Hello this is for my ocd ladies who have gone into menopause. Did your ocd symptoms and anxiety improve after the fluctuating hormones during perimenopause. Any advice for this perimenopausal ocd woman on what helps with the extreme anxiety I sometimes get? Thank you 😊
Wondering the same thing. Thanks for asking.
@gixmo It’s horrible, what symptoms do you struggle with
@Schoolie93 Just triggers extra thoughts.
@gixmo My emotions are up and down and around. Now I have panic attacks and adrenaline surges which are horrible. Hot flashes . All this I didn’t have until peri
@Schoolie93 I get adrenaline too. Makes it harder to remind myself the thoughts are driving my response.
@Schoolie93 Yes this is sounding like what's happening to me and I call them Tantrums but I guess adrenaline rushes is a good one too very hypervigilant at times and like just can't stop talking back especially if I know that I'm right and I'm usually right! But I'm closer to homelessness than success!
Following! Perimenopausal here and it’s triggered my current ocd flare up.
@BeHereNow Isn’t it horrible, my ocd has came back ten fold and meds don’t work as well plus now more panic, it’s awful, how are your symptoms?
@Schoolie93 It’s awful. OCD symptoms and anxiety would flare up during PMS (2 weeks basically) and get better. This has been going on all summer. Then an event triggered a horrible obsession and I’ve been a wreck and depressed ever since ☹️. I didn’t even know my health anxiety was OCD until this summer. I think my hormones have been fluctuating so much lately it triggered a full blown episode. I’m taking 50mg progesterone and it might be helping but the OCD is so much louder.
@BeHereNow Yes I cry and panic more, I finally got on progesterone and now estradiol, but some days of month are harder than other plus I have more depression which I didn’t have much of before perimenopause
@BeHereNow Are you on meds, my meds were not working as well
@Schoolie93 I have a prescription for Zoloft but I’m scared to go through 2-3 weeks of MORE anxiety before it kicks in 😩. I agree on the depression front. This is my first time having a real episode as well. Ditto on the panic and crying. You are not alone, friend.
@BeHereNow If you have the benzo it should help you a lot to get on it, once your up to dose your golden . Don’t be scared . It’s ok, I have been through many med changes
@BeHereNow This is exactly what I'm going through and I've been documenting my menstrual cycle for 2 years. I finally got in to the lady doctor this month and she told me to skip. On the NuvaRing for 3 months straight and see if I have less dramatic crying episodes and up and downs. I'm on month one right now and about to put a fresh Nuvaring in tomorrow. We'll see if skipping periods is the answer. But I also just did transcranial magnetic stimulation intake and while I'm not scheduled yet I think it's time to go ahead and commit myself to the months of that
@BeHereNow Hey I'm on Zoloft and for the last few months now they added Wellbutrin and that has really helped me and my weight's been down a little bit and I'm crying less and they even were going to put me on more than 200 of Zoloft but I said no no not right now. I'm on 300 of Wellbutrin and 200 of Zoloft and I'm allowed 15 mg of Adderall a day but we're starting to wonder if that's a good idea cuz a high blood pressure and I can take it and just go to sleep so I don't know.
@LKAnonymous Does TMS help OCD? Let me know how you like it
@Schoolie93 It's supposed to really help OCD but I should make that phone call tomorrow and get started while I'm unemployed
Everybody is different. For me, my time in perimenopause was no problem, in fact I thought I was a lucky one who wasn’t going to have menopause problems. I didnt have any major anxiety/OCD since post pregnancy almost 30 years ago. but the very week I hit post-menopause, I fell hard. intrusive thoughts are the order of almost everyday now. Panic attacks have started up again (haven’t had those since my 20s) and I have feelings like agoraphobia, though Im not letting that happen…I just do it scared and panicked. I hardly drive anymore, and cant drive outside of my town now. It’s pretty rough! HRT has helped a lot. I take estradiol, estriol, progesterone, and testosterone. It hasn’t helped with the intrusive thoughts and panic, but has helped everything else, so at least Im crazy without being sweaty and bitchy, too.
@Anonymous Have you had to take antidepressants and anti anxiety meds like me? I am on HRT but not sure it’s really helping too much
Currently having an anxious night because my hormones are doing whatever they want before my cycle starts. It's so frustrating. I feel very, very on edge and like I'm constantly anxious about something bad happening. Also been nauseous and having sleep issues. So irritating. How does everyone else deal with the spike in anxiety and OCD before periods? I'm seeing an endocrinologist on Monday to try and help but I feel so stressed out.
