About PMS
I am Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde when it's time for my menstrual cycle. I start my change two weeks before my period. First I began by nesting, I clean, organize, and get my life in to order: how ironic when it's getting ready to get out of order for me. Then, I hit a downward spiral! I get extremely anxious, sad, emotional(drop of a feather) and depressed to the point were I start thinking fatal thoughts. I would say I get more the mental side of PMS than anything. If anyone looks at me wrong I cry and blame myself. However, I do get daily headaches, bloating, breast tenderness, and cravings!! But, there is a light at the end of the tunnel because once I start and complete my period I become the person I know I am and I'm HAPPY once again! Thanks for letting me share with you and other women, I think it's important that a person knows they are not alone. IT REALLY HELPS!
PMS has got a bad name, I think. People say it makes you bitchy. Well,one of the things that happens is that your estrogen level drops, makingyour proportion of testosterone higher, so you are more like a man fora day or two. I appreciate the way that PMS can make me stand up for myself,even though I sometimes feel uncomfortable handling the feelings of angerthat I'm not used to. Sometimes PMS manifests itself differently, and Ifeel weepy and sensitive. Most of the time I don't experience PMS at all.
I PMS pretty bad, usually by eating like a horse. I also treat my partnerquite differently, preferring not to be around him for a couple of days.
I must experience PMS because I always feel much better right aftermy period than right before it. I have much more tolerance for chaos andcommotion following my period than preceding it. I do feel like I'm moresensitive and more easily irritated before my period, sensations that manifestin a variety of ways.
I notice changes in my body two to five days before the beginning ofmy period. Often, but not always, my breasts get larger and my nipplesseem to stay erect and are sensitive. Sometimes I feel emotionally edgyat this time, sometimes I don't. When I feel PMS-like, it is usually manifestedin having a quick temper. I begin to confront things that bother me, butthat normally I would let slide.
For instance, at my job I used to often be the one to go get everyone lunch.I usually didn't mind, because I am pretty into food, and if I didn't goget it, I might have to wait longer to eat. So this pattern had becomethe norm, and after a while I was expected to go get lunch. Well, one daywhen I was premenstrual, I said, in a laughing way, that I thought it wassomeone else's turn to go get lunch. My co-worker laughed and handed mehis money and lunch order. I got pretty huffy then and said "Why areyou giving me this money? I'm not getting lunch today. It's someone else'sturn." And someone else did get lunch. And from then on we sharedthe task more equally.
I know I have PMS when I'm feeling especially grumpy or "fragile"and I haven't had my period for about six weeks. It also causes a cravingfor sweets, baths and turns me into cleaning/organizing maniac. But I don'tget it every time.
I have mild PMS: mood changes, zits. Sometimes waves of sadness. WhenI get my period my mood is immediately altered. It is some sort of chemicalthing. I become slightly ecstatic - which is how I usually know my periodhas arrived.
I start "nesting" before my period. The week before my periodI am most likely to pay all my bills, get things out of the way, cleanhouse, organize things, etc. I don't know if I am sort of unconsciouslyfixing things so that I don't have to do as much during my period, or ifthis is some kind of nervous energy, or weird hormone thing. I just wantto drop everything so that I can clean and organize. I wish I could bottlethat energy for the times when I'm not premenstrual but my house is a mess.
The physical part of it doesn't really mean much to me, it's more theemotional tides and not knowing whether I should discount my feelings toPMS. A friend of mine says that those feelings are laid bare or made visibleand should be listened to, as this is a revealing time, and that I shouldn'tjust write it off as PMS and ignore those emotions.
I've begun to recognize signs of PMS a couple days before, but unfortunately,since I don't chart my cycle in any way, this is always in hindsight --kind of like "OOOOHHH, that's why I've been wanting to kill everyoneI see since Wednesday! I thought maybe I just had a new personality anda big fixation on Zingers!"
I use the emotional sensitivity as an opportunity to figure out whatunresolved difficulties I have in my life that I wouldn't get around tohandling as soon. But I don't assume that all of my emotional responsesare "just" hormonal (they're not), or that whenever I'm aboutto get my period I'm free to freak out (I don't). It's an altered state;I use it as a chance to find a different perspective when I can. SometimesI just load up on ibuprofen and ignore the whole thing.
PMS has got a bad name, I think. People say it makes you bitchy. Well,one of the things that happens is that your estrogen level drops, makingyour proportion of testosterone higher, so you are more like a man fora day or two. I appreciate the way that PMS can make me stand up for myself,even though I sometimes feel uncomfortable handling the feelings of angerthat I'm not used to. Sometimes PMS manifests itself differently, and Ifeel weepy and sensitive. Most of the time I don't experience PMS at all.
I PMS pretty bad, usually by eating like a horse. I also treat my partnerquite differently, preferring not to be around him for a couple of days.
I must experience PMS because I always feel much better right aftermy period than right before it. I have much more tolerance for chaos andcommotion following my period than preceding it. I do feel like I'm moresensitive and more easily irritated before my period, sensations that manifestin a variety of ways.
Do I experience PMS? Maybe? How the hell do I know? Is this PMS? CanI yell and scream or what? I don't think I have PMS , I don't know if itexists. I'm a moody person, always have been. I'm sure hormones have somethingto do with it, but I'm not sure that I really know what PMS is...and well,do you think PMS is just another way for medical language to constructus women as 'sick' because we are women or what? I don't know that I trustthat one.
I experience breast tenderness as PMS. Sometimes I feel melancholy oram a little more irritable than usual. This usually happens a week to tendays before my period.
I often get depressed the week before, and rarely am able to convincemyself it's because of hormone changes in my body. I'm very ambivalentabout the label PMS, however. I think it's urgently important that women'sexperiences with their bodies and mind be validated and recognized as real,but I worry very much about medicalizing as a "syndrome" a naturalcyclical process that a majority of women experience for most of theirlives.
My husband says I also get moody and do notice this too, but the weirdthing about mood swings is that I can't control them. That is, I can seemyself acting like a spoiled brat but in general I can't change, don'tsee way I should change, my attitude when I'm in such a mood. Intellectually,I know it's not fair to those around me, but for some reason I can't everseem to get myself to act more fairly.
I don't think I am that bitchy, but my boyfriend would probably tellyou differently. I think he just says that because of the myth of the bitchyPMS woman. I feel the most tuned into my body during my period. I knowthat sounds strange but I feel that my emotions become heightened in orderfor me to feel them.
My breasts get sore before my period, I don't know if that is officiallyPMS. The one other thing is that before my period often feel problems Iam having are somehow overwhelming. I feel hopeless about things whichwould not bother me too much at other times of the month. It helps me tounderstand that those feelings come from PMS. I tell myself everythingwill look brighter in a few days.