Month: June 2021

PMS vs PMDD: Similarities, Differences & Mental Health Effects

Periods suck at the best of times, so when your mind and body feel attacked by your hormones before you even START your period, it makes the whole menstruating experience even shittier! PMS usually kicks in about two weeks before your period begins, but sometimes, what you think is just really bad PMS can turn out to be more than you bargained for. 

What gave this monster the cheek? The nerve? The gall? The audacity? The GUMPTION to set up camp in your uterus and make life extra poopy? It’s like your body said, “Nah, regular PMS isn’t enough for you. You have to have something WORSE!” Say hello to your new worst enemy — PMDD. 

‘But isn’t it all just the same thing?’

Good question! We’re going for a deep dive into PMS vs PMDD to help you, or your loved one, better understand the differences, similarities and mental health effects of both.

PMS: Premenstrual Syndrome 

Okay, let’s start at the beginning — PMS. What exactly is PMS? Well, it’s the common acronym for Premenstrual Syndrome. Most people with uteruses (before menopause) have PMS or will experience it as their period approaches (dun, dun, DUNNNN). Sorry, we’re making this scarier than it needs to be. It’s actually not the worst! It’s usually pretty manageable and those who experience PMS symptoms have them withdraw after some typical period TLC. But, before we tell you how to care for yourself while you’re PMSing, let’s break down what PMS REALLY is! 

Physical Symptoms

If you have a uterus and get your period, you might experience these super common physical PMS symptoms. If you don’t have a uterus and are just curious about what PMS is, this list is also for you. Time to learn, everyone!

  • Bloating
  • Tender breasts
  • Headaches
  • Fatigue
  • Trouble sleeping
  • Abdominal pain 
  • Food cravings

Crummy, right?

Mental Health Symptoms

If you’ve experienced PMS before, you’re probably well aware that there aren’t only physical symptoms that appear. Yep — PMS affects your poor baby brain too. It can make you feel so many different things (omg soooo many) but here are a few common ones: 

Hopefully, these don’t all hit at once, but some people do experience this full list of symptoms simultaneously.

Treatment For PMS

It can feel super hard trying to care for your body in this strange state. You likely have a routine down to help you get through the roughest part of your PMS, but if you’re new here, or if you don’t experience PMS and just want to help out a loved one as much as possible, here are some things we recommend!

  • Drinking fluids to help with bloating
  • Asking the doctor about vitamins to take 
  • Over-the-counter pain medication
  • Heating pad and hot water bottle for pain and bloating

Not fun, not comfortable, but not too bad overall, right? Now let’s look at PMS vs PMDD — and the severity of the latter.

PMDD: Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder 

Remember when we talked about your new worst enemy? Well, we think it’s time that you officially meet. PMDD is sooooo crappy to have to experience. You may or may not have heard of PMDD before, so let us give you a proper introduction to it. 

PMDD is often called a severe version of PMS, but it’s actually a type of depression. It’s characterized by large premenstrual mood swings and episodes of extreme mental health difficulties. These symptoms can come at any point in the menstrual cycle but mostly present 2 weeks before a period, then resolve once your period starts. 

This condition affects more people than you might think! PMDD impacts between 3-8% of people who menstruate. That’s a-whole-heckin-lot of people! Symptoms usually pop up in your 20’s and worsen with time. 

Physical Symptoms

Just like with PMS, PMDD comes along with quite a few physical symptoms. Ugh, how horrible, right? Many of them overlap with each other, so don’t be alarmed when you see repeats! The physical symptoms aren’t easy to manage, so major props to you if you experience these every month: 

  • Change in appetite
  • Fatigue 
  • Forgetfulness 
  • Excessive sleep or insomnia
  • Bloating
  • Breast tenderness
  • Joint or muscle pain 
  • Abdominal pain 

It’s legitimately not a good time.

Mental Health Symptoms

Now, let us put on our serious hat for a second. *Puts on hat* PMDD should be taken very seriously. The mental health and behavioural changes that happen to a person when experiencing PMDD are so drastic that some people attempt to end their own lives. 

The chronic and cyclical nature of PMDD makes the person experiencing it feel trapped and like they’ll never get better. When talking about PMS vs PMDD, this is a BIG difference. The severity of the mood swings, depression and other mental health struggles related to PMDD are also life-threatening. Recent studies have found that as many as 30% of people with PMDD have attempted suicide. That’s a MASSIVE statistic! 

