Dealing with PMDD Depression: Seeking Advice

My psychiatrist prescribed 5 mg of Lexapro just during the two weeks of my luteal phase! That’s helped a TON.

I did birth control and skipped the last week for 5 years- when I ran out of prescription I stopped and I realized it made me even more suicidal

I too also get suicidal cyclically. It’s so intensely scary. On some of the days that I feel like that, as many have mentioned before, try replacing your thought with other positive thoughts. Another thing I found helpful is writing out everything that I am feeling right then either in poetry or just pure ranting. I try to evaluate how much of what I am feeling is hormones. These next two are silly but kinda help. First is getting in the car and turning on music that I feel is a good expression of the pain I am feeling ( physically and emotionally) and I just sing it out at the top of my lungs alone in my car. Second, is treating myself extra special during that time. My school, UNiversity of Rhode Island, is located very close to a beach. So I will skip classes those days (you do what ya gotta do), and go sit / walk on the beach. You don’t have to go to a beach but find a spot that you enjoy so much. I’ll even treat myself to some of my favorite foods. It helps to give yourself the things you love during that time so you can remember that there is good here worth staying for. Have a few very close friends by that understand your condition that you can reach out too. In addition, I have been seeing a clinical psychologist now for years and she has greatly helped in getting it under control. Biggest thing that can from that is replacing unhealthy coping mechanism that I would use during suicidal spells with healthier ones like I mentioned above. I was also started on cymbalta 30 mg 2x daily for a stint of time which drastically helped. I hope this helps

Something that helps me is working on identifying when it’s the PMDD talking. Literally an hour ago I sat with my dog and he got up and walked away, and I spent the next 20 minutes sobbing before I realized that it was totally irrational and my response was just my hormones being wacky. It doesn’t make the feeling go away, but it helps me to keep it from getting out of control. I don’t know if it’s a solution that would work for everyone, and I know the example I gave is nothing close to the one you’ve struggling with, but working on identifying when your thoughts are rational and when they’re not might help a bit!

It also helps me to identify the certain aspects of my mental health that are impacted by my pmdd and I try to have pre-thought out responses to my usual bad thoughts - having specific affirmations ready for when a specific thought pattern pops up can be helpful bc you can use it when you have no energy or will to think of anything nice about yourself. An example I’ll use is that when I find myself thinking “I can’t do this anymore I just need to end it” I rephrase it as “I feel like giving up but I know that I am stronger than my depressive thoughts” and even though it feels like I’m lying to myself, getting into the habit of thinking it is still incredibly helpful

Mindfulness can be really helpful for me, like trying to remind myself that my body is doing this because of chemicals and while I can’t control it, I’ve gotten through it before so no matter how much my brain wants to tell me I can’t do it I know that I can. As someone with random preservative allergies, I feel the struggle of not being able to use certain medications too I hope this is helpful

Thanks for the advice! Unfortunately my MCAS caused me to develop an estrogen allergy and reacts to foreign objects (like iuds) so birth control isn’t an option for me. I’m also unable to take daily antidepressants bc of allergies to the inactive ingredients in the pills. Do you have any non-medicinal coping methods?

We’ve got this I believe in us ❤️

My psychiatrist prescribed me an antidepressant to add onto my existing regimen just during the weeks of my period - my doctor has also suggested I delay my period to every 3 months with oral contraceptive - both of these things have been very helpful for me but I definitely still notice my mental health declining just a little bit when I hit that part in my hormone cycle