5 Best Ways to Practice Self-Care During Infertility Treatments
Research indicates that over a third of U.S adults have used infertility treatments or know someone who has. It is no surprise that infertility in women or men can be a frustrating, devastating, and complicated rollercoaster of feelings. Moreover, infertility treatments can be both physically and emotionally exhaustive.
Due to the compounded stress, many people struggle with depression or anxiety when navigating infertility. Therefore, it is paramount to practice self-care throughout the process. In addition to self-care, infertility depression treatment can help both individuals and couples receive the support and resources they need during this trying time. Let’s review some of the best self-care strategies.
1. Prioritize Happiness When You Can
Infertility treatments are costly, time-consuming, and cannot offer permanent guarantees. This combination can make it incredibly challenging to stay positive. That said, making room for joy is one of the best infertility depression treatment methods you can practice.
Focus on how you can integrate small moments of happiness throughout the day. Maybe it’s getting a manicure. Perhaps it’s going to your favorite coffee shop and enjoying a latte with your favorite book. Remember that it’s never selfish to enjoy small moments of wonder; in fact, it’s one of the best medicines you can give yourself.
2. Practice Body Kindness
Many women experience anger or a sense of betrayal towards their bodies when undergoing infertility treatments. They may berate, shame, or judge themselves for their struggles. If you are speaking harshly and negatively towards your body, it may only perpetuate a vicious cycle of anxiety and depression.
Instead, consider how you can integrate a more positive infertility depression treatment by flipping the self-loathing script. Some positive, body-focused affirmations for fertility include:
- I am allowing my body to do its job.
- My body and life are a blessing.
- My body is healing.
- My womb is a healthy and nourishing place.
- My body is working wonders for me.
Affirmations are only beneficial if you can believe them. If they seem too cliched, trite, or superfluous, they may backfire. Yoga, acupuncture, stretching, and massages are other excellent ways to engage in infertility depression treatment and practice body kindness.
3. Focus on Gratitude
If you’re undergoing infertility depression treatment, it may seem counterintuitive to practice gratitude. After all, the telltale infertility depression symptoms of hopelessness, shame and guilt, irritability, and lack of concentration, may make it seem impossible to focus on anything remotely positive.
Most infertility depression treatment experts will agree: practicing gratitude can be a powerful weapon for staying optimistic, hopeful, and healthy during this process.
Try to focus on how you can infuse gratitude in small doses. Consider starting a gratitude journal and jot down 3-5 experiences that you appreciated that day. Although the practice may only take a few minutes, it can dramatically impact how you perceive yourself, others, and the world around you.
4. Pursue a Hobby or Achieve a Goal
When coping with infertility, the goal of conceiving a baby becomes the main point of focus throughout the day. Often, it is all the person (or couple) can think about, and it becomes a 24/7 preoccupation.
Part of infertility depression treatment entails shifting some of the pressure away from pregnancy. That means pursuing other hobbies, interests, and passions. Why not sign up for a new class that’s always interested you? What about finally committing to learning a new language or trying a new sport?
In pursuing other goals, the intention is not to “forget” about the infertility struggles. Rather, the intention is to remain balanced and well-rounded during this difficult process.
5. Seek Professional Infertility Depression Treatment
Self-help can be a fantastic way of managing infertility depression. However, this journey can also be heartbreaking, stressful, and downright terrifying. Seeking infertility depression treatment can help you feel better supported during this time. A therapist can provide nonjudgmental and unconditional positive regard for both you and your partner.
Additionally, infertility depression therapy can also help you process your emotions, brainstorm healthier ways to cope with distress, and discuss referrals for additional resources (i.e., support groups).
Are you seeking support for infertility depression treatment? Contact Lumos Counseling PC for support today.
5 Reasons to Consider Therapy if You’re Coping with Infertility
Although many women have visions to add children to their families, infertility represents a difficult, frustrating, and often isolating struggle. Depression due to infertility can result in serious impairments in mental health functioning, as it can take a significant toll on one’s self-esteem and happiness. Therapy can provide healing and support for individuals on this journey.
1. Your Depression Due To Infertility Is Affecting Your Quality of Life
Maybe you’ve tried to stay positive. Perhaps you keep telling yourself that you’re overreacting or just need to be more patient.
Although infertility depression is not a diagnosable term, many women struggle with acute symptoms that mimic depression when struggling with infertility. Are you finding it hard to concentrate at work or school? Have you struggled to carve time for self-care?
Depression due to infertility can make simple tasks feel impossible. It can make you feel agitated, fatigued, and devastated- all at the same time. Therapy can help you learn how to handle infertility depression while also acknowledging the painful and challenging experience you’re undergoing.
2. You Feel Like Nobody Else Understands
Although friends and family often have loving, kind intentions, they may not quite know how to discuss the nuances of infertility. If you’re struggling with depression due to infertility, your usual support system may actually make you feel worse. That’s because friends and family are often quick to dole out traditional advice (give it time, just relax, it’ll happen when it happens). This advice can range from mildly insulting to downright infuriating.
