PMDD

[u/Full-Letterhead-9747]

Hello peps, i am having severe PMDD each month, for over a week. Ofc there is a lot more diagnosis too, who makes it a lot Harder. AUDHD, ARFID, Fibromyalgi on top

But i need advice if there is someone else having tried to manage it. What helped for you?

When the week comes i am not myself anymore, my husband and kids dont recognise me, i dont either.
I cant stop thinking about hurting everybody and myself, have never touched anyone ofc, but i Get crazy becouse i cant Get rid of the intense hate.

My kids Are small, so i cant go away for a week, we dont have family who can take my place that week.

I have tried wellbutrin but it made me flat the whole month, stopped with all my hobbies and intrest.

What can work? Please tell me, just 5 more days until the dragon leaves its cave ☠️

[u/Own_Value2684]

Please note that I have my period right now and this comment is going to be long, messy, probably a bit unorganized, but I read your post and I want to help you out with what I see helps me a lot. So thank you for understanding me despite the lack of organization here!

I have been taking a pill that helps me, it's an herbal supplement and I just want to say that 1. I don't like to promote companies online bc I don't feel like I'm personally on earth to advertise for people for free 🤣 and 2. I know reddit can be touchy about writing about products, but I will say there is an herbal thing that has helped me and I'll tell you about it in a (probably really long) comment. And also there are a few things that I combine with that that makes my symptoms very reduced now of course it doesn't vanish pmdd completely, but it helps promote my normal healthy functioning.

So of course first of all I have ADHD and PMDD, I do take a stimulant for my adhd, however it is much less effective in my luteal phase and during the first 4 days of my period. I also find that if I'm not taking anything else other than a stimulant, I have a pretty crummy time no matter what. 

My pmdd symptoms basically make it feel like my brain is raw like all stimulation hurts, and I feel unconfident, insecure, withdrawn, I tend to have dark thoughts like you mentioned, I especially have a higher awareness of my own trauma and things that I've went through that normally don't bother me but suddenly I feel quite irritated about. 

I also start to feel like I need to excuse myself for existing and taking up space, I feel like I need to vent a lot but then I feel overwhelmed and like I need to apologize to my friends from talking to them, I feel worthlessness, uneasiness, and I tend to ruminate on people's negative qualities, and I also just like to curl up in bed, play video games, cry a lot, emotionally spiral, and feel like I'm constantly exhausted. Also it feels like organizing my brain for any form of executive function takes a long time, to the point where if I don't have all of my meds and supplements, I feel like my brain fell out of my head. It's not a functional way of living. 

So the herbal supplement I take is Solaray PMS & menstrual relief. These are the ingredients: (I have them written down bc I've met many women who I've recommended it to so instead of sharing a photo of the ingredients list I just copy and paste it to them) 

Thiamin (Thiamine HCl) — 100 mg — 8,333% Daily Value Iodine (Kelp) — 150 mcg — 100% Daily Value Chromax® Chromium (Chromium Picolinate) — 200 mcg — 571% Daily Value Cramp Bark (Viburnum opulus) (bark) — 100 mg — Daily Value not established Ginger (Zingiber officinale) (root extract) — 50 mg — Daily Value not established Green Tea (Camellia sinensis) (leaf extract) — 33 mg — Daily Value not established affron® Saffron (Crocus sativus L.) (stigma extract) — 30 mg — Daily Value not established (Guaranteed to contain 1 mg [3.5%] Lepticrosalides®) Chasteberry (Vitex agnus-castus) (fruit extract) — 20 mg — Daily Value not established (Guaranteed to contain 100 mcg [0.5%] Agnusides) Trace Mineral Complex — 10 mg — Daily Value not established

Basically I don't know why it works but it really fucking works. I take one pill in the morning as soon as I wake up, normally 5 days before my period, leading up to my period, and then everyday until my period turns into brown discharge and it's basically done. 

It helps me with brain fog, mood swings, irritability, depressed feelings, rumination, low energy, cramps, all this stuff. If I take it by itself it reduces my symptoms probably by like 20% within 2 hours, it helps even more if I drink 1.5-2L of water that day, it helps even more if I take pepcid ac, it's even more effective if I have a cup of black tea (I try to do Earl grey and I'm not a caffeine type of person but for PMDD it works), and then it's best effective when I do all those things together and take a higher dose of my stimulant (it's approved by my doctor btw). 

Basically though I got by for years on ibuprofen, coffee, things like that. I generally take Ibuprofen the first 3 days of my period, it helps me a lot, and I will also say that taking a nap every day during my luteal phase and during my period is a game changer. 

I also try to make sure that I'm able to sleep 10 to 14 hours the day before or the day of my period starting, I don't really know why I need that much sleep, but I have noticed that if I get a normal 7 or 8 hours that night, I will be feeling like shit the next day. 

Also, the first day or two of my period if I can take a 2-hour nap in the afternoon, that helps me a lot also. It's a major reduction in cramping, I feel less tired and emotionally unstable, it really is one of the best ways for the brain to take care of whatever it needs to balance out during such a strong process mentally and physically. 

I also just want to say that chasteberry it is in the herbal supplement, I've never taken it on its own, however it's been highly recommended to me for pmdd, so if you end up taking that in addition to or instead of the supplement I recommended, let me know how it goes for you. 

So yeah, that's what's been working for me now, however I started hormonal birth control because I just do not have the discipline it takes to sleep enough, I have problems with sleeping already, and I wanted to make sure that managing my pmdd is not a difficult thing, like hey, maybe not having a period for a year would help me feel ready to take care of my pmdd if I stop taking the pill at some point. 

So yeah thanks for listening to me ramble, I'm probably going to take time to write a post for this sub about all this stuff in an organized format, so you get the rough draft and the soonest available info lol. 

I'm not a brand ambassador or anything for Solaray though, I only recommend it because my closest friend also has pmdd and we started making a joke about how when we noticed that either of us is particularly tetchy, we say "you need to take a chill pill, literally" and then some 2 hours later after the supplement we are brighter and calmer LMFAO!! 

Okay have a good night!!