Living with PMDD
Hi,
I have been struggling with PMDD for years now and I am hoping to be able to chat with other women who experience the same thing. I don’t know of anyone else with PMDD, so its very hard for others to understand the monthly challenges. I thought that maybe I could reach out here and see if this could be a place for us to support each other?
@dapperTalker394 Hi there, I can only imagine how challenging it must be to navigate PMDD without a support network who truly understands what you're going through. While I don't have personal experience with PMDD, I'm here to offer support and a listening ear whenever you need it. It's commendable of you to reach out and create a space where women with PMDD can come together to support each other.
I had to look up PMDD online to see what it is and I'm horrified. I thought those were all normal period symptoms, and I'd even mentioned to my doctor that I'd noticed some patterns, and now I'm wondering if I've had that for years! Even though I'm self diagnosing right now, I feel you. I was thinking I was perimenopausal and might need to check hormone levels. Thanks for teaching me something today! Lol, I'm willing to listen if you need to vent, or cry.
@IrelandsMomma Thank you so much! It was so easy for me to think that I was going crazy. I too thought that it was perimenopause. I noticed such a significant change in the 10-12 day lead up to my period - worse depression, severe anxiety, anger anger anger. I also have OCD, and the negative ruminating thoughts are on fast forward during this time. Any sort of work I have done on managing my emotions would go right out the window. You can imagine the damage it had done on my relationships, but also on my self esteem (which has already been low the past few years).
Anyhow, I'm currently in the 10 day lead up and I'm on edge. I'm nervous about managing. The anxiety and depression are heavy. I have to leave the house today to meet someone for lunch and just the idea of going outside makes me feel nauseous.
One thing I'd like to stress and I hope to encourage by starting this discussion - if you have the ability to advocate for yourself to your doctor, please keep doing so. It is disheartening to go to a medical professional and feel unheard time and time again. I still haven't received any treatment (whatever that might be) for this, but my spot on a waiting list to speak with a women's reproductive and mental health specialist has finally come up. In July, my hope is that during this appointment I will start to receive some support. I will let you know how it goes!
Please do! There have been days leading up to my cycle where it's all I can do to even pretend to work. The anxiety is crazy, and yes, all the meditation, logic, Journaling, etc goes out the window. However, it was the Journaling that made me aware there was a pattern. After several horrible months I went back and read my old entries and in each one I was venting about cramps and forgetfulness, and other symptoms. I am on a low dose of Lexapro, and a couple years ago, after having panic for weeks where I could barely stop crying and freaking out over everything (and had a period that lasted about 2 weeks which is not normal for me), I increased my dose, and it helped. But then about a year ago I weaned back down to my original dose. I may need to increase again.
@IrelandsMomma so sorry to hear about the weeks of panic. We can totally try to support each other through these sort of moments on here :)
@dapperTalker394. I used to have it and it was rough (I’m post menopausal now). It got even worse during my years of peri menopause. My heart goes out to you and anyone still passing through this.
@adventurousBranch3786 good morning! Thank you for sharing this. If ever you're open to it, I'd love to hear how you were able to manage with it all. I'm so glad to hear that you no longer have to deal with it 😊
@dapperTalker394. I didn’t manage very well at the time. Looking back I would have taken medication like @IrelandsMomma mentioned. I take a ssri now and it helps me. I noticed that it is used for pmdd.