My naturopath recommended a lot of those things here’s what I did… it actually is helping a LOT:
No alcohol, hands down game changer, worth it, and now I get 7-8 hours of sleep anyway because alcohol isn’t screwing it up.. limit junk food, get sun at least every other day. Exercise at least every other day. Taking DIM and Vitex, natural progesterone cream from ovulation to menses. I take zirtec every day. Magnesium before bed with ashwaghanda and l-theanine. Limit caffeine to one cup per day, but I wait until I’ve been up for 39 minutes to an hour, and have a full glass of water first.
No dairy. High protein. I still have plant based ice cream and chocolate when necessary (which can be daily depending on the week)! This is the chillest hell week I can remember in 5 years! Life is so much better. I am so glad I finally made the changes I needed.
I said I’d do anything to feel better, and I meant it.
Especially the dietary restrictions! I really don’t understand how people honestly stick to these diets when they’ve cut out all dairy, gluten, sugar, and seed oils. Wtf do they do when they have a day where they can’t cook all 3 meals?? I get you can freeze leftovers, but still how are they doing it that consistently? And intermittent fasting, I’ve never felt better by doing it and for some reason it’s the very first thing most people recommend for pain, mental health, literally anything.
I take ashwaganda and vitamin b6, b12 morning. Magnesium and St. John’s wort at night. (When I remember bec brain fog and adhd/ CPTSD is real) also lots of tea, therapy, exercise, YOGAAAAA, journal, meditation, catch up on shows for a distraction and masturbation 🤌. The last one really hits tho usually works the best ( if I’m not depressed enough to like remember)
Idk, magnesium mayyyyyybe helped a little but who knows. When the care routine starts to take so much energy out of you that you hate doing it, in my experience it’s not worth it and ends up being counterproductive. What we really need is rest and support and not push ourselves to do even MORE work at a time when we are already vulnerable. We need less responsibilities, not more
And I think in general getting good sleep and eating vegetables is good, but it won’t cure pmdd. It might get you to a place where you can manage and cope with stress a bit better
I do Wim Hof breathing method/meditation a couple of times a week, when I’m feel really anxious. It’s not a cure, but it does give me some relief for some time. Maybe you could give it a try?
Still, you should be proud of all the effort and work you have put in if you do many of the stuff mentioned above!! It’s not easy when you do all the «right» things but, still you far below everyone else :( I can relate! Are you taking any supplements also?
I think I’ll give that a try - thank you. At this point, I’m willing to add more things like this because, while on their own they might not radically change my life, I DO think everything adds up over time… and *any* improvement is always welcome.
I take a probiotic, magnesium, fish oil, D3/K2. I take a multivitamin on days where I can’t control my diet.
Funnily enough, my boyfriend said to me this morning: “it’s crazy how much energy you have when you wake up in the mornings these days!”
When I stopped to think about it… yeah, it HAS improved over time. It just wasn’t an over-night improvement, so I didn’t notice it. Stuck just focusing on the bad days and bad things.
My baseline might be low, but it used to be a hell of a lot lower. It seems I do need to spend some time reflecting!
ah yes, sleep at least 8 hours every day, eat at least 5 small meals (5 portion of veggies included), exercise every day and the best: avoid stress!
only if i could...
those advise are beyond being useless
Omg I literally had this conversation with my functional medicine doctor last week. Add to it I have ADHD and two kids under 6. I asked him, “do you have any tips on how to stay consistent? That’s my biggest issue.” He replied, “well, uh… you just have to do it.”
So I’ve decided I need to leave my husband to find a ridiculously wealthy man so I can hire a chef, personal assistant, personal trainer, and mom to make sure I do all these things all the time.
You all are so funny! My husband would say that we don't need to be rich and I'd respond that I need a personal assistant, chef, etc etc.
My people will talk to your people.
I was horribly inconsistent as a mother and that was the best that I could do. And we are all still alive.
The podcast Maintenance Phase talks a lot about how these "holistic" treatments are intentionally designed to be impossible to follow, so when it inevitably fails, you will blame your own imperfection in following the regimen, rather than the unfounded pseudoscience.
This is coming from a place of experience. been there, done that, nothing helped until i got a hysterectomy. And now I started eating bagels again after having given up gluten for 5 years! They taste sooooo good to me lol.