PMDD affects the brain soooooo much more than you’d probably ever expect. Here are more of the ways that it shows up: 

  • Depression
  • Suicidal thoughts
  • Panic attacks
  • Extreme anxiety 
  • Feeling overwhelmed or out of control 
  • Crying 
  • Hating, and being uninterested, in life
  • Anger
  • No longer caring about things and people that made you happy
  • Severe mood swings

As we said, this is serious — sometimes very scary — stuff.

What Causes PMDD?

Over the years, the “official” reason someone may have PMDD has changed. For a while, professionals thought it was because someone had an excess of hormones, but now, recent research suggests that PMDD is associated with increased sensitivity to the normal hormonal changes that occur during your monthly menstrual cycle (rather than an excess of hormones). 

Some research also suggests that this sensitivity to hormone level changes is possibly linked to genetics. So, if you have PMDD, call your parents and blame them! Jk. Well, kinda jk…

The exact cause of PMDD isn’t totally known. Some say that the hormone changes each month cause a serotonin deficiency, making the person with PMDD more susceptible to the super severe symptoms. And, for someone who already has mental health conditions, they can become exacerbated by PMDD as well. Greaaaaat… 

Diagnosis

It’s important that you see your doctor if you think that you have PMDD. Treatment for it is prescribed through your family doctor or your gynecologist. Write down a list of your symptoms that you believe are PMS vs PMDD and bring it to your appointment. 

PMDD doesn’t just affect the body. Yes, it is an endocrine disorder (this means that it’s a hormone-related condition), but it comes along with a wide range of mental health symptoms as well. Because of this, PMDD has recently been included as a mental health problem in the DSM-5!

Treatment

Everyone is different. Different things work for different people, so the best thing to do is talk to your doctor or healthcare provider about your options. You can try everything from changing your diet to SSRIs. Your doctor will likely recommend one, or a combination, of the following:

  • Antidepressants
  • Hormone patches
  • Contraceptives
  • Lifestyle changes
  • Increased vitamins and supplements

It might take some trial and error to figure out what works best for you, so be patient and don’t be afraid to give things a try (with guidance from your doc of course)!

How to Help Someone with PMDD

If you’re not the one experiencing PMDD and you just want to learn how to help a loved one, we’re here for you! So, there’s good news and there’s bad news. 

The good news is that you can continue to support your loved one by asking them how you can help and what they need. Meeting them with kindness and understanding is also soooo important and helpful. People with PMDD experience a wide range of emotions on any given day, so make sure that you don’t take what they say too personally. They’re struggling and likely trying to not lash out, so if they sound crankier than normal, don’t be alarmed! But, the most important thing to remember when supporting someone with PMDD is that they need love, patience, kindness and as much understanding as you can give them. 

Okay, now comes the bad news — all you can do is love them and encourage them to seek medical treatment. There’s no magical cure that you can give them — only love.

Living with PMDD

PMS vs PMDD might be hard to understand if you haven’t heard a first-hand account of what PMDD is like. One of our writers, Olivia, is diagnosed with this condition and she was kind enough to let us use her story in this article. 

“I had always wondered what was wrong with me. I cry, feel hopeless and literally want to die. Then a day or two after my period starts, I’m fine again. I used to hate admitting that something is wrong and that it’s related to my period. You don’t want to fall into the stereotype of a ‘woman who’s just PMSing,’ you know? I want to be able to stand on my own and power through it but I’m completely and utterly debilitated by it. PMDD makes me shift into a deep and dark emotional place that feels like something I’ll never get out of. 

It’s like it gaslights me about my own mental health because I’m left thinking ‘oh it’s just my PMDD,’ when the reality is that I need professional medical help. When my anxiety and depression are bad when I’m not experiencing PMDD, I wonder if my feelings are valid. Then, when I do struggle with my PMDD, I try to downplay it. It’s like I don’t know what’s real. But the reality is that it’s all VERY real.

To help me with my PMDD, I’m on the highest dose of my anti-depressant medication possible. I also have a hormonal patch that I have to stick to my body twice a month in order to curb my reaction to the decrease in hormones. That way I don’t react as severely as I otherwise would.” 

