Scarleteen

Hello,

I feel like I've been through a lot this past month with my birth control.

I am normally a perfect user. I take my pill at 6 p.m. everyday. This month I was on vacation for a week. During that week I got the time zones mixed up and took my pill 2-3 hours early twice, then realized my mistake and took the rest at the correct time when I am from.

The other thing that happened was twice I took my pill with me in a baggy because I was worried we wouldn't be back to the hotel to take it in time. This meant that in sat in my backpack outside (where it was hot) but in the shade. I made sure of that.

I had an upset stomach for about 3 days while there. I could keep my food down and I wasn't running to the bathroom a lot but my poop was loose stool or just very little coming out but when anything did it was loose. That has me worried.

And lastly, I packed my birth control in my checked luggage because I thought it could get taken away from me through security (dumb now I know). So there I think my birth control wasn't stored properly and that could have an effect on it.

My boyfriend and I used withdrawal while we were on vacation. I'm not saying we're perfect, but he always pulls out about 5 minutes before he ejaculates. We do other stuff to get him off that doesn't include penetrative sex.

Help

Hi gatesy08. Looking back at your previous posts, it's clear to me that all of your concerns around your use of birth control have been addressed for you already. Thus, it's looking to me like your anxiety around this isn't so much about the effectiveness of your pill use, and more about something else underlying. Since giving you the same answers over and over again isn't going to help you out, perhaps changing the direction of our conversations will be more beneficial for you.

You mentioned in another post that you're seeing a therapist -- so, have you worked with them to develop any strategies to help you cope with your feelings of anxiety? Have you talked to them about your anxiety surrounding your sexual activity?

I've been twice so we are slowly working our way through things.

Okay, so you probably haven't started building a repertoire of coping strategies yet. Is that something you'd like to talk about with us here, and we can make some suggestions?

We also have a lot of resources on our site for people struggling with anxiety:
Anxiety and Other Mental Health Resources