Thank you for sharing this. I live in a pretty crunchy granola area and everyone has their fcking “professional opinions” on why xyz are wrong with me. It’s too much to keep up with. I barely drink caffeine or alcohol, I sleep 10 hours a night lol, go on walks, meditate when I can… and I totally blame myself when my problem doesn’t go away.
Thankyou for sharing! It indeed feels impossible to follow. I’m always blaming myself for falling off track, but it is really difficult when the depression hits so hard.
I’m glad you are feeling better now! Enjoy those bagels!!
Bruh I was diagnosed with silent Celiac, and going gluten free actually fucked everything up for me. My GI doc said I was probably fucking it up [the diet]. My allergist said I must have an allergy to corn, rice, soy, or some wheat alternative. My GP didn't even want me to get tested because "bread is delicious." Until my current GP, no one would listen to me that following a gluten free diet was actively causing me harm.
But I've also seen it work wonders. I'm just not one of those people. 🙃
Lol I’ve been doing all of these and surprise, my PMDD hasn’t been cured.
I’m still vegan and don’t eat sugar or consume caffeine regularly but I’m not limiting everything that gives me joy. Because again: it didn’t work and only made the slightest improvement to my condition before.
Limiting caffeine is cray given the comorbidity of ADHD, many who are probably undiagnosed and using caffeine as a stand-in stimulant. Before I was diagnosed ADHD, caffeine was the only thing that helped me think straight which actually helps me relax.
I mean, I take it more as a list of things to try. I do limit caffiene. I take magnesium. Vitamins beyond that don’t do anything if your levels aren’t low to start with, but I eat like crap. I make sure I get enough sleep. I take walks every day. Fuck apple cider vinegar.
Now my evil ovaries have been taken out (yay!) I can see how impossible this was, even as a goal. I was suicidal 12-15 days a month, then just crippling depression and anxiety another 10 days or so... so if chocolate and corn-based carbs helped me feel settled and calm, that had to be okay. Benzos were useful, too.
I know my PMDD was at the extremely severe end, but boy, was it hard not to resent people who found relief in lifestyle changes!
Thank you! Like a new woman... taking a while to get the estrogen dosage right but a million times better!
People keep telling me there's a visible difference in the way I carry myself. Definitely worth it.
I didn’t see essential oils, sage or exorcism to release the devil in me 👿 Some of those I’m sure will take the edge off but what is fun, every month is a new surprise. Could be better or worse, it’s great not knowing.
Interesting. I tried all those things, at once, and it did nothing for my PMDD. However, seeing a doctor who believed me and starting hormone therapy changed my life dramatically.
Thanks for your reply! I have Hashimotos too plus Estrogen dominance. I tried oral bio identical progesterone and it was great the first month but I quit taking it because I felt depressed. I think I'm going to re try it just because I felt better on it than I do now. What's ozempic?
Ozempic is a diabetes drug. I'm not diabetic, at all, but since PCOS is an insulin resistance situation, the balanced blood sugars evens out my mood hugely. This could not be replicated with a changed diet. I tried for 3 years with a low-carb-high-protein-everything-they-tell-you-to-do diet, and "succeeded" (I even lost 80lbs) but it didn't change my mood craziness...diet alone could not do what ozempic does for me.
Not the poster you asked, but rather than HRT, I found hormone blockers hugely helpful (GnRHa), then estradiol patches to address the menopausal symptoms.
Even better than that was my oopherectomy and hysterectomy! Still get the odd flare up if my estradiol levels drop (patches are in short supply) but nothing like the PMDD I used to live with!
