My experience of mental health and the contraceptive pill.

This is totally a personal story. If you have concerns about your health and/or a drug you are taking, you should definitely seek advice from a doctor, and not me, a random person on the internet.

However, if my experience helps someone by prompting them to ask questions or look for more information, then I’m happy to share it.

I knew that the contraceptive pill I was taking was associated with mood changes. It says it everywhere. Some documents and internet sites even mention it causing depression.

And yet, I did 5+ years of therapy before I considered that the pill might be contributing.

I consider myself educated and intelligent. And yet it still took me years to make the connection. Why so long? I think it was partly because I didn’t want it to be true. The pill is convenient for me. I didn’t want to be faced with the fact that I possibly can’t take it. And because I think I was a bit arrogant. I assumed that I would spot any mood changes. But hindsight suggests the changes were so gradual, it was years before the cumulative effect was enough for me to notice.

Anyway, finally, one day I decided to try not taking it. And it really wasn’t long before I noticed a difference. I remember saying to my therapist that I felt human again. That I felt I had got myself back.

And the pill is not the whole story. I definitely have things from the past that are affecting the present. There’s work I need to finish. I don’t share this to suggest that the pill is the root of all problems. But I’ve made more progress in the last year than I did in the first 5, so I can’t help wondering. In my view if the pill was doing anything, it was making the battle uphill. Whereas now I have a level playing field.

This is anecdotal. I was making progress in my therapy sessions. Maybe me not taking the pill coincided with a bit of a breakthrough in my mental health and the change I felt was nothing to do with the pill. We will never know. Whatever it was, I’m grateful for the change.