Monthly Bleh-ness, anyone?
 

About this time of the month I get clingy. Clingy and emotional. I expect this has something to do with PMS. I just want to scream "This isn't really me!" I hate knowing that my hormones have more control over my faculties than my rational mind.

How many other women experience a similar quirkiness? How do you deal with it?

Before my period I get emotional and cranky, and really sensitive about things. I don't actually think that it's not me. That time of the month for me is when supressed problems/issues surface and seem to be all the more poignant, and so I tend to explode.

Thankfully I don't feel that terrible every single month, it varies from mild to really depressing. I hate hearing from people "oh it's that time of the month eh?", but sadly it's true. Meh.

Those kinds of nights become a ME night - no person nearby that I could physically become clingy to, and virtual just doesn't cut it. That is my night to focus on me, relax, and just Deal with it. Often times I'll write, and whatever emotions are playing through my head work themselves out that way.

I tend to get really bitchy about that time of the month. I'm never happy and I just snipe at everyone. I usually get over it in a couple of days.

For me, it's a combination of extreme horniness and massive downswings. One minute I'll be completely turned on and happy, the next I'm turned on and annoyed.

I just plain start crying, with or without provocation. It can be pretty confusing for my husband... he'll come home after rehearsal or something, and there I'll be with tears streaming down my face. I also sometimes start an argument or get really oversensitive and then the melodramatic emotions come out... I HATE it. I am usually pretty mellow, and I really don't like doing that to Quadro. Luckily, he has figured it out, so will often not react to the argument stuff and will just hug me. *whew*

I know it's PMS, because it's ALWAYS 4 or 5 days before I'm due.

Hello! lol.
Fortunately I seem to be not having the total downswings I used to, but for the most part this describes me.
I think the 2,000+mg of Evening Primrose oil I've been taking daily has helped a lot. But I still experience a lot of pain, but typically for only 24 hours instead of the 3 days straight.
But perhaps I should file this under "MS", as I don't really suffer effects prior to the moment I start (hence, no "Pre-MS"). Once again, I have to credit the Evening Primrose oil.

I get irrational and everything gets amplified for me. It hasn't been so bad since I started taking b12 and calcium at the recommendation of my doctor. Exercise helps, and so do massive doses of chocolate. Cliche, but hell, it works.

Thanks for the input everyone. I have heard descriptions of PMS symptoms as bitchiness and irritability. I suppose these are most commonly mentioned because they are the most obvious and harmful to social situations. Clinginess, emotional, crying for no reason, ups and downs... all of these are most often kept inside.

Such personal descriptions JustJess and little_tippler, thank you for sharing.
amonkie, taking a personal day sounds like it's about what I need these days. I'll take your words as a recommendation.
Sultana & Lurkette, thank you for the advice of Primrose Oil, b12, calcium, and chocolate.

Im a mess right before, it takes very little to make me cry and all I want to do is be curled up in bed snuggling with dave hehehe

He loves it

Ugh, the 2 days before I am out of control.

I wake up in a rage, at nothing...lol...Mike can see it in my eyes and disappears for awhile. Usually, until I call crying that I am lonely and need snuggling.

I always get all nostalgic about ex boyfriends...cry about everything..get angry about nothing..blah.

I had a co-worker say to me the other day..."Gee, you aren't as nice and talkative as you usual" and I just looked at her and said " You are lucky I don't stab you in the face with this ice scoop". She promptly went the other way.

I could not agree with this more.

I wish I could have a ME night when this happens. But with 2 kids and a husband who never seems to have time for them, I don't get much of this.

My doctor gave me a prescription for Sarafem, to take the 2 weeks prior to getting my period. I was really nervous about taking it at first. I was afraid it would mask the real issues. But I do take it, and it just kind of smoothes out the rough edges. The issues are still there, but I am not crying every moment, and yelling the next.

Before my period I get really insecure and clingy. Also, anything can set me off. It really, really sucks hardcore. Luckily for me my SO loves the clingy me :)

I also get very irrational and mean. I will cry for no reason and get very dramatic which is not my typical jaded self. I think most of my emotion comes from the annoyance of the physical symptoms that month has to offer. It seems that on Zovia, the symptoms that I used to have all at once (extreme cramps, backpain, migraines, nausea, e.g.) rotate months.

I feel so lousy, I just want someone to hold me. But I'm so bitchy, JJ usually doesn't want to. :lol:

Being a woman is wonderful, but PMS sucks.

Ah- PMS.

I get horny, but don't want to deal with the hassle of having sex.

I get bored, but don't want to do anything.

