PMS seems to be less problematic

The last many months PMS has been mostly fine.  Such a huge relief.

I get those awful PMS symptoms at a much reduced rate and for a shorter duration each month. It's much calmer in my head most month and that is such a relief.

There was a month earlier this year where my periods were late and I had more severe PMS symptoms during the extra few days during which I was waiting for my periods to arrive. It was like the old days when I used to get PMS really severely, where my head felt like it was being squeezed from the inside. This wasn't a literal feeling, but rather an emotional squeeze. I survived, as usual. But I am thankful that this was an anomaly, not the usual way for me these days. The severe PMS and late periods was most likely due to me feeling really stressed about things in my life. I don't think I was doing enough in terms of the vitamins, minerals, supplements and stress relief. And that has changed.

I am back to doing what I normally do to reduce my PMS symptoms:

• Good quality omega 3 fatty acids in the right ratio
• Protein at each meal, like boiled or fried eggs for breakfast, sometimes a protein shake when I am in a hurry (which had been too much previously)
• Lots of leafy green vegetables - organic
• Lots of berries - organic
• Different assortment of nuts each day - organic
• Vitamin C and zinc supplement
• Magnesium and other mineral supplement in micro levels
• Exercise every day for about an hour - a mixture of strengthening, cardio, flexibility and toning exercises on different days
• Some meditation for at least 10-15 minutes most days of the week

Organic foods are my preference, because when you have PMS or really any condition, the less chemicals you put in your body, the less you're stressing it.

And for those who think this isn't enough for PMDD - well it is. I had severe PMDD and I treated it with food, supplements, exercise and meditation and it worked. Medication isn't the answer. It only masks the symptoms while your body continues in its dysfunction.

Enjoy a PMS-free month!

Major and unrelenting stress can make PMS much worse

When you have a lot of stress in your life, when it's unrelenting and of a major kind and it is something that is rather beyond your control, this can be a major contributing factor in worse PMS symptoms so that they resemble PMDD, which is the more severe form of PMS.

For the last few months, I have been under a great deal of stress due to a very uncomfortable situation that I have been exposed to. I am trying really hard to extricate myself, but in the meantime, it means that the stress, frustration, anger and other negative emotions that I have been feeling, are contributing to my more exaggerated PMS symptoms this month, which I haven't felt in a very long time.

The one consolation I can give myself is that because I know any intense emotions I get are due to PMS, so this means I can use my little mind trick, where I tell myself, "It's only PMS. It's not real," and this brings my feelings back down to a more normal level pretty quickly.

But, as I am not yet right in the day or two before I menstruate, it still mean it could get much worse, but I hope not. I have done a lot of hard work to get my body to react more normally during PMS over the past few years and I never want to have those intense and crazy emotions that I used to get in the past, where I felt like my head felt like it had this intense pressure inside that I couldn't seem to release and was seemingly coming from nowhere. It was almost like I was going insane with all these intense, crazy emotions that had nothing to do with me, for 2-3 days almost every month and it was the most awful feeling as I could not control it.

Now, after several years of eating properly, exercising, doing meditation, taking certain supplements and massaging my body regularly, I don't feel that way any more. Yep, all without any medication, which was recommended to me, but I declined, preferring to do it the natural way, as I wholeheartedly believe the body can heal itself if you provide the right food, supplements and tools.

Just goes to show, how even if you implement everything properly, except in one area (not reducing stress) it can have a debilitating effect on your health and some of us are more susceptible than others.

PMS is over

Menstruation arrived today just after lunch and the intense emotions have also gone (for the most part). 

Interestingly, my periods came 4 weeks and 1/2 a day since last month. So obviously by not buying into the irrational thoughts of PMS must have normalised my hormones in some way and not extended PMS/PMDD (like it would have in the dark horrible past) and so my periods have come in a regular manner. 

See, mind control works! If we can control ourselves, then we can achieve so much.

No wonder I was feeling so horrible and my emotions felt totally out of control yesterday. Lucky for me I was just feeling that way, but not letting it take over, so I was able to remain calmer than I normally would feel on such an irrational day.

This month. I am going to diligently do the following to get back to having wonderful periods and no PMS again:

• Daily self-massage of my legs mainly, but also other parts of my body that I can manage myself
• Daily exercise for at least 30 minutes
• Eating more regularly every day (I eat really healthily, just had not been eating regularly lately)
• Meditation every night before I go to sleep, which will help me sleep, but will also clear and refresh my mind and make me feel calmer all month

Come back to see how I fare next month.

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!