I don’t have an official OCD diagnosis, but I will be asking my doctor tomorrow if I can get referred to a psychiatrist to get an official diagnosis. The way I came to the conclusion that what I’m dealing with is OCD is because a month ago I just started having the most horrible disturbing intrusive thoughts that go against all my values and beliefs and attacking the stuff/people I care about the most. Mind you, I have never had anything like this happen in my life. I feel that I have always been someone with a peaceful mind and one of the worst intrusive thoughts I can ever remember having before this happened, was “what happens if I cut my finger right now” while I was cutting fruit. That’s pretty much it. After this whole horrible intrusive thought spiral started happening I was so scared because I have never had such awful intrusive thoughts like this that were the complete opposite of me, it just quite literally started out of NOWHERE, and that’s what was so scary and terrifying. It was like my whole life got turned upside down because of this and I’ve been mainly isolating in my room, feeling so much anxiety and dread and guilt/shame. I get four of the same thoughts and one intrusive image repeating over and over again even if I would not try to think about them, and it caused me so much distress and anxiety that I would be so anxious and cry everyday just thinking how I could ever possibly think such horrible intrusive thoughts like that. It’s caused me insomnia which I’ve never dealt with before and I went three days in a row without being able to sleep no matter how hard I tried (even while taking melatonin). Other days I struggle so much to fall asleep due to the intrusive thoughts being much more present at nighttime, and even when taking melatonin that doesn’t do anything because of my mind being so active and having so much anxiety. Is this what they call an OCD flare up? After constantly looking up all the symptoms of ocd (the more and lesser known ones alike), I noticed there were some symptoms of it that I displayed in childhood when the ocd could’ve been more dormant or mild you could say (skin picking), because once again I have never had such horrible intrusive thoughts like this out of nowhere and constantly repeating in my mind that felt like they were out of my control. I noticed that these intrusive thoughts started on the second day of my menstruation when I was in a lot of pain and was feeling very emotional/stressed. One of the things I’ve heard a lot is that during the menstruation cycle is when ocd flares can happen more often due to the increase in hormones during that time, and I wonder if that’s what happened to me? I’m also overall such a big over thinker and have been for as long as I can remember. I also have had anxiety and depression since middle school as well. Any insight would be very much appreciated 😭
I don’t have an official OCD diagnosis, but I will be asking my doctor tomorrow if I can get referred to a psychiatrist to get an official diagnosis. The way I came to the conclusion that what I’m dealing with is OCD is because a month and a half ago I just started having the most horrible disturbing intrusive thoughts that go against all my values and beliefs and attacking the stuff/people I care about the most out of absolutely NOWHERE. Mind you, I have never had anything like this happen in my life. I feel that I have always been someone with a peaceful mind and one of the worst intrusive thoughts I can ever remember having before this happened, was “what happens if I cut my finger right now” while I was cutting fruit. That’s pretty much it. After this whole horrible intrusive thought spiral started happening I was so scared because I have never had such awful intrusive thoughts like this that were the complete opposite of me, it just quite literally started out of NOWHERE, and that’s what was so scary and terrifying. It was like my whole life got turned upside down because of this and I’ve been mainly isolating in my room, feeling so much anxiety and dread and guilt/shame. I get four of the same thoughts and one intrusive image repeating over and over again even if I would not try to think about them, and it caused me so much distress and anxiety that I would be so anxious and cry everyday just thinking how I could ever possibly think such horrible intrusive thoughts like that. It’s caused me insomnia which I’ve never dealt with before and I went three days in a row without being able to sleep no matter how hard I tried (even while taking melatonin). Other days I struggle so much to fall asleep due to the intrusive thoughts being much more present at nighttime, and even when taking melatonin that doesn’t do anything because of my mind being so active and having so much anxiety. Is this what they call an OCD flare up? After constantly looking up all the symptoms of ocd (the more and lesser known ones alike), I noticed there were some symptoms of it that I displayed in childhood when the ocd could’ve been more dormant or mild you could say (skin picking), because once again I have never had such horrible intrusive thoughts like this out of nowhere and constantly repeating in my mind that felt like they were out of my control. I noticed that these intrusive thoughts started on the second day of my menstruation when I was in a lot of pain and was feeling very emotional/stressed. One of the things I’ve heard a lot is that during the menstruation cycle is when ocd flares can happen more often due to the increase in hormones during that time, and I wonder if that’s what happened to me? I’m also overall such a big over thinker and have been for as long as I can remember. I also have had anxiety and depression since middle school as well. Any insight would be very much appreciated 😭
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