Hello- I'm new here. and I came to this site upon researching Pre-menstural dysphoric disorder. I'd like to speak with others who are affected by this issue. I am 27yrs old and I have been experiencing PMDD on and off for the past year. At first it seemed to manifest in anxiety and heart palpatations which I noticed were more frequent 1-2 weeks before my period, and the symptoms would subside after my period started. I started seeing a therapist, which has helped. Then a few months ago then the irritabilty, anger, mood changes, depressive moods, mind racing started to manifest again 1-2 weeks prior to my period. I went to my gyno and a psychatirst. I was put on 3 anti-depressants,SSRIs, (at different times) and I seemed to get worse with each of them. (I was basically getting paranoxl depression from them the new doctor said.) I switched from Aleese birth control to Lo Estrin-24 to see if that would help. There was no relief in the palpations and anxiety issues. I ended up switching psychatrist's (I felt the first doctor was not listening to me as a patient. ) and I was put on anti-anxiety and taken off the SSRIs. My husband and I had a long discussion and decided I should stop taking the birth control pill and see if that helps. I stopped taking the pill three months ago-the heart palpatations have stopped and the first month off the pill I had minimal PMDD symptoms (i just took the anti-anxiety med as directed by the new psychatrist, and was able to deal/manage the symptoms.) Now the second and third month off the pill I feel the PMDD symptoms are back, this month I've had two episodes and got my period twice. Although the PMDD episodes last about 3-4 days now only, it still is affecting my work, social, and family life. I work in the medical field, and I have to take off the 3 days that i have PMDD symptoms because I feel I won't be able to 'handle' the stress my job brings on those days, but I do love my job. and I feel I am a completely different person on those days I have PMDD symptoms. I am going back to the psychatrist and gyno in the next few weeks. Are there specific questions I should ask or something I should research?
I'm sorry this is so long. If anyone has any insight to how they have overcome PMDD or learned how to manage the symptoms please let me know.