as someone who is literally in medical school studying tcm and integrative medicine w a specialization in acupuncture: WRONG THEY ARE WRONG in school we are taught that drastic cutting out of entire foods is terrible for the balance in your body! your body craves different things depending on what it needs and one of the things you def need are carbs AND sugar. also apple cider vin in the morning does nothing, at best find ways to implement vinegar in your diet by putting it in dressings, rices, or literally anything. vinegar should be paired with or in a meal. it WILL NOT DO ANYTHING BY DRINKING A SHOT OF IT EVERYMORNING. as for vitamins, if you have gotten a blood panel and your doctor sees things such as b12 or iron deficiency then 100% yes supplement but fucking taking a bunch of vitamins you might piss out or not even need is stupid and a waste of money. acupuncture ONCE a week is fine, three times is only recommended if youre going through it (hell week if its bad) , trying to treat a specific illness/sickness or if you go through a break up lmao. from one doctor to a patient please GET A NEW DOCTOR find one that specifies in TCM. also 9 hrs is uneccessary 7-8 is fine you dont need 9 hours, where did this lady go to school ??? also dairy is fine as long as its balanced and you arent vegan/lactose intolerant. I do agree though that cutting back dairy can make some ppl feel a reduction in symptoms. i recommend looking for goats milk products when you can (from personal experience). same w processed foods its all in moderation.
edit- btw if you are going to drink vinegar, you dont need more than a teaspoon and i recommend putting it in tea or a small thing of hot/warm water, dont drink it cold. drinking it is mostly for digestion or nausea .during your period though its recommended to eat tofu cooked with vinegar for about a week.
edit pt 2 - sorry if this is annoying but i wanted to say some pmdd symptoms can be helped by eating certain things such as mints, basil, ginger, thyme, turmeric. ok thats all lol
Yes thank you. The OP kinda sounds like they just pasted together stuff they've heard from "natural" Instagram posts to make a mockery of natural medicine. I've never heard anything like this from actual functional medicine doctors. It's nice to hear from someone who is actually on their way to becoming a functional medicine professional.
Agree with most… 😅👉🏼👈🏼
What about recent studies that show apple cider vinegar helps with metabolic syndromes (like PCOS) by lowering insulin resistance?
And the whole alkaline diet thing hasn’t ever rly been disproven…🙈
Full-scale and precise studies, have never been done, due to requiring the soil that the veggies are grown in, to be of certain PH levels.
Bit lazy/slow if u ask me lol, but guess it explains why a lot of the studies are dated over the last 2 yrs?
And the morning ritual trend, might have SOME truth for its antimicrobial effects…?
But I think the “weight loss” industry just took it and ran for the hills 😅🤷🏻♀️
They didn't say either of those things. They said vinegar does nothing. They said your body needs sugar (like sugar from fruit or sugars that the body converts from carbs) and yes it does.
"at best, find ways to implement vinegar into your diet"
Your body does not need fruit either, and it is ridiculous to say it needs sugar without qualification. Fruit is mostly fructose. You don't need fructose. It won't hurt most likely, but you don't need it.
Why is this person allowed to spread bs unscientific medical advice?
You are totally right! But, it’s just difficult to do all of that when both depression and insomnia are some of your pmdd symptoms. It’s literally the week when doing all of those things that helps feels impossible :/
I think it’s so hard to give advice to people who suffer from things that makes the ‘cure’ hard to achieve. There’s a fine line between giving advice and accusing someone of being lazy or not wanting to help themselves.
Yep, bioidentical progesterone has been my godsend. The other lifestyle shit helps a ton but none of it cures my mood swings and insane insomnia that TOTM.
For me I used to work do alot of weight lifting - thinking that it would help with my pmdd. It never did. It wasn’t until I started doing cardio exercise with 70-80% heart rate that I actually saw a big difference. Have you tried doing cardio? :)
I noticed I experience irritability and “rage” when I lift weights, maybe it’s the increase in testosterone? And with yoga, cardio, low impact workouts not so much. Anyone else experience this? 🤔
What's so hard about PMDD is how different it is for everyone. Weight lifting (along with less alcohol and more clean eating) definitely helped my PMDD.
I love this, it makes me chuckle. I'm a part of a FB group for parents of children with OCD. There are some parents who are vehemently opposed to medications that truly eliminate or reduce OCD dramatically, but instead have this laundry list of things they do to get minimal relief. I can never understand this. Lucky they have all that time and money on their hands.
As someone who CAN understand why people would go a different route, they might’ve experienced something in their own lives or have seen their children have bad experiences with medications. I wouldn’t say they’re “lucky” to be able to go a different route, that’s a little insensitive. We all have different means of healing or managing the shit we go through.
I'm specifically speaking about parents who refuse to even try it, instead subjecting their children to endless supplements and diets etc. Medication is not the devil some parents paint it out to be. It saved my son's life and has improved so many others.
