PMDD What Is It? How Can You Treat It? It's Important To Track Your Symptoms!

I have been off lithium for over 2 years now. Ongoing and well, that's healing for me. It has changed my life..as I am no longer NUMB. emotionally mentally spiritually or physically...when I say numb, I have talked before in my other articles how lithium made my brain foggy, subdued my sex drive, interfered with my taste buds, put on weight, and just hindered me in so many ways. Well I got onto Lamictal which was better and now I'm on Depakote and that's even better. I feel alert and "normal". But I have a lot to catch up with, things I missed out on, experiences I never learned or had, and so forth but in general I feel good.

I am grateful for my strength of being able to control my emotions, which took a lot of practice after getting off the wrong medicines. One thing I found out though is that I have pmdd (Pmdd is pre-menstrual dysforic disorder a severe form of pms.) which might be the sole cause of my problems or issues. This is much worse than anything else because it affects me two weeks out of the month so I'm still searching for help. I've noticed that there is very little help for pmdd. Why?

WHY IS THERE SO LITTLE HELP FOR PMDD?

PMDD is a rare disorder but why should that be a reason to not be helping people?

Since I kept a diary years ago, I looked back on it last night, and saw I had pmdd symptoms which I thought were other things at the time. I was very very fragile emotionally. It was pmdd. I used to go to respite almost every month around my period. Why didn't the doctors tell me that's what it was? Are they really paying enough attention? Apparently not!

It has been shared with me that in women pmdd and bipolar can both be present more often than not.

My PCP said she didn't now what to do. My psychiatrist said she worried the Effexor would make me manic, which it did not, only did I get manic when the the other psychiatrist increased the Effexor and I got manic.

Now...I did notice I had a lot of forgetfulness on Effexor and I don't want to feel like I have Alzheimers. So now what?

I made an appointment to get blood work done at MGH in Boston. Hopefully that will help. I know they mentioned a Mirena IUD that could be helpful....

So, it does take a lot of energy to get help because I had to call my doctors about three times each to get these appointments!

I am just blessed my dad taught me to haggle and stick up for myself because I'm often too tired to do this but no one else will. I feel bad for the mentally ill that don't get help because they don't have the strength or energy...I could be a very good peer counselor and advocate!

Well this video is all dandy but where do you get a cure or solid help? I see the woman in the video is happy she now knows WHY she feels this way and she can track her symptoms and know what to expect.

I suspect I have bipolar and pmdd and it is so severe that I need medicine for it...and so I'm just hoping to get the right medicine or the right help hormonal help.

I really wish you know things were easier and my doctor could have told me at age 16, "You have bipolar and pmdd and here's what we're gonna do."

Instead I get stuck on terrible meds for 20 years and find out later, and I'm still fighting to get help for this!

This needs to be addressed so I'm going to follow up with my appointment at MGH (Massachusetts General Hospital).

In the end, I know I will feel better and better but it's pure hell to go through the symptoms meanwhile each month!