So, not a lot has changed in my life in the last month, but my intrusive anxious thoughts have *poof!* disappeared! Bizarre. It took me a while to notice that they were gone, like when you notice many hours later that your horrible headache is gone.

My stress level hasn't changed and I haven't become a zen master, no. But my BIRTH CONTROL has changed. For the uninitiated, there are two main types of hormonal birth control: combined estrogen and progesterone, and progesterone-only. A short list:

Combined estrogen and progesterone:
- most types of the pill
- the patch
- the ring (Nuvaring)

Progesterone-only:
- the shot (Depo Provera)
- the mini-pill
- the intra-uterine system (Mirena—the copper IUD has no hormones)

Unlike most people who can give you horror stories, my body LOVED the shot. But it causes bone density loss, so I went off it. Onto the Nuvaring, which gave me side effects galore. Now to Mirena, and suddenly all my intrusive thoughts are gone. Thank you, Nuvaring, for messing with my mind for the last 6 months!

So there you go. Progesterone-only is the new law of the land.

Labels: anxiety, birth control