When will I be back to normal if ever?

I had a TAH year and 1/2 ago. Turned 34 yesterday. I have been working out and am not on anything as in hormones. My sex drive isn't bad, don't really care if i have it or not but my moods are horrible. I feel like a pressure cooker ready to explode and I cannot lose this stupid mid-section of my stomach. I am miserable to say the least and want to find my happy place hence the name. Does anyone have any suggestions on what could help? Also, night and day flashes, got better after purchasing estroven at Walgreens. Thanx.

Did you keep your ovaries? You might ask your doctor to check your hormone levels.
I know the tummy thing is terrible. I am about 2 1/2 months out and I am also beginning to wonder if the ever goes away.
I've just started back to working out and I hope that helps. A friend who is a nurse said to keep drinking lots of water. I have been wearing control type underwear. At least I look a little smaller even if I'm really not. Helps the ego a bit.

don't get discouraged. the first thing i would do is talk to your doctor. there are lots of other things you can try to feel better like guided meditation, yoga, self-hypnosis. you could also ask for a referral to a psychopharmocologist if you think medicine might help you.

Please let your doc know how you are. I went thru a period where everything was great in my life, but I still felt depressed and the mood swings were scary--esp. to my kids who caught the brunt of it at times.

Zoloft helped me so much. I've been on it for about 2 years now, and I'm so much more "level" than without it (I have stopped using it before for a couple of months, only to go back to where I started). I really function so much better on it.

Call your doc, Love. There's no need to feel so bad.....you know, I really hate how pants are made now with the lowered waist lines. They really are not for we princesses who have to deal with swelly belly.....shame on those designers! LOL

Hang in there, and Happy Birthday!

Hi votelady, and everyone else, kinda new to this forum thing. Anyway thanx for replying. They removed everything out of me. So anyway, I think i will go to a different doctor and get a second opinion on what he thinks. Thanks again.

If you have a mean old bat of a doctor like mine and she pulls that "Well we can't just put zoloft in everybody's drinking water" and questions whether or not you really are depressed, rattling off the symptoms as if she alone possesses such arcane knowledge, then just say you aren't everybody and you've done your research and you know what you need.

For me it's Lexapro and I told her I probably know more about it than she does and I want to try it. She shut up and wrote the prescription. We're not hostages to their years of experience and grades in medical school--we can do our own research now! I'm 39 and I KNOW when I'm depressed. Had a friend shoot himself because the people around him advised him to suck it in and just handle it himself. I know better now.

It's starting to work. I can concentrate on a task and reason my way through a problem instead of despairing and thinking it's the end, can't cope with this, blah blah blah. I have some major problems, real ones, but they sure are easier to cope with when my head is working than when I am slogging through the quicksand of depression, losing strength and interest in getting through it. I feel on an even keel, and I do not feel the medication is controlling me, but instead giving ME control over myself.

Suicidal thoughts and wild mood swings don't have to be part of an otherwise good day--it's just brain chemistry gone awry.