My anxiety has been getting worse lately. Nothing in particular has really happened other than my husband working about 72 hours, or a little more, a week for a little over a month now. So maybe my not seeing him much has been making it increase. I have a 14 month old that I'm constantly worried is going to die. Every time I wake up before her I start fearing she's dead. I check her monitor, but it's not like I can see her breathing in it. And if I check in her room it wakes her up and she's grouchy for the rest of the day. She sleeps in her room at night. But on me during naps. I'm checking the monitor multiple times at night. Checking her room, checking to make sure the volume is all the way up, checking on her sleeping. And I constantly check to make sure she's still breathing when she's on me for naps. That's one of my major anxieties. Another is this overwhelming fear of someone breaking in and killing the girls. I check over and over and over again to make sure all the doors are locked.

My mother's first baby died at 6 months from SIDS, so losing a child has always been a fear of mine. With my first, the anxiety went away after she became older than my sister was when she passed. But it has not been going away with my youngest.

My grandfather's first wife and 2 year old daughter were stabbed to death while he was working late one night, and it's also been a fear of mine. But never to this extreme to where I'm constantly checking and having horrible vivid thoughts of hearing my girls' screams because you reach their rooms before you can get to ours.

Part of me is seriously considering seeing someone and getting medicated. And the other part of me is thinking what if it's just because of the strain from my husband's current hours? He goes back to his normal hours (4 10 hour shifts a week) in a little over a week. But what if they don't go away once he's back? What if something else is triggering my anxieties? At what point should one consider medication?