Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD)

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Does ANYONE else have this or have heard of it? It's not that uncommon.

Basically just before you get your period, maybe a few days or a week before you turn into a complete irrational psychotic person. You either go super depressed or get intensely angry at everything, or sometimes both. I mean like you just turn into another person almost.

It's like a way worse scary version of PMS/PMT because you don't know what you're gonna end up doing. Once for example I ended up throwing all of my nice expensive clothes away because I was convinced I was going to be a minimalist which isn't me at all. That didn't end well when I snapped out of it. I ended up crying for like a week after because my £700 worth of shoes were gone.

This article explains it pretty well: http://www.xojane.com/healthy/premenstr ... order-pmdd
Comments are quite interesting on that. I relate a lot with them.

Symptoms of PMDD include:

• Mood swings
• Depression or feelings of hopelessness
• Intense anger and conflict with other people
• Tension, anxiety, and irritability
• Decreased interest in usual activities
• Difficulty concentrating
• Fatigue
• Change in appetite
• Feeling out of control
• Sleep problems
• Cramps and bloating
• Breast tenderness
• Headaches
• Joint or muscle pain
• Hot flashes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premenstr ... c_disorder

With me I basically usually just get super angry and make a lot of bad random decisions, I've come very close to smacking people in the face before over nothing. I've already kicked the crap out of my door because of it. Smashed so much stuff over the years. I literally HAVE to go to the gym to get all that sheer anger out of me when it's close or I'll just go off on someone. I'm pretty angry as a person in general but like when I get this I can't help but want to spill the blood of the innocents sometimes. I can't even explain how explosive it can make me because like sometimes I'll just be sat there shaking with adrenaline. My doctor said it must be an imbalance of hormones and they aren't really sure how to treat it other than birth control but I won't do that since it didn't help so I figure I'm just gonna be this angry person forever.

My mother also has it, aunt and nan had it too so it's definitely genetic. They seem to be fine now though but I figure after menopause it settles down.

It'd be nice to know if anyone else has it here, or if you feel like this is familiar the post may help someone anyway.

I've thought being an aspie kinda intensifies it a little because I don't know any NTs who get this angry/frustrated with it, all the women in my family are HFA so it does make me wonder if that has any affect at all on it.

If your disturbances are related to your menstrual cycle, they can possibly be prevented with hormone therapy. This would possibly be in the form of a no period birth control pill, or a custom prescription of progesterone and/or estrogen.

You should speak with your gynecologist about this.

I've had a few tests done with it before, some of the hormone pills are good while others are bad or some just seem to upset my stomach or give me really bad headaches. I'm always at the doctors with something and they are trying to help me with this but it seems hopeless sometimes and I'm just going to be stuck with it. I keep a short diary of the stuff that happens, writing the irrational thoughts down has helped stopped me from making really bad decisions at least.

The symptoms can seem to get worse though, I used to take Microgynon and Rigevidon mix with anti-depressants but the anti-depressants were basically just making me numb, like I'd rather feel the intense fury than nothing at all because I don't know what's going on with me when I'm like that. The positive I'm seeing to being angry is at least I get some stuff done, it's motivating at least. I just wonder why it comes in such strong and weird bouts, it really makes no sense at all. At the moment I'm not on any medication or hormone tablets at all, just trying to have a break from them because when I first started taking Microgynon it seemed to help but then stopped after a while which is really odd.

Since I don't want kids I've even considered a tubal ligation just to see if it'll ease it off even just a bit. I don't wanna be taking tablets for the rest of my life because no one knows what that's really doing, could be making it build up to become worse.

I have this really bad. I call it PMS on steroids or PMS times 10x. I used to almost literally explode with screaming, raging throwing things and like you sometimes wanting to spill the blood of the innocents. I just couldn't take what it was doing to me, I hated the way I felt when going through this so I talked to my doctor and he put me on a low dose of Prozac. I was calmed down by half within a week and after that life has been peachy keen. I hardly ever get mad anymore.

That sounds frightening. Usually I just get moody crave certain foods. I can't even imagine throwing my clothes and shoes away like that due to being irrational during my cycle.

Sadly I can't offer any advice.

Hi yes I've heard about this. Here is the article that introduced this to me. It's written by Alice Roberts, she's the paleo anthropologist who often presents BBC documentaries on human history and such.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jul/20/mood-swings-more-than-pms-contraceptive-pill-alice-roberts

This really opened my eyes. I think it runs in my family too. I go through phases with it. I wasn't as bad when I was younger, but last year I got to the point where I was as bad as my Mum was when she was fertile and I was like how did I turn out like this? I had always just thought I had a really horrible mother. Back in the 90s I don't think this kind of thing was treated, mind you, even now some GPs will say, oh that's just part of being a woman.

I've been on mycrogynan. It didn't help. I've been on anti-depressants too.

I get more depressed than angry. But I do suffer absolute exhaustion in the days before my period and a lot of pain. When I do get the rage, it's scary. It's all consuming and I throw things and do crazy things.

Americans, here in the UK we can't just make an appointment with a gynocologist. We have to see a GP and convince them that our issues are serious enough to be referred.

I have been diagnosed with PMDD and it has affected me every month since I started my period at 14. I've been on 6+ different contraceptive pills, had the injection and tried the coil twice to see if any of these could help reduce the debilitating symptoms PMDD causes, but unfortunately none of them worked much or made the week running up to my period even worse. Herbal supplements like evening primrose oil didn't work for me either and currently I am prescribed an anti-depressant and just a few sedatives each month to take on an as-and-when basis when the symptoms of my PMDD become near unbearable.

PMDD makes me think irrationally, extremely depressed and sometimes suicidal, and really anxious when it hits, and I have to spend the worst days at home. (I used to miss school when I was younger because of it too.)

I find it's a difficult condition to tell people about because to some it just sounds like you're suffering from regular PMS and can't handle it very well, and it's quite uncommon so I don't know anyone irl to relate to.

Right now I just take each PMDD episode as it comes, and I am very lucky and appreciative to have amazingly supportive people around me who help out when I go a bit nuts because of it. I've been told that the symptoms could spontaneously die down over time, or that a pregnancy could 'reset' my hormones (I don't want kids yet, though). I'm hoping either the symptoms will die down on their own or we find a treatment that helps them significantly. Until then though I just manage each month as it comes.

Some symptoms can be improved or eliminated with regular exercise and/or a healthier diet.

I think I may finally have been put on some medication that is helping if not completely removing the symptoms. I was put on Citralopram for depressions, but my PMS type symptoms completely went away. Now I'm off them I've gone back to the bad PMDD stuff. Going back to my dr tomorrow to get put back on them and we'll see how I go.

My breasts went down in size on the Citralopram. Now I'm off it I've swollen up again and it just hurts. I don't want to go anywhere or do anything because I'm all swollen up and it hurts and nothing fits. I'm exhausted and I haven't done anything active. This lasts about 2 and a half weeks before my actual period.

Diet and exercise have not helped in the slightest for me. It's really hard to exercise when you have 2 very tender balloons attached to you.

They can stop your periods these days. I don't know why doctors don't make this option known to more women.

If anti-depressants help, great, but the mood fluctuations with PMS are due to hormone withdrawl and can be treated with the right hormones. Many women find progesterone cream helpful. If taken continuously in a high enough dose, it will stop your periods...though I am not sure of the health ramifications of that and you would have to discuss it more with your doctor. If taken in a low enough dose, it may help to maintain your mood while still allowing you to have a period. There are certain risks with hormones that are not often present with anti-depressants though, such as blood clots, an increase in blood pressure, or possibly an increased cancer risk. This can be discussed with your doctor.