety and stress on a regular basis. Im afraid I will be like this forever! How do I take care of myself without taking prescription drugs? I really need advice and maybe just to know im not alone? Thank you for letting me vent!

[Chantellabella]

I'm sorry you're going through all that. It's tough when you've got little ones also. I stayed home for 8 years with my kids and sometimes that can be very isolating also. I hope you'll find some support here. It's a pretty supportive place. Welcome to the forum and I hope to hear more from you.

[merc]

I went to back to work three years ago. Being a stay at home Mom can be one of the most isolating experiences ever. I think it contributed to some of the problems I deal with now. I had such a hard time making friends with the "popular Moms." I'm not a gusher. I can do it. It's so fake...fake. fake.

While I loved being home with my children, I rarely got a break. Complicating things my middle daughter was born with anterior mylomeningeocle, tethered cord, malformed sacrum, intestinal atresia and anal stenosis. She wasn't diagnosed fully until 24 months. At 18 months she became severely constipated, developed a fever, started regressing losing ability to walk.

During an exploratory surgery they discovered an abcess. They removed it gave her a colostomy which was to be reversed at 22 months, a subsequent test reveal anterior mylo. TCS, etc. This is also know as an extremely rare form of spina bifida. She had several operations. I get worried sometimes because I remember so little of my son as a baby or for that matter being pregnant with him. I was living from surgery to surgery. I kind of woke up sometime and he was two. My strange but favorite memory of him is feeding him at 2:00 a.m. and watching Conan O'Brien.

Apparently, when I decided to get help I was depressed and I was on antidepressants and suffering from PTSD.

Things that helped me out when I was a stay at home Mom. I joined a Mom's group. MOPS, I never did. Also, library story time I did enjoy. However, I liked when it was run by Robin. She was just a volunteer who would sing nursery rhymes and had a fake candle for kids to jump over like Jack and the Beans Stalk and it was cute and fun. Then the library actually hired a early childhood expert and it was ok, but somehow the relaxed "fun" was gone. The early childhood woman played the guitar and could sing and all activities and stories were geared for early learning. I didn't take them as much after Robin left.

If you have someone to babysit, once or twice a week it may be a good idea to take a class or exercise or something just for you. When I was treated for depression, I hired a teen for just an hour or two to watch the kids while I went for a jog or walk or ran to the store. Me time is so important when you have little ones.

[Skippy]

Welcome to the forum!

[Ironman]

Hi, CanadianMommy!