PMDD is one of those "invisible" conditions; if you look at a woman with pmdd she will probably appear to be just fine, not sick or hurting at all. On the inside it's a totally different story. I have great respect for anyone battling PMDD and other "invisible" mental or endocrine problems. According to the National Association for Premenstrual Disphoric Disorder, about 5 million women in the US have PMDD.I don't think anyone with PMDD wants pity. Personally, I just want to pinpoint what is going wrong with my body and try to fix it. Isn't it human nature to want to feel well and happy? For me, I just want the people close to me to know what is going on with me so they can understand why I struggle with life sometimes. No, I don't want to broadcast to the world, "Hey, look at me, I'm fighting this horrible disorder, so I'm a rock star." I don't want attention. Last time I was this vocal about something on the internet people disagreed with me and I felt hurt and invalid. The last thing I want is to talk about something that affects me deeply and have someone shoot me down.
I just want to give my best effort to make an enjoyable life for myself and my family. Of course there are lessons to be learned from trials, but I really believe Gordon B. Hinckley's quote, "Life is to be enjoyed, not just endured."
I read an article that in my opinion wasn't a very good read since it had a lot of swear words and rude comments. After reading it I realized a lot of people don't want to hear about PMDD. Some think it's whiny women with first world problems looking for another way to get out of things. ...a very unkind and non-compassionate way of thinking...
The beautiful blonde woman Lucy Sutcliffe, this image is from @flurtmagazine on Twitter. I loved how honest her description of battling PMDD is. I'll quote part of it.
"For the past 12 hours I haven't left my bed. Approximately 3 of those have been spent sobbing into my pillow, 4 spent sleeping, and 5 dedicated to panic attacks, emotional outbursts and hurling things at the wall. I'm exhausted, both physically and mentally, and I feel drained, quite literally, of life. But I'm not crazy. I'm not being overdramatic. I have something called PMDD, which, once a month, changes me beyond all recognition. It's overwhelming, debilitating and often pretty scary. I become depressed, withdrawn, and unspeakably angry and irritable. I have terrifying thoughts of hurting myself. I sleep 14 hours a night and wake up exhausted and aching all over. My thought processes become skewed. I'll suddenly remember that boy at school who stole my lunch when I was 7 and want to punch his face in, and then I'll see an old couple arm-in-arm and burst into uncontrollable sobs, convinced that I'm going to die alone and unloved."Thank you, Lucy, for being real and helping me to not feel so alone. If this blog can help ONE other woman then I would count it as a success.
Here is a link to an informative article at the National Institute of Health's National Library of Medicine: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3098121/
It has lots of great information about PMDD.