PMS and PMDD - How I am coping today

Well I have been saying: "It's only PMS" every time I feel like crying about some silly thing or other and the feeling immediately dissipates. That's how I really know that it's not a real feeling, because when I am really upset about something then no matter what I say the feeling doesn't immediately go away. Plus, when I don't have PMS, I do not tend to get so irrational and overly emotional like now. 

It's rather interesting how I can influence my mind so much as to dissipate (and cut off before they manifest too badly) those negative emotions with just those 3 simple words - "It's only PMS". It's rather comforting to know that it is just PMS making me feel like that and not something else, because it's almost like I wave those excessive emotions away with my hand when I say, "its only PMS". 

It is really interesting how I can be feeling normal emotions one second and then I feel like crying the next second and as soon as I say those words, I go back to feeling normal again. It truly is an amazing shift and it's interesting to observe that shift of emotions and generally within a few seconds: normal -> irrational -> normal. Oh and I have stopped sighing so much today. I think it is entirely due to the fact that I have been feeling more on an even emotional level today (compared to yesterday).

And my menstruation is supposed to start in a few days, so no wonder I am getting such strong PMS now - it is so close to the start of my cycle. And I described in my previous post why it was my fault that I am experiencing rather bad PMS (probably the worst in quite a while).

So, ladies, if I can do it, so can you. It is more of a challenge to do the natural way for some women, but it does work. I have to just get back to exercising, meditation, eating more regularly and I will be fine. I think I will do a little bit of dancing today - release some of those hormones.

PMS is Back With a Vengeance!

PMS is back this month with a vengeance! And it's all my fault.

It's not so much the physical symptoms (although I do have some fluid retention around my whole body and breasts), it's more the emotional symptoms that have come back. Grrr!

But it's my own fault really. I know I have to do everything I need to, in order to make myself better, but this month I have not been doing everything. I have been eating well in general, but I haven't been eating at regular times. I also have done absolutely no exercise (its freezing here and winter makes me so apathetic in terms of exercise) and I have been doing no meditation and no self-massaging. And, on top of that, I have been under some stress, which is not helping. So what else am I going to expect?

I am feeling all the classic symptoms this month so much more than usual:

• wanting to cry
• feeling angry
• feeling easily irritated
• hating everyone
• isolating myself
• no energy
• very apathetic

Great set of symptoms huh? No wonder men get so scared when we utter those three letters - PMS and now PMDD.

But, what I have been doing to make myself feel better is the following:

• When I feel any negative emotion boiling up I simply tell myself "it's only PMS" and that seems to make me feel better. If I don't know why I am feeling bad, then I usually take hold of whatever is annoying me and making it so much bigger and more horrible than it really is and then I just feel worse and worse and worse, with the negative feelings feeding on the PMS and then I fall into a pit of despair and depression, which is not helpful for me. So by telling myself that "it's only PMS" it means I am cutting off the negative emotions before they spiral out of control. It's basically a reality check I decided on trying (I don't even remember how I came to think like this) to make me realise that these negative emotions were not real (or really ultra exaggerated) and only a symptom of PMS. Seriously, it's amazing (almost magical) how well it works. Just now I started to feel like crying (for absolutely no reason whatsoever) and I told myself "its only PMS" and that emotion went. But I warn you, some days (like today), I have had to say that little phrase at least 50 times and some days it could be more, so it's that simple to get rid of the emotions as they tend to come back again and again (those hormones again), but if you persevere, I am kind of re-training my brain a little to the point where my emotions do not feel quite so out of control, as I know they will pass. If I tell myself this same phrase over and over again, it seems to help me, because it makes me realise its not me going crazily emotional over absolutely nothing, it's just PMS/PMDD
  
  
• Whenever the irrational thoughts come into my mind, I take a big breath, take a stand back for a second and tell myself why I am being irrational with irrefutable logic, as many times as I need to, or as long as I need to in order to get my mind into being rational again. I know how hard it to rein in that negative and irrational and highly emotional thinking, but I have done it, so you can too.
  
  To give other women a good idea about just how irrational/highly emotional I can get and even though it is quite embarrassing, I will give examples about the seemingly silly things I get irrational about when I have PMS/PMDD, so that other women know they are in good company: (1) I went to a food court for lunch and I got so upset that I had tears in my eyes and wanted to cry so bad (I stopped the tears before they came out, but if I wasn't in such a public place, I would have bawled like a cry-baby) because one food vendor had no food without butter. I am lactose intolerant and I cannot handle dairy products. And it wasn't like there were no other food vendors around, because there were, but I just was so upset that this food vendor had no food for me, as if they hated me - I just took it so personally. Just one example of total irrationality. (2) It was Christmas one year with my family and just before everyone was due to open up their presents, I went to the toilet. When I came back everyone had already unwrapped their presents and were looking at them or playing with them - and I had only been gone about 1 minute. I got so upset that my family disregarded me that badly that I told them I hated them (I was in my early 30's and not a teenager!) and ran to my room, where I proceeded to ball my eyes out with those great hiccuping tears, rather than tell them off for being so damn impatient (like they couldn't wait one minute), like a normal person would. They had to coax me out of my room and apologise profusely before I would emerge back to the lounge room and finally open my presents. Ah yes, another embarrassing example of my extreme emotional ride at PMS time. I could go on, as there are so many more examples, but I will leave it at this for now. But suffice it to say, a lot of people around me tell me that they used to be on tenterhooks when I had PMS in the past, afraid to say anything to upset me (as basically just about everything did) - and we are talking about 2 weeks of PMS out of every 5 weeks or so that I used to have. That's pretty bad. So what I am saying here is that my tips really work.
  