Therapists provide support without judgment. They don’t dish out cliched advice or tell you what you need to do. Instead, they listen fully and transparently- with compassion, empathy, and encouragement.
3. You Feel Hopeless About The Future
Depression due to infertility can dramatically impact how you perceive both your present and future. If you’ve always envisioned having children, signs of infertility may evoke a heavy sense of disdain. Many women struggle with feeling purposeless or directionless. Some even feel suicidal.
While therapists do not hold the crystal ball revealing your future, they can help you create meaning and purpose in the face of your infertility depression. Finding meaning may entail exploring various passions, practicing mindfulness, strengthening interpersonal relationships, and cultivating a sense of spirituality.
4. You’re Having Problems In Your Relationship
Infertility can be brutal for couples wanting to conceive. Depression due to infertility can affect both men and women, and it can create problems related to:
- Resentment and anger
- Taking out negative feelings on one another
- Sexual performance and intimacy problems
- Feelings of inferiority
While some couples share similar approaches to tackling infertility, others do not see eye-to-eye with their partners. This dynamic can naturally create tension and resentment. That said, therapy can help clients explore some of the problematic conversations associated with either infertility in women or men.
5. You’re Also Struggling With Other Mental Illnesses
20% of Americans are struggling with a mental illness at any given point. Moreover, many people struggle with multiple conditions.
Depression due to infertility can exacerbate other conditions including:
- Mood disorders
- Anxiety disorders
- Eating disorders
- Substance use disorders
When left untreated, these symptoms can become progressive and debilitating. Fortunately, therapy can provide the necessary support and management. While there is no cure for depression due to infertility, therapy allows you to access the proper resources you need to move forward with your healing.
Contact Lumos Counseling PC today for more information about therapy.
How Therapy Can Help Individuals and Couples Coping with Infertility
Although 1 in 8 couples are coping with infertility at a given time, the experience can be lonely, frustrating, and downright debilitating. Therapy can provide support for couples struggling with the complexities of infertility depression. Therapy can offer a nonjudgmental space for exploring difficult emotions, and it can also provide valuable coping tools for managing such distress.
Therapy Provides Valuable Safety and Comfort
Infertility in women or men can evoke powerful feelings of shame, fear, anger, and sadness. While some couples may have medical diagnoses related to fertility, others struggle with unexplained infertility. Neither of these circumstances is easy, and many people resort to blaming themselves for the issues.
Unfortunately, infertility depression is often misunderstood and stigmatized. For example, friends and family may have good intentions, but their responses for coping with infertility may not always be helpful or appropriate. Canned reactions like, “your time will come” or “just relax!” or “my friend went through the same thing” may come from a caring place, but they can leave people feeling even more alone and judged.
Therapy provides a secure and professional setting for either couples or individuals to unpack these sensitive concerns. Therapists, on the other hand, use a blend of compassion coupled with objectivity to help you feel more grounded in your journey.
Therapy Offers Practical Solutions For Coping With Infertility
Even though infertility depression is not a clinical diagnosis, it can mirror symptoms of both depression and anxiety. When untreated, these symptoms may worsen over time, and that progression can affect all areas of psychological functioning.
Therapists teach clients how to handle infertility depression using interventions that may include:
- Mindfulness and meditation
- Positive affirmations
- Free association
- Identifying self-care strategies
- Meaning-of-life work
- Dream analysis
- Creative expression via art, movement, or journaling
- Referrals for additional infertility depression help and support (psychiatrists, support groups)
Therapists also create a sacred space for venting, processing, exploring, and grieving. Through this exchange, individuals learn that they are allowed to feel any emotions that arise during this journey.
How Long Does Therapy For Infertility Last?
The length of therapy depends on a variety of factors including:
- The impact of anxiety or depression due to infertility
- Type of therapy modality used
- Frequency of sessions
- Individual and couple treatment goals
- Other co-occurring disorders or issues that need addressing
What Does the Recovery Process Look Like?
There isn’t a perfect answer with regards to coping with infertility. Each situation is inherently unique, and one client’s treatment needs may look very different from another client’s.
Recovery isn’t perfect. Infertility is an exhaustive and complicated process that can take an enormous toll on one’s health. That said, therapy can help reduce some of the burdens. It can help provide reasonable goals for healing, and it can also support clients during the emotional time.
The reality is that some couples will conceive despite unexplained infertility. Others will experience more delays and problems. Finally, some couples will be diagnosed with permanent infertility. While therapists cannot determine a medical prognosis for their clients, they can help people learn how to accept their outcomes and find a pathway towards healing.
While infertility can feel like the scariest and saddest battle, finding the right support can make a tremendous difference. You deserve a place where you can be honest and candid. And if your struggle makes you feel alone in a dark room, you deserve to have someone who can hold the light.
Contact Lumos Counseling PC today for more information on infertility and therapy.