For the ladies— I’ve had a really rough week, all to discover, “Oh. I was PMSing.” I should just 1) write it out on my calendar 2) don’t plan important stuff that week 3) plan breaks & self care. Stuff like that. Because this happens frequently. I just worry if I put it on a calendar, it’ll become a self-fulfilling prophecy and I’ll train myself to feel and act like crap that week. Thoughts about any of this? Now I need to explain to my male therapist the real reason behind my flurry of emails...

My male therapist is very understanding of my period weeks! Hormones play a part in our mental health and I know I forget that sometimes.

Y’all are right. I feel guilty for struggling so much when it’s “just” PMS and so many other women just power through it. But...that’s ok. I’m glad they can do that! And it’s ok if I can’t. And it isn’t “just” PMS. It’s PMS and it’s hard and that’s ok. ...that’s the message I’m trying to accept right now lol

I’ve struggled a lot with PMDD and PMSing, for me the thing that helped tremendously was continuously taking my birth control and skipping the sugar pills. I’m not sure what your situation is exactly, but this may be something you could ask your doctor about. I’m sorry you had a rough week, i would definitely start planning self care during that week, if you add things you enjoy to do that week that will work with your PMS it could be a way to help make you look forward to it and help divert the thought of becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. Hope this helps a little and today goes better😌

I think the benefit of being able to have that awareness that the anxiety and snappiness is PMS and not going to last forever and not totally reasonable, DEFINITELY outweighs the chance of it being a self fulfilling prophecy. I'm way more able to get my emotional state, and at least my behaviour, under control when I remember that it's PMS. If you don't want to deal with the anxiety of knowing it's PMS week and worrying how you're going to feel, it's still good to get into a mental habit of checking a calendar to see if that's why when you're feeling really shitty.

If you have s fitbit, you can track it in the app calendar along with symptoms and that way it's not a calendar you actually look at but can refer to. There are other apps for period tracking too. It's not a bad idea to track your cycle even if just to understand when to plan things. I dont like to plan beach trips for example on that week. I mean I will, but if I can choose a different time, I prefer that for example.

Thank you, everyone!

Period tracking with an app always worked well for me. It always helped me expect and manage my PMS symptoms better than if I thought there was a legit reason for them. “Just my period” made it easier.

I think its a good idea. I have always done that.