- Date posted
- 4y
- Date posted
- 4y
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.
- Date posted
- 4y
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
- Date posted
- 4y
Definitely not a “power through thing” :). But at least for me, knowing what and when to expect it made the symptoms easier to manage.
- Date posted
- 4y
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😌
- Date posted
- 4y
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.
- Date posted
- 4y
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.
- Date posted
- 4y
Thank you, everyone!
- Date posted
- 4y
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.
- Date posted
- 4y
I think its a good idea. I have always done that.
- Date posted
- 4y
Yeah? Do you give yourself permission to cancel on people that week? I have such a hard time cancelling on people.
- Date posted
- 4y
@Alyosha Yes, I try to set healthy boundaries and be extra kind to myself.
Related posts
- Date posted
- 23w
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.
- Date posted
- 22w
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 😭
- Date posted
- 21w
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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