Meet My PMDD

I am a part of a PMDD Community on Facebook and through that, I have learned that is it PMDD Awareness Week in the UK. Through that I have also learned that many women have trouble getting diagnosed correctly with this disorder and that it is not listed in the manual for mental health in the US or the UK. The manual is about to undergo its fifth revision and PMDD is in the proposed revision. PROGESS!!

PMDD, usually beginning the week before menstruation and ending a few days after menstruation begins (according to http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/pmdd/AN01372):

• Extreme mood swings
• Bloating
• Breast Tenderness
• Fatigue
• Changes in sleep and eating habits
• Anxiety
• Feelings of being keyed up or on edge
• Persistent Irritability
• Marked Anger

I call this week my “Hell Week”, which I stole from a friend in Texas. Hi, Jinny. I honestly thought I was just losing my mind about 5 years ago when the symptoms became unbearable. I had been waiting for a mental breakdown anyway since my family is ate up with crazy so I had not spoken about the problem with any medically trained person. I was basically just complaining to my gyno about it, having no idea that there might actually be other people out there who had these issues too, when she said, “Sounds like you’ve got a little PMDD there.” I replied, “JUST WHAT I NEED! MORE INITIALS! What is that?” She fell out laughing then told me what it was. Yep, I had all of that. To the max. Plus some more. My darling man was alternately swimming in my tears or looking for his head that I bit off. My family just knew to stay away from me when my eye brows drew together to form a furrow. My coworkers went into hibernation during that week.

My gyno gave me a prescription for birth control that was specifically found to relieve the symptoms (Yaz). This helped me GREATLY but did not eradicate all of my mood swings or fatigue, which was one of my greatest problems. I also have SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) which calls for the use of a Light Therapy Box and during the daily use of this the winter after I was diagnosed with PMDD, I realized I’d had no symptoms of the PMDD whatsoever for two months straight. Other than an occasional hiccup or slight mood swing, this has been my experience for the last three years while continuing to use both the pill and the light therapy box. (This is the box I have, used 15 minutes 5 days a week at 8 a.m. during the winter and 15 minutes 5 days a week at 8 a.m. the week before my “Hell Week” the rest of the year: http://www.amazon.com/Zadro-Sunlight-Artificial-Days-Year/dp/B0011UYM0C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1350515326&sr=8-1&keywords=sun365+light+therapy+box)

Because of my experience with it, I am writing to my representative to make sure he is aware of the upcoming revision to the mental health manual and the need for more awareness in the US for this disorder. If you have a friend who suffers from PMDD (ME!), or especially if you have been diagnosed with it or are the family member/significant other of a woman with it, please consider writing to your representative as well. One letter from one lone woman may not make a dent, but with your help, we can be heard.

You can find your representative here: http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/

I am emailing my rep since sending him a snail mail letter takes an extra two weeks for security scans. My email in its entirety is listed below. Feel free to use it as a template for your letter but please add your own personal story to it. Also, here is the blog post from Cat in the UK where I got some direction for my letter and also the name for this blog post you just read: http://meetmypmdd.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/be-change-get-involved-write-letter.html

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Dear Mr. Steven Palazzo,

I am one of your many female constituates who suffer from a chronic, disabling mood disorder called Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder, also known as PMDD. I am an advocate for mental health and research, among other things, and have found the process for women to be correctly diagnosed with this disorder to be arduous. It can and does take years for her to associate her symptoms with her menstrual cycle and once that realization is made, the woman has often been living with misdiagnosis of depression or bi-polar disorder as well as the corresponding incorrect treatment if she even has the resources to seek treatment in the first place.

I was one of the lucky ones who had a gynecologist who recognized my symptoms instantly when I mentioned them in passing during one annual visit. This is an exception to the norm. I cannot adequately express in words to you exactly what a relief it was to know that there was a scientific reason for what I am experiencing and that I am not alone in this. Many women in the US have been told that PMDD does not exist and have had to struggle to find support and treatment from their medical communities. This disorder is detrimental to relationships, families and careers if left undiagnosed and untreated as the mood swings, severe aggression/irritability, fatigue, joint pain, and depression are life altering. With almost every other mental health issue, there are some lengths of time without symptoms, but not with PMDD. It begins a week before menses and sometimes even during ovulation so that the woman experiencing it may have only ten “good” days a month, every month, all year long for the entire time she menstruates. She may only have ten “good” days where she is in control of her emotions, thoughts and body so that she feels together and normal. Ten “good” days a month for 50 years or more.

Thankfully, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is about to undergo its fifth revision (DSM-V) to be printed in May 2013 and PMDD is in the proposed revision. This is major progress and your female constituates need this disorder added to the DSM-V. They need PMDD to be recognized as a disabling condition in order to find the correct treatment and in order for awareness to be raised in the medical community so that they may have a doctor like mine who will know immediately of what she suffers. I hope that you will be able to help raise this issue to the correct people and support the proposed revision. This is a local issue as well as a world-wide one. Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Sincerely,

Me