I love people, but I don't want to deal with them.

Yeah, I feel the effects. Luckilly, there are usually no physical changes for me, other than being really tired.

I've never had any real PMS issues... when I was on DEPO (which I DO NOT advise anyone take) I was always more emotional. Was very evil... but now that I am very much back to normal, I don't feel the effects of it. I am just weird like that, I suppose.

I turn into satan, point blank. I also need massive amounts of chocolate. However, since I've switched to the Nuva Ring I have a less satanic, crying, emotional time. I love it!

I have honestly never noticed any correlation between my period and emotional/mood swings. Everyone has ups and downs and I do too, but they're usually more governed by stress or other outside events, not my hormones. Just thought I'd throw a vote in for us women who don't, we do exist and many women who feel they do suffer from PMS don't really, they make themselves believe they're having symptoms because soceity tells them it's what women do.

I become uncharacteristically bitchy when I have PMS. I find myself with absolutely no patience for anything or anyone, really snippy, and just plain ornery. I also had been dealing with horrendous cramps, but hopefully the IUD took care of that. Hubby can tell when I have PMS, and is pretty darn tolerant, bless him. I was taking evening primrose for a couple of months but didn't notice any effects...does it take awhile to work? Or perhaps I wasn't taking enough....

All of those symptoms above. That'd be me. However, thanks to Yasmin and a really, really understanding gyn, I only have to subject the world to that hideous black soul that lives in my abdomen and wreaks havoc upon my entire sphere of exisistance... four times a year. :D

ALWAYS. I am moody, emotional, and can't make up my mind. My bf can always tell too....

the week right before I tend to get umm crazy? :crazy:
i don't really cry or get angry more (sometimes more easily irritated).
I usually have silly over-exaggerated negative thoughts about myself and my relationships with people, and I frequently just end up laughing a lot at them to try and make them go away.
I am hornier...
and... i want to eat a lot more than usual.

My body is changing. It has been this past year what with all the physical problems I've had. While I was on the pill I rarely experienced any PMS or any mood swings partly because when I went off the regular pills to go to the placebo or non-hormone week I would usually start bleeding within 24 hrs of missing my pill. My moods took a little longer to catch up. Plus I'd know it was coming and baby myself some. I go through phases of mood swings that seem to be less related to mentration than to larger physical changes and more seasonal. Now that I'm not taking the pill anymore that whole scenario is changing. I had only my second period since going off BC recently and my mood swings along with expecting and planning for company really threw me for a loop. Hubby even commented on it and how MS had affected me. He made the connection himself (and responded accordingly) - What would I do without him.

I have low blood pressure generally, anemic and have a slightly underactive thyroid. Both of which are affected by my hormones. I find that I'm better off when I'm taking Iron for the anemia and Iodine for the thryoid. Both have helped me tremendously.

I tend to get a migrane about 36 hours before my period starts up full tilt, then pretty bad cramps the next day. I can get moody, but it's mostly in reaction to the physical stuff. I don't use any kind of birth control, for obvious reasons.

Sissy, surprisingly, gets PMS like symptoms as a result of cycled progesterone, a headache and lethargy on the 28th day after taking the progesterone from the 16th to the 27th, then gets hot flashes sometimes on the 14th or 15th.

Grace is immune, except for getting a craving for kosher dill pickles.

Mmmm, pickles.

Gilda

Where is the "OMF (oh my fucking) gosh YES!! I feel the effects!! (option) :lol:

There are only two ways that I change. One is that I may turn bitchy. The other is that I may be highly, extremely emotional.

If pms didn't exist, well, then I would have to say I have mild schizophrenia.

I want to have wild N crazy rough sex as well.

:crazy: Here's the greatest part about my period. I live with my mom and sister and we all share the same cycle!! Isn't that wonderful! :crazy:

I hate the week or two before my period starts...I don't mind so much the little tinge of pain, but I cannot stand the emotional outbreaks. I can be super nice at one point and then just go completely ballistic, and then begin crying out of nowhere... It's hard to find people who understand this, and so I usually end up getting yelled at or told off. Kinda sucks.

Sadly, the only part of pms that isn't actually part of the pms is my sex drive. I think someone installed a vtec engine in my libido....

Emotional, bitchy, clingy, and the night before my period actually shows up, I have to masturbate (bf works nights) because I'm so horny. The good news is, my period only lasts one day (thank you Yasmin), and two Aleve kill the cramps in the morning.

The skin on my face breaks out with eczema - so I have to hide or cover up with a lot of makeup for a week. It's not a fun time. Think I'd rather get moody.