Basically what happens when you have PMDD is that your body can’t handle the fluctuations in hormones throughout your menstrual cycle and goes insane. Onsets during the luteal phase and stops at menstruation. This accounts for almost half the month. Half the year. Half of your life.
Common symptoms are panic attacks, emotional dysregulation (irritability, rejection to sensitivity, and crying mostly for me), hopelessness and depression, extreme lethargy or insomnia, and muscle and joint pain. Just to name a few.
And women are just expected to live half their lives like this. Usually because something shitty happened that traumatized them before they got their period.
Oh and conveniently only recognized solution is SSRI’s. I say that as someone who is medicated and has seen the benefits of anti-depressants. However, I have found 10x healing through breathwork and healthy relationships. But breath and love are free so they’ll keep selling pills.
It’s so sad (note that I’m sad, not surprised) how little people know about premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) as women are literally dying at its hands.
Mayo Clinic defines premenstrual dysphoric disorder as a severe, sometimes disabling extension of premenstrual syndrome (PMS). Although PMS and PMDD both have physical and emotional symptoms, PMDD causes extreme mood shifts that can disrupt daily life and damage relationships.
I have pmdd and I can attest it’s an absolute monster of an illness.
Here are some quick, googleable stats:
- emerging research indicates that 83% of people who suffer from PMDD experienced early life trauma
- 34% of women with PMDD have attempted suicide
* this is inaccurate - I’ll figure out the real stat throughout my career. I hypothesize it’s closer to 67%
-1.6% of women suffer from symptomatic PMDD
* this stat is irresponsible at best and demeaning at worst. I hypothesize it’s closer to at least 5-10%, will figure this one out too and anticipate laughing at my own naivety for lowballing representation
None of these stats are truly valid or reliable because there is such a critical lack of research and awareness being drawn to this disorder.
Anyway… the more you know.
Gabor Mate, renowned physician, author, and speaker talks to filmmaker David Malone to the metaphor he uses to describe toxic culture, as is woven throughout his new book the Myth of Normal - Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture. Gabor’s ability to simply and directly connect dots that are invisible to the average mind is always fascinating to me.
I fucking love this guy.
Gabor Mate, mD via The Myth of Normal - Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture
I fucking love this guy
I’m Bailey. 👋 here to learn about bitcoin, talk about health, and troll nostr:npub18ukvmtrnk8e56g600r0vv8wvhvacgd452jajnws5gpttkglzttgqe0quqm
One thing about me is that I am perpetually curious — specifically obsessed with the brain, nervous system, and mental health.
I plan to disrupt the mental health system & help people remember that it’s our birth right to live in connection, freedom, and abundance. Small goals.
The more I learn about decentralization, the clearer it becomes that if our money’s broken, so is everything else. Especially our health.
So yeah, hi. Let’s fix this shit.