PMS and Cyclothimia

Again opening a new subject, I am observing some problems in my case. Well I am sort of in PMS and my state of mind and mood are worse. Yesterday an specially today in the morning it was horrible. Yesterday before going to bed I burted into tears, couln't calm down, and this morning woke up with terrible anxiety. Luckily I went runing with my BF and feel better.

Maybe some of you girls have the same experience. Maybe it's not that the med Lamictal isn't working, it's the fact that I have PMS and everything is stronger then. Hopefully.

Still waiting for some response in derealization and Lamictal. Also lack of emotions is a problem :/ hope it'll pass

Have a good day

Hello kind of piggybacking on this post. I haven't seen forums on here that discus the effect of hormones on mental health. Or am I being blind and totally missing them?
I've always assumed that hormone changes have a huge impact on my ups and downs in mood, and seems to link in with how easily paranoid thoughts slip into my mind..... Despite using the pill. Certainly being put onto the mini-pill only for a while sent me suicidal. There are not enough swear words to express my opinion of the nurse who thought I was getting to an age when the minipill would be more "suitable" ... It taught me a valuable lesson though, I can't necessarily expect the professionals to know what is best, and has taken me down a road of exploration to try to understand how my body and mind work,
I know I have rather hijacked cocinellas old post as a way to begin to introduce myself, which I didn't realy get around to previously when I joined the forum briefly. I've avoided getting a psychiatrists diagnosis, not liking the idea of being labelled, and the meds my g.p. has prescribed, touchwood... Are mostly keeping me stable. But I'm well aware of how little it takes to slip backwards.

I'm so surprised there are no replies to this post. I have totally been riding the hormonal roller coaster for my whole life - especially bad after children but also reactionary every month (PMS) and now approaching menopause I'm scared! Also have hypothyroidism which I have read has something to do with cyclothymia. Anyway it is only now aged 48 that I have stopped burying my head and realised that there is something bigger going on here. I've done the crazy alcohol / drug taking route - self-medicating really but had a pretty good time too - I've done 10 years of post baby misery and I've come good with healing and lifestyle changes but still many symptoms persist. Difficulty with sleep, either hyper not able or exhausted, and outbursts after broken sleep. I'm sure that is why I struggled so much when the children were little. Travel - which I love - can cause difficulties too I now understand because of time change / night travel and possibly altitude? Any stress on the mind or body I think. Fluctuating between - the need to be in bed depressed and/or tired, feeling guilty and self-loathing after an outburst (verbal explosions with no warning over small things), intense irritation, sometimes I'm almost panting with the intensity of the tension in my body. Then social organising, loving my life, seeing beauty in everything, creative thoughts, feeling lucky, needing to help others, manic work stints where I work fast and efficiently for many hours and feeling I'm pretty great. Then I go down and am terrified by everything I've got myself into. Between there is some feeling good normal stuff too. When I'm 'normal' or euphoria before the shouting I think I'm perfectly fine, nothing to worry about - perhaps all that negative crap won't happen again (I'm now understanding even that is a symptom - unrealistic optimism) but then I kick off again. Pick up your stuff - I'm not your slave - do this, hurry up with that - a need for order. Thank god I have a loving family who seem to be able manage / ignore me. But I'm tired - I want the roller coaster to stop, but actually as I've just worked out that I have this cyclothymia I realise it's not going to. I'm in a big down right now and not sure how I'm going to get my head around this. Reading books frantically which is depressing me further really. Especially as when I read some symptom stuff I'm like a text book case (i think, haven't seen a doc. Well loads in the past for hormone stuff but pretty disallusioned by that.) Also finding it hard with the stigma thing - people see me as together, achieving, happy, luck I think. Close friends won't be that surprised as they know more of course. And my mum - just don't want to tell her. She'll be justified in all negativity towards me - I can't bear the thought of her 'arh now it all makes sense, it was you that was difficult all along. I knew it!' I just want to hide but can't! Busy life to get on with.
Sorry for the long speech, never talked about this before. Would love to hear from others who understand or who have the hormone connection or are parents. I love my children so much but blimey having them has made this so much harder. I want to be a perfect mum and can't be. That is making me feel the most depressed/trapped by this $#%^ thing.

Have you seen a psychiatrist more recently?

As I read your story I can see a lot of me in there. I have 3 kids and I had postpartum depression with all of them. The last baby, I had postpartum psychosis. It turns out many years later that I have bipolar I. The depression never went away with antidepressants alone. I had a manic episode so that's what brought about the diagnosis of bipolar. Is it possible for you to be treated for the hypothyroidism? Life is difficult when you're feeling like this. The rollercoaster seems never-ending. I used to be that way before I had my major episode in which I was hospitalized. My children were babies and I would never have the energy to be more for them. I tried my best and I believe I did good, but emotionally I missed out on such good-feeling moments because I was depressed.

I also went through hormonal changes during my period every month. I still do. My only suggestion is to see a doctor and get relief from this. You deserve to feel better.

I think cyclothymia and PMDD overlap a lot. Not sure if that helps anybody?

goat127 wrote:I think cyclothymia and PMDD overlap a lot. Not sure if that helps anybody?

Just curious is all, but why do you think that?

I am wanting ANY INFO YOU WOMEN HAVE ON YOUR MENSTRUAL CYCLE AND YOUR MOODS!!!

I have been diagnosed with cyclothymia by a friend (who is a nurse) and then by a therapist, and then I told my GP and he wrote a prescription for lamictal and I have been obsessing ever since it it is the right diagnosis...BECAUSE: I can't help but notice I can predict my moods, somewhat, with my period. Though they don't fall into a PMDD pattern as my darkest moods are not always premenstrual, sometimes they happen at the end of my period or right before ovulation or with ovulation. Sometimes other times of the month. Also, hypomania is not supposed to come with PMDD and I am certain I have that at times, but again, it seems predictable somewhat. Often comes right BEFORE period and then again at ovulation, sometime will last a good 5 days here. Thats a general pattern.
Anyone else seen a pattern with their menstrual cycle? Specifically hypomania????

