PMS symptoms are fluctuating this month

I am at day 20 of my cycle, which means I have definitely been in PMS mode for about 6 days now.

I have discussed in previous posts that I can feel the PMS symptoms more keenly this month, with the fluid retention and fluctuating emotions starting right after ovulation.

At the moment, my stomach has this huge amount of fluid retention, which seems to come and go. Today it's very definitely here, my stomach has a lot of fluid retention and even when I hold my stomach in, it's still there. Lovely. At least I know it will be gone once my periods finish, but it's still annoying.

Additionally, I have felt the rise of emotion overwhelming me, having a far more intense reaction to stressful events than I normally would have, if I wasn't in PMS mode. It's almost like a physical sensation, the wave of emotion that threatens to overwhelm me and it rises so fast, that it is difficult to stem the tide.  But I try to do so, because it's not healthy to buy into it.

Whenever I feel that rise of emotion - anger, resentment, anxiety, fear - or tears, I keep telling myself, over and over again, "it's just PMS, it's not a real emotion", until the intense emotion goes away. I managed to stem the flow of angry tears even before they started just using this little strategy of mine!  So it's a big plus. Better than any medication and cheaper too, that is for sure!

While I have had the intense negative emotions, they haven't been going on that much, or that consistently, so that is a positive. On the plus side, I have been feeling more creative and more incisive and my brain feels like it's functioning better. It's always good to see the positive side of anything because it helps you cope better.

I have been exercising for about 35-45 minutes most days of the week in this last week. I am better from the flu and can manage exercising more normally now.

This past few months I have had to deal with an unrelentingly stressful situation that has been greatly upsetting, so the immense stress I have been under has made a huge impact on my PMS symptoms, making them much worse than normal, but still not as bad as they used to be, because I know how to manage them better now

PMS has started early for this month, already

PMS has started already this month, early.

I think because I have been rather inactive these past three weeks and have had to deal with a very stressful situation (which I am trying to extricate myself  from), that's most likely causing PMS to start early.

I haven't been active or doing much exercise these past three weeks, because I have been really sick with the flu from just before the start of my previous months' periods and I am only now just starting to get better! It's been a very virulent flu virus that got me and I am still coughing and have sinusitis as well as feel very lethargic and tired.

At the moment, it's just my breasts that feel rather full and heavier than normal and my stomach is bloated out, it juts out when I sit down and that's not normal for me when I don't have PMS.

I don't mind having full, heavy and even painful breasts and the fluid retention that goes on in the rest of my body, but I do not want the emotional symptoms - the anger, irrational thinking, depression, anxiety and everything else that goes with it, to a varying degree, for those days before my periods start.

Last night I did about 15 minutes of exercise - not much, but I didn't have much energy to do more. Today, I did 30 minutes of exercise, so I hope that, combined with eating more fruits and vegetables and taking all my vitamins/minerals, can help to prevent the worst of the fluid retention and other PMS symptoms.  I probably also need to do some meditation too. Maybe I will do some tonight, before I go to sleep, which will be very soon.

Pretty bad PMS

I am close to menstruation, so it means PMS is pretty bad again.

Yesterday, I was having a discussion with a family member and when they said something totally outrageous, I could literally feel the anger rising inside my head threatening to take over. It was a weird feeling, because I was calmly eating one second and the next, this intense anger just rose inside and I literally couldn't "see" anything other than the anger, which was like this wave of intense emotion , a tide of irrational and intense emotion that just grew so huge and threatened to engulf me, just all of a sudden. It was quite surreal as I was almost observing it from the outside (and thank goodness that I was), but it wasn't the observation that was real, it was the actual feelings, how quickly they formed and how badly it affected my mind.

This sudden surge of emotions was extremely difficult to control, but I did manage it. I didn't let it take over. I took a deep breath, told my family member they should look at themselves first before laughing at other people (in a rather calm manner), all without getting getting out of control. In the past such a thing may have culminated in an angry outburst, but not this time.

Because it is so close to menstruation, PMS is at its worst, so that is why a comment such as the one my female relative made got me irrationally upset. But, I can congratulate myself, because I did not allow the extreme emotions consume me and cause me to get really angry, be totally irrational, have a huge argument and feel bad about everything. After writing the previous posts, I have told myself that I need to control my PMS/PMDD because if I cannot it will literally be hell for me, like the past times when I have had bad PMS/PMDD. I will not allow myself to experience those awful feelings again!

So today, I feel a little tired, a little deflated but not angry. And every time I get any excessive emotions that come out of nowhere, I tell myself: "it is only PMS" and those emotions do go away because that is all they are - unreal, exaggerated and irrational - totally of no use to me. Because this month's PMS is entirely my fault for not doing what I should have been doing - meditation, exercise, self-massage and regularly healthy eating - I don't feel like it has come out of nowhere: I know that it is due to me.

I know some may say that you should not need to have to do all these things to get better and relieve the PMS, but the thing is, because I used to get PMS/PMDD so bad before, I need to continue the treatment (meditation, exercise, self-massage and regularly healthy eating) for at least one year (I think) before I can expect to have any major relief, where, if I am neglecting myself one month, it wont cause any bad PMS/PMDD like it did this month.My PMS/PMDD has been happening for over 10 years - I know I cannot expect a magic cure in one month. And anyway, the treatment I am proposing, is going to help me in every area of health, not just for this.

So any women reading this - seriously, if I can do it, you can too. And I have had the more serious and worse form of PMS - PMDD and I have done it without medication of any type. So that means you can too!