 

And there you have it! This is literally everything about PMS vs PMDD that we can tell you without you actually going to medical school. If you want to learn more, we super encourage you to do more research on it. Get into the science of it all if you really want to! We won’t stick around for that, so excuse us as we leave you to your studying! 😉

 

5 Steps to Conquer Your Lack of Confidence

Sometimes, self-esteem and self-confidence get mixed up. Self-esteem is how much you value yourself and your worth as a human being, and self-confidence is how much you trust you have in your abilities and your likelihood to succeed. The two tend to go hand-in-hand, and a lack of either can really affect your mental health. If you’re dealing with a lack of confidence then today we’re gonna show you how to make confidence your middle name (so you can conquer allll the things)! 

What Is Self-Confidence?

Like we said above, being self-confident means you have trust in your abilities, qualities and judgement. You’re not being arrogant, you just know deep down that you’re capable of making the right decision when you’re at a crossroads — or succeeding in that competition! In short, you don’t doubt yourself (which is a very good quality to have — and we’re gonna get into why shortly). 

How a Lack of Confidence Affects You

Having self-confidence is important in relationships, in the workplace, and in handling anything that life throws at you! You can be vulnerable with partners or family members and not feel the need to second guess how they feel about you. You feel prepared to ask for that raise at work and have clear and effective communication with your coworkers. And whatever happens, you know you have the ability to stand back up and try again!  

On the other hand, a lack of confidence can be pretty hard on your mental health (and we defs don’t want that). Here are some ways it can show up… 

  • Shyness
  • Social anxiety
  • Lack of assertiveness
  • Communication problems
  • Increased risk for mental health problems

How to Increase Self-Confidence

Now, if you’re wondering how to build self-confidence (and avoid the things above), don’t worry — we’re not gonna leave you hanging! Gaining confidence is not always easy because it takes a lot of willpower to genuinely think highly of yourself. We’re all our own harshest critics, right? So, let’s look at some little steps you can take to walk towards improved self-confidence!

1. Do What You’re Best At

It may sound simple, but you have to play to your strengths (at least at first). Do what you know you’re good at, what you love, and what comes easy to you because it shows you how capable you are! From there, you can take baby steps and work toward newer and bigger challenges. If you start with a suuuper big and daunting project, chances are you’re gonna be overwhelmed. But if you work towards it, each small step will prepare you for the one ahead! 

2. Use Positive Affirmations

You wouldn’t think that looking in a mirror and telling yourself how awesome you are would work, but it totally does! If you manifest those good vibes out into the universe, they will come back to you. So, say these with us (or write them on a sticky note and put ‘em on your computer, whatever works)!

I believe in my skills and abilities. 

I am intelligent and capable.

Challenges are opportunities to grow and improve.

I show up every day and do my best.  

I am becoming a better version of myself one day at a time. 

3. Accept Compliments

Accepting a compliment can be the hardest thing in the world (trust us, we know)! When you’re already hard on yourself due to your lack of confidence, it can feel like you don’t deserve that praise and a bit of that imposter syndrome slips in. But, if someone is giving you a compliment, it’s probably because they truly mean it. And you should view that as a little win — it means that someone else already sees in you what you want to achieve! So, next time, don’t brush it off or say something like “Nah, you don’t mean that.” OWN your compliment and push that confidence boost outwards! 

4. Stop the Self-Criticism & Choose Self-Compassion 

It can be really easy to fall into a loop of self-criticism and being hard on yourself. But, at the end of the day, it’s just gonna foster MORE self-doubt and prevent you from pursuing your goals. Despite what you may have seen some overly ambitious sports coaches do, being mean doesn’t actually help motivate you! Instead, invite allll of the self-love in and adopt “can” over “can’t.” You CAN do this! And, if it doesn’t work out this time then you can always try again! 

5. Learn From Mistakes & Set Goals

Messing up is inevitable, so don’t automatically label yourself as a failure if something isn’t perfect on your first try! (Even Steve Jobs made a ton of mistakes before he got it right! And if he hadn’t tried at all…worldwide technologies would look completely different.)

Dwelling on the mishaps isn’t going to help because you can’t go back to change anything. Try to view them as lessons instead. Do you know what goes hand-in-hand with learning from mistakes? Setting goals! Taking risks is a biiiig factor in upping that self-confidence, and the same goes for saying what’s on your mind and taking action when you say you will! 

 

These 5 steps aren’t the easiest to incorporate…but that’s what makes them effective! And, remember what we said about taking risks. Once you’ve mastered the art of self-compassion, accepting compliments and learning from mistakes, you’ll be able to handle any obstacle thrown your way.