[HALLIEBETH87]

Have any of ya'll been dxd with bipolar and PMDD? If so, how do you handle/treat it?? How does your pdoc feel about it?

[smmath]

I have not been diagnosed with those disorders, but I would think that one could exacerbate the other. Or maybe mania could help with the PMDD at times. I am not a doc, so I have no real advice. Good question though. Have been diagnosed with those?

[PrairieCat]

I had PMDD all of my life, worsened each year until menopause. I was deeply depressed and then loosely diagnosed with bipolar disorder. I don't think I have it. I think I just have severe depression and believe me, that is enough!

[HALLIEBETH87]

Ive been dxd bipolar but at "that time" of month...things go waaaaaaay crazy! I have had mania before and depression away the time for my period but at that specific time...I have been in the hospital.....overdosed...lots of self-harm. The thing is...I also did some of those things when I wasn't on my period.

I have huge questions about why things are so awful during that time. Also, the symptoms don't go away when I actually get my period. Its all confusing, really.

I have Bipolar and PMDD. I will share my story incase you can get something out of it.

My bipolar had been stable for 2 years... but then the PMDD turned up. For exactly 9 days of the month, every month, I was depressed, sometimes experiencing something similar to a mixed state, basically batshit crazy, but as soon as the bleeding started I was totally fine again. I recorded my symptoms, and charted my mood carefully, my pdoc then confirmed PMDD. As it the moods were directly hormone related, all we could do was manage them. Upping the antidepressant did nothing so my antipsychotics were upped at that time of the month, which did help but did not completely take away symptoms.

Eventually I got an appointment with a gyno, who suggested the mirena to try to control the hormone shifts (other forms of hormonal birth control were out due to blood clotting disorder). I've had the mirena for a few weeks now. Getting it was painful. I had tried to get it for years before the PMDD but no doctors would approve it since I havent had children. Now they had a good reason to. So far I havent had any depression despite having a period. I am a little more emotional than usual but it is not a mood shift, just run of the mill emotions. I am SO thankful I havent had any depression as it has been a stressful week and Im not sure I could handle a mood shift on top of it. Dont have time to fall into a depressive hole at this time of the year!

PMDD is a very severe form of PMS, my symptoms included depression, severe agitation, sleep disturbance, very high sex drive, massive carbohydrate and sugar cravings, increase in intrusive pure O OCD thoughts, self harm, uncontrollable crying, suicidal idealation and specific suicide plans to name a few. (I have had some of these symptoms in the past when I was younger unrelated to my menstrual cycle, but had not been suicidal or self injuring for a number of years.)

It took me a little while to make the connection but for me the fact that it completely stopped as soon as the bleeding started cemented that this was not purely mental and I started to investigate further.

Im just hoping the mirena is the answer to my prayers, it has quite a few upsides already!

[nowIgetit]

Originally Posted by HALLIEBETH87

Have any of ya'll been dxd with bipolar and PMDD? If so, how do you handle/treat it?? How does your pdoc feel about it?

oh my gosh I am almost in tears at finding this thread. I just joined this website today to see if I could find anything on this exact topic since google was not very helpful for me.

I have had very typical PMDD since I was in my early twenties, I have also always struggled with anxiety and depression. I have always had "bad pms" even as a teenager. So do my mom and sis. I wasn't diagnosed until 27 or so, when it got really bad (like I couldn't get out of bed sometimes to go to work the day or two before my period), at one point I was feeling suicidal so called my gp who immediately started me on 10 mg of prozac daily and that really helped even me out and while it didn't stop my pms symptoms it made them a lot better. like others have mentioned I would be at my worst feeling right before I started and seriously as soon as my period started I would feel normal again. it seemed to get worse as I got older.

prozac worked for me for about a year and then I got pregnant with my son. I stopped the med while pregnant and was fine, which to my gp was a clear sign that it really was PMDD. I was fine while nursing too but as my son started to eat real food I noticed some of my symptoms coming back, though they were still milder than they had been pre-baby. however, once he weaned all hell broke loose...I was now having mood swings all month long! not just right before my period! specifically I would have a bad one around ovulation and again right before my period and also often in the few days following. my doc put me on prozac again, 20 mg this time since the PMDD seemed worse than pre-baby and that was a big mistake. it helped my depression symptoms (mainly fatigue and lack of motivation) but made my anxiety worse and I think I started rapid cycling on it too - I found myself having horrible mood swings of anger/irritability/crying out of nowhere and for no apparent reason. it was really affecting my job and my relationship with my husband but I didn't want to stop the prozac because my depression seemed better...anyway one night I found myself having suicidal fantasies and thoughts of self-harm and that wasn't something I had ever thought about before so I called my doc immediately and she started me on lamictal and cut the prozac slowly down to 5 mg for the PMDD. we're still adjusting meds so I'm not sure what will happen but so far the lamictal has been a godsend. I wish I would have tried this years ago. I *think* I probably have bipolar II that's exacerbated by the hormone fluctuations around my period because my mood swings are definitely at their worst during that week. I don't have an official diagnosis yet although my doc thinks bipolar II or at least cyclothymia. she thinks the bipolar spectrum symptoms and the PMDD symptoms are two separate things we need to treat but acknowledges one can make the other worse, if that makes sense.

apparently it's common for bipolar mood swings to be triggered by hormones and there is even research to support the idea that childbirth can trigger bipolar in women who already struggle with depression (I will try to find this article, it was from a canadian university if I remember right).

anyway...thank you for posting this! I have had such a hard time finding research on this topic. I will keep checking this thread, I am not super familiar with how this all works...thank you again for sharing.

[gris212]

I am bipolar and I noticed the PMDD after I stopped taking birth control 2 months ago. I just read that birth control helps the symptoms so that's why they weren't noticeable. My symptoms last during my period. A higher dosage of Zoloft helped the depression symptoms this month, but I still had an issue with anxiety. This past past week when I had my period I didn't know what to do with myself, with the anxiety I felt like crying, screaming and punching something all at once. I take meds for anxiety so I make sure to stay on top of these during those days. I'm wondering if I should go back to birth control when I didn't experience any symptoms whatsoever.

[nowIgetit]

on the topic of birth control I am wondering if anyone else has had bad experiences on birth control? I have been told by my doc that's the best treatment for PMDD (and/or fluoxetine) but I have always had bad reactions to any bc pill I have tried - acne, weight gain, migraines, thyroid problems. anyone else unable to take bc to treat their PMDD?