  
• I use some herbal teas to make me feel more relaxed - the one I use has chamomile, lemon balm and peppermint. It's organic (of course) and really nice. I also use to it to relax me before going to bed
  
  
• This evening, I am going to do some meditation, as that seems to help even more than any vitamins or herbs to dissipate both the emotional symptoms, but also the physical symptoms (such as bloating)
  
  
• I am also going to have a lovely bath with some rock salt and some lavender - that always seems to make me feel better any time
  
  
• I really need to eat food more regularly, as that will raise my energy levels and give me less reason to feel bad
  
  
• What I would really love, is a massage every day - as that would definitely put me in a better mood, but alas I am not wealthy enough to do that
  

Today is like one week prior to my periods and I am feeling the PMS (or rather PMDD) rather acutely, so I started my action plan (as above) last night and it has helped a lot. I have basically been using points 1 and 3 so far in the last day as I am still within the rational realms. I haven't had to use point 2, which is reserved for those exceedingly irrational days and hopefully this month I wont have to. The thing that is important is to cut off those negative emotions before they take hold, because if you try when they are at their worst, it is so much harder to get back to normal.

Its all about controlling your mind. Seriously. Our hormones start of in the brain, in the pituitary gland. Our hormones work very closely with our emotions and I really believe that PMS (once it does take hold, when we are not doing the proper nutrition, meditation, massage) can be controlled by your mind. I have proved it to myself time and time again. You have to tell yourself that these emotions are not real (or an exaggeration, which again means they are not real) and that you are ok. It really is that simple.

So remember (me and every other woman who reads this):

• Cut off those negative emotions/crying/irritation/etc before they take hold

I am still sighing somewhat (really big sighs where I am trying to get some air as I am not breathing properly enough), but I don't feel so much of the negativity by relieving my mind of the PMS symptoms a little as I have listed above.

So I just wanted to show other women that no matter how bad it is, there is always something you can do to make yourself feel better - if I can then anyone can!

Alas, PMS Here Again

I must say that PMS while not as severe as it has been in the past, was a problem this month.

I can only guess that it was because I did not exercise much (I was sick from a really bad cases of sinusitis, that progressed to be a flu-like infection), which also meant I did not do much meditation, nor did I do any of the detox massage. I did though, eat very well, with 99% of my food intake being from a natural (and usually organic) source and all home-made. But obviously food intake is not enough for me (or others like me).

Quite obviously I need to continue with my self-healing strategies (exercise, good nutrition, detox massage, meditation) for a number of months before I will feel more longer-lasting effects. It is normal to have to do this for a number of months, because realistically, it took a long time to get my body to this state and it will take some time to get it back to normal health, which I am quite prepared to engage all my strength in order to make it happen.

My symptoms this month

• Quite painful breasts for a number of days prior to menstruation
  
• Some level of bloating at PMS
• Relatively little emotional symptoms at PMS (in comparison to normal)
• Very severe emotional symptoms (anger, irritation, crying) on day 3 of menstruation
• Quite bloated abdomen for 1.5 days of menstruation
• Severe dizziness and feeling like I wanted to pass out on day 2 of menstruation
  

The doctors think I also had a ovarian cyst that burst around mid-cycle of this menstrual cycle and this is because I was in excruciating pain which centred around the ovaries and especially the left one at that time. The pain was so bad that I was advised to go to the hospital where they gave me morphine for the pain. Needless to say, not the best 2-3 weeks of late.

It seems that I still have a lot of work to do in terms of regulating my menstrual cycle. Even just today and last night when I did some stretching and meditation, my menstrual symptoms (severe bloating of my abdominal area) eased quite a lot, which is a good thing.

I know there are plenty of women like me, who know they need to do something to help ease their symptoms but may be at a loss as to the natural strategies they can use.

I will keep you all updated on the progress during the month, of all the things I am doing to get my gynaecological health back to normal.