Help! I Have PMDD and It Isn’t Pretty

How I finally got help for my wild PMDD-induced mood swings

Photo by Kyle Broad on Unsplash

I started to notice a pattern to my rage-induced arguments. They would happen almost to the same day every month. And that’s when I realized, it is linked to my menstrual cycles. Like clockwork, every month, I get, well, just plain irritable. If you so much as look at me the wrong way, I’ll go into a fury. I’m not pleasant to be around, and it’s about time I did something about it. For the sake of my relationships, and for my own well-being.

I had spoken to my doctor about this, and she eventually diagnosed me with Premenstual Dysphoric Disorder, or PMDD as it’s called. As doctors are apt to do, she gave me antidepressants for this, and reader, I’ll be honest; I had a hard time accepting the matter.

I didn’t want to have another diagnosis. Wasn’t PCOS enough? I guess my pride got in the way and for longer than I’d like to admit, I refused to take it.

But then the other day, I was having an innocuous conversation with my coworker, and I felt myself ridden with anxiety, thinking this colleague — who has been nothing but kind to me — disliked me.

That same evening, my child was ridden with a fever, and I had to beg them to take a pain reliever. As I found myself explaining them how…