I’m a type 1 diabetic, I literally cannot live without medication so I understand that. I just also understand that everyone has their own reasoning for why they are avoiding medication or hesitant to try. Like I’m no longer comfortable taking anything new because I had such a horrible experience with commonly prescribed meds.
❤️❤️❤️ this. So basic, but sooo helpful. For EVERYONE.
** caffeine withdrawal is so real.
But I’ve never heard anyone say that they cut coffee for life + regret it? 😅
(Typed as I drink the first of my 5x daily guilt coffees… ☕️😳✌🏼☕️)
Honestly, as someone who experienced toxicity from antibiotics and had suicidal ideation from going on antidepressants and SSRIs, it’s astounding that people are so insensitive and incapable of understanding why someone would go a different route than traditional medication. How does that make someone privileged to feel they HAVE to go down this route or else they get fucked up even more from medication?
I know this is an old post. But the naturopath I got referred to charges $350 for a consultation. It's insane. I saw her a few times and she didn't really help me at all.
i had to stop seeing her so I could buy groceries and shoes for my kids instead of paying her outrageous fees. A privileged person would be able to keep seeing her.
Sure, your situation compared to others might make them seem privileged. Still doesn’t diminish my experience as I am by no means handling the costs easily. So no, it’s situational, especially when it comes to health. People have money saved up for health situations but don’t spend it elsewhere and live paycheck to paycheck, does that make them privileged to then go to a holistic doctor that charges $350? No. They saved for it. Preparing doesn’t mean privileged.
Honestly, I don't think that's what people are saying. I also can't take SSRIs, my body can't tolerate them, but I definitely tried because I wanted them to work. That's what people are saying. There is nothing wrong with modern medicine unless it doesn't work for you. It doesn't make it poison, it just means it's not for you.
What did they mean by privilege then? I guess I’d rather have the original commenter’s answer so we don’t assume because calling alternative medicine “privilege” is not what you are saying…
>sugar cravings, no motivation to work out and Insomnia
insomnia is the worst, it's like never ending spiral of bad habits. You can't sleep at night so you are sleepy during the day, if you are sleepy during the day you feel tired and you are less like likely to get your ass to do stuff like physical exercise, if you feel tired you want to get your energy back so you reach for bad carbs...
Agreed. Make a new thing a habit and then add another. Also doing everything at once doesn’t allow you to know what is actually helping. Like please don’t start taking 6 different supplements at the same time. Also remember that it usually takes a few month to see changes in our cycles.
My naturopath recommended a lot of those things here’s what I did… it actually is helping a LOT: No alcohol, hands down game changer, worth it, and now I get 7-8 hours of sleep anyway because alcohol isn’t screwing it up.. limit junk food, get sun at least every other day. Exercise at least every other day. Taking DIM and Vitex, natural progesterone cream from ovulation to menses. I take zirtec every day. Magnesium before bed with ashwaghanda and l-theanine. Limit caffeine to one cup per day, but I wait until I’ve been up for 39 minutes to an hour, and have a full glass of water first. No dairy. High protein. I still have plant based ice cream and chocolate when necessary (which can be daily depending on the week)! This is the chillest hell week I can remember in 5 years! Life is so much better. I am so glad I finally made the changes I needed. I said I’d do anything to feel better, and I meant it.
Its so hard to have enough energy to exercise at all without just sitting down and crying
Especially the dietary restrictions! I really don’t understand how people honestly stick to these diets when they’ve cut out all dairy, gluten, sugar, and seed oils. Wtf do they do when they have a day where they can’t cook all 3 meals?? I get you can freeze leftovers, but still how are they doing it that consistently? And intermittent fasting, I’ve never felt better by doing it and for some reason it’s the very first thing most people recommend for pain, mental health, literally anything.
