Has anyone ever heard this? I'm blown away!

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HopefulDoll

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Hi everyone,
I was with my MD today, he is a wonderful doc always listens and really tries to help everyone. However, we had run out of options for dealing with my anxiety. We had gone down the medication route,(Im not on anything at present as he wants me to actually get to the root of my problems) had some general therapy, but even though I have come a long way in dealing with my 'issues' I just cant seem to get to the finishing line with this.

I thought I had told him everything about my life, but then in passing today I mentioned that while my mother was pregnant with me she was suffering with terrible anxiety, and had been for some years before and after I was born. I was born at home because she couldnt leave the house to go to the hospital! In fact she hadnt left the immedate surroundings of our house for 10years. I am 42 years old so at that time this was not a subject that was discussed so she would not have had anyone to talk to through all those years of anxiety, and while pregnant with me she would have been sooo stressed from anxiety, lack of money, my father drinking etc.Suddenly my doc said "so you're dealing with the effects from the worab" and that may explain a lot about why even though I've put so much work into fixing myself I cant get to the final stage and recover.

He asked me to let him think about things and he'll talk to some experts in that area and he will get back to me.

My question is, have any of you ever heard that this may be a cause of your anxiety and have you had any special "worab type/pre birth" counselling? LOL I dont even know what it would be called!

I am amazed by this from an MD (but he is a very proactive and spiritual doc)and I would have been very skeptical before, but we have tried everything over the past 7 years,so just maybe it's the last piece of my puzzle.

Would love to know what you think.
Hopeful
 
I think if he is helping you then that is great. I personally don't subscribe to his thinking or I think half the world would be in the a world of anxiety. There are therapists that believe and were trained in his form of thinking/therapy there are others that have been trained in others ways of thinking/therapy. The mental health field is all just guess work if you will. There is nothing in concrete and everything is up for interpretation and I think that if you believe in your therapist and you like your therapist then that is a win right there. Good luck.
 
Yes I have heard this, very recently actually from a psychiatrist who I went to see who is very well regarded and sees a lot of pregnant and postnatal women.

The year before my mother had me she had a baby at seven months who died soon after birth. Her waters had broken at four months and she'd spent the next three months in bed. Five months later she got pregnant with me and guess what - the waters broke at four months again (this hadn't happened with her first two children - born healthy) and she spent the next three months in bed before having me, again at seven months but I lived. Anyway the psychiatrist explained it to me as that my mother's anxiety levels would have been very high during my pregnancy, as she would have been worried that it would turn out like the last one - and as each thing happened similarly (waters breaking, premature birth etc) her anxiety levels would have increased.

She explained it like stress hormones crossing the placenta and setting themselves in me or something. I can't remeraber exactly what. But I'm 40 and have always been anxious and I hadn't heard that before and I remeraber looking at her thinking 'what? you've got to be kidding?' When I told my husband he just laughed but when I told my sister she said she'd heard that too, and wasn't nearly as sceptical as I thought she'd be - in fact she said there was some truth in it.

I must say, though, I was never very anxious during my pregnancies but nothing actually went wrong during them so there was no reason to be. One of my kiRAB had a bit of separation anxiety when he was five and the oldest worries a bit but they're not nearly as anxious as I was as a child.
 
Hi there,

I haven't heard that theory before but believe a lot of problems like anxiety and depression are genetic, like heart disease - it seems to run in families. You grew up with a mother that was very anxious, rather than calm or relaxed, you are more likely to have the same problem.

Please keep us posted on what your doc comes up with after he has thought about it and talked to some experts. I'm curious what he comes up with to treat your anxiety based on that theory.

Best wishes,

JB
 
Thanks to you all for your replies.

Even though I am a spiritual/religious person I would be very straight thinking and not into 'weird' types of ways to explain feelings and emotions but I have tried so many traditional ways to get myself out of this anxiety, which by the way only really began after I gave birth to my first child.

Another interesting thing is that I was born with a cawl,as was my mother, which long ago was believed to mean that the person would have very strong intuition and perception so maybe if that story is true it would have made me extra sensitive to my mother's emotions while in the worab! Sailors used always want a cawl with them on board ship when they sailed as they felt it meant the ship would never sink! And I do have to admit my intuition has always been very strong, to the point that it actually saved my life once.

Anyway, I will keep you posted. I hope to also have a chat with my mother,even though that whole time in her life is hard for her to relive,but I will go about it gently, and who knows what might come out of all this.

Good wishes,
Hopeful
 
my dad has ptsd and suffers anxiety, leftovers from the vietnam war. he has a better time dealing with it than I do.

is it genetic? every doctor thinks it is, so I guess the same can be said about your mother and your situation
 
It is quite possible that stress hormones can affect the baby in the worab. There was a study done (I forget where) that showed there was a higher incidence of homosexuals and transgendered people born during and just after a war. It is an intriguing thought....
 
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