Hi all, I am new to this site and am replying to old posts so hope I still get a response. Over many years, possible since being a teenager I have suffered with intermittent low moods. They are low enough to make me not want to work/socialize/want to hide from everyone/want time to stop and just cry! I have always wondered if this was just my hormones or just normal life or whether I had a medical condition. I've been tot he doctors a few times, had a bit of therapy, CBT, offered the pilll or antidepressants (which I refused) and considered being bipolar like my mother is (but wrote this off as my symptoms seem to be much milder). I have wondered if I had PMDD. I have tracked my menstrual cycle and definitely have lows just before my period but sometimes during and just after I ovulate. I also have lows at other times, I think!? It's the instability I struggle with. When I'm feeling stable or great, I'm just happy go lucky, work if fine, social is fine, all is rosy. Then I fall and just want to hide and cry. I feel so disappointed in myself, that I can be like this. Like I'm some kind of loser. But when I'm happy I feel so confident and in control. I have also had kids (they are 4 and and this yes has been challenging at times. The worst part for me is when I am low, I really want and need space to be low, and that's not really possible is it. My work suffers too - I just don't want to do it and struggle to concentrate. But then I am glad after that I didn't give it up when I was low as really enjoy it otherwise. Nightmare! So I have only recently discovered Cyclothimia and wonder if that is what this is all about. What did others do them you realized you may have it? Did you go straight to the doctor or try to deal with it yourself? I would love to have some friends that suffer the same, so that we can talk about it together.

bobolono1234 wrote:Hi all, I am new to this site and am replying to old posts so hope I still get a response. Over many years, possible since being a teenager I have suffered with intermittent low moods. They are low enough to make me not want to work/socialize/want to hide from everyone/want time to stop and just cry! I have always wondered if this was just my hormones or just normal life or whether I had a medical condition. I've been tot he doctors a few times, had a bit of therapy, CBT, offered the pilll or antidepressants (which I refused) and considered being bipolar like my mother is (but wrote this off as my symptoms seem to be much milder). I have wondered if I had PMDD. I have tracked my menstrual cycle and definitely have lows just before my period but sometimes during and just after I ovulate. I also have lows at other times, I think!? It's the instability I struggle with. When I'm feeling stable or great, I'm just happy go lucky, work if fine, social is fine, all is rosy. Then I fall and just want to hide and cry. I feel so disappointed in myself, that I can be like this. Like I'm some kind of loser. But when I'm happy I feel so confident and in control. I have also had kids (they are 4 and and this yes has been challenging at times. The worst part for me is when I am low, I really want and need space to be low, and that's not really possible is it. My work suffers too - I just don't want to do it and struggle to concentrate. But then I am glad after that I didn't give it up when I was low as really enjoy it otherwise. Nightmare! So I have only recently discovered Cyclothimia and wonder if that is what this is all about. What did others do them you realized you may have it? Did you go straight to the doctor or try to deal with it yourself? I would love to have some friends that suffer the same, so that we can talk about it together.

Hi and welcome

I don't have cyclothymia, but do have PMDD and depression. I've been on the pill for it since 2013- I have also been told I probably have endometriosis, but don't want to go through surgery at this point- the pill helps that too. I've had some doctors and psychiatrists who accept PMDD as a diagnosis and others who don't seem to believe in it (who were mostly male, surprise surprise). The pill for me has totally changed my life and has meant that I no longer have the extreme moods. I'd be frightened now to go off it. The idea of having what I'd call a normal period scares me, and looking back, don't know how I managed to cope with what I did. I do know that the pill doesn't work for some women though too.

It did take me some time to make the connection between my cycle and my moods, but when I started paying more attention to it, I had a two week thing going on- my baseline was depressed, so two weeks of being depressed, but mostly functioning, and then two weeks of my mood totally crashed, with sit and stare at the wall depression and suicidal episodes- the swing was extreme. My mood would crash about a week before my period would start and stay low for two weeks. I knew that once a period started, I could count the days till my mood would lift.

With depression on top of PMDD, it is confusing sometimes what's what. I could still have deep depressions outside those two weeks (usually caused by something), but in general I'd find my worst would centre around those two weeks- and 99% of the time, had no emotional reason behind them. I'd go to therapy, sit down and cry, saying I felt like crap for absolutely no reason at all- it took a long while to work out the pattern. Once I did figure the pattern out it became really predictable. Much of what I've read about PMDD says that generally mood lifts on period starting, but I've found my severely depressed mood would last another 5 days after, So I have come to the conclusion that is just how my body works with this.

I have heard of women having psychotic episodes triggered by their cycle. After what I dealt with, I don't think anything's impossible. Would recommend looking into PMDD more though just to see if it resonates with you. Be prepared to ask more than one doctor/therapist about it, because a lot seem to think it doesn't exist.

bobolono1234 wrote:Did you go straight to the doctor or try to deal with it yourself?

I did ask my GP at the time about it- he was a male GP who didn't deal with "women's stuff". So shoved prescription painkillers at me for the pain and was left to deal with the mood swings myself. Antidepressants were his only other offer, which I can't tolerate. Was eventually pushed in the direction of a female GP. Have only dealt with female GP's since. So it took a while to get there. Having a therapist who could validate feeling like crap with no reason, and not needing to find a reason at those times when there really wasn't one was helpful.

I really hope you can find something that helps you and that you can get an answer that feels like it fits properly.