My PMS Story

I came across this news article today on the BBC.

Reading it made me shiver as I could have written it about myself. For years I have suffered with extreme PMS, which until you have experienced it is hard to imagine how dreadful you feel, as the article states sometimes suicide seems the only viable way out of these horribly devastating regular changes which occur every month for up to 14 days before a period. So that means only 1 week of every month feeling completely normal as 2 weeks are spent in a hellish state, 1 week bleeding and recovering, then back to hell. Not only hell inside myself but for all around me...

I had tried many changes to help alleviate this problem, dietry changes, supplements, you name it I probably tried it. That in itself is very difficult to do as well because when I was feeling in such a bad way I was not at all open to belief that anything could help me, so it was always very difficult to get started on anything or to continue long enough for any beneficial effect.

However, in the end I got so bad, I can't even describe how I was, my partner thought I had some kind of psychotic illness that I did eventually manage to crawl into my GP surgery. He suggested I try an anti-depressant, which at first I was very reluctant to do, thinking of all the nasty side effects etc. But after thinking about it for a while I decided that nothing could be worse than what I was already going through. So I took Citalopram for about 6-8 months and it was amazing.. almost right away we (I say we as it affected everyone around me) had months that were OK. Then I stopped it hoping I was cured - but no, within the next 3 months I had a steady fall back to how I was and I didn't like it one bit... So I returned to my GP who thankfully put me back on them again and my life soon returned to just about normal. I still get a bit ratty as it comes to that time of the month but NOTHING like before. I have now been on the medication for about a year non stop, just hope my GP allows me to stay on them long long term.. They have saved lives!