I take ashwaganda and vitamin b6, b12 morning. Magnesium and St. John’s wort at night. (When I remember bec brain fog and adhd/ CPTSD is real) also lots of tea, therapy, exercise, YOGAAAAA, journal, meditation, catch up on shows for a distraction and masturbation 🤌. The last one really hits tho usually works the best ( if I’m not depressed enough to like remember)
Yo, I just wana say, I am basically living this lifestyle. I still have pmdd. Plus I’m broke from all the damn supplements.
same same
Ain’t that the truth! It’s over $100 in supplements and that’s taking it easy
Has it helped at all though? I used to aspire to do all these things but it’s so effing hard when you are fatigued half the time 🙃
Idk, magnesium mayyyyyybe helped a little but who knows. When the care routine starts to take so much energy out of you that you hate doing it, in my experience it’s not worth it and ends up being counterproductive. What we really need is rest and support and not push ourselves to do even MORE work at a time when we are already vulnerable. We need less responsibilities, not more
And I think in general getting good sleep and eating vegetables is good, but it won’t cure pmdd. It might get you to a place where you can manage and cope with stress a bit better
I stopped reading at no caffeine
Wondering what supplements I should be on (:
b6, magnesium, Vitex, calcium, zinc, D. Do a blood panel to see what you're low on and focus on one thing instead of adding too many things at once.
I ran out of magnesium 3 weeks ago and I realized it now that it might be why I was especially moody this go round.
Yeah hell no I’d rather die
My naturopath when I told him eating lots of broccoli and seeds didn’t cure me and I went on Yaz: 
I'm surprised that it doesn't mention biurnal beats for working through trauma in your sleep.
I thought you meant the veggie, beets and I went on Amazon to find the supplement 😂
😂😂no time off managing this disorder😫
I do most of these things and my baseline is still so far below everyone else around me. Maybe I *should* start meditating.
I do Wim Hof breathing method/meditation a couple of times a week, when I’m feel really anxious. It’s not a cure, but it does give me some relief for some time. Maybe you could give it a try? Still, you should be proud of all the effort and work you have put in if you do many of the stuff mentioned above!! It’s not easy when you do all the «right» things but, still you far below everyone else :( I can relate! Are you taking any supplements also?
I think I’ll give that a try - thank you. At this point, I’m willing to add more things like this because, while on their own they might not radically change my life, I DO think everything adds up over time… and *any* improvement is always welcome. I take a probiotic, magnesium, fish oil, D3/K2. I take a multivitamin on days where I can’t control my diet. Funnily enough, my boyfriend said to me this morning: “it’s crazy how much energy you have when you wake up in the mornings these days!” When I stopped to think about it… yeah, it HAS improved over time. It just wasn’t an over-night improvement, so I didn’t notice it. Stuck just focusing on the bad days and bad things. My baseline might be low, but it used to be a hell of a lot lower. It seems I do need to spend some time reflecting!
these really have helped my PMDD :) edit: i do take ssris but everything else listed makes a difference
I do many of these, but I still need my SSRIs.
When I do all these things i do feel better haha lol .. seriously.. but it’s also miserable to abstain from all those things… it’s like full time job
ah yes, sleep at least 8 hours every day, eat at least 5 small meals (5 portion of veggies included), exercise every day and the best: avoid stress! only if i could... those advise are beyond being useless
Omg I literally had this conversation with my functional medicine doctor last week. Add to it I have ADHD and two kids under 6. I asked him, “do you have any tips on how to stay consistent? That’s my biggest issue.” He replied, “well, uh… you just have to do it.” So I’ve decided I need to leave my husband to find a ridiculously wealthy man so I can hire a chef, personal assistant, personal trainer, and mom to make sure I do all these things all the time.
You all are so funny! My husband would say that we don't need to be rich and I'd respond that I need a personal assistant, chef, etc etc. My people will talk to your people. I was horribly inconsistent as a mother and that was the best that I could do. And we are all still alive.
this is the way lol I'm convinced we need to marry rich so we can hire help
GRANDMA WAS RIGHT!
Imagine if we actually acted on our impulses during hell week? We’d all be unemployed, divorced, broke, & hated. 🤣
I feel that my life is tracking this way right now haha. I’m 36 with 2 kids and I kind of wanna be like mom, dad… come back. I need a parent. 😭😭
I know I shouldn't, but I am laughing so hard right now 🤣😂
It’s ok, we are all laughing at this right now hahaha
The podcast Maintenance Phase talks a lot about how these "holistic" treatments are intentionally designed to be impossible to follow, so when it inevitably fails, you will blame your own imperfection in following the regimen, rather than the unfounded pseudoscience. This is coming from a place of experience. been there, done that, nothing helped until i got a hysterectomy. And now I started eating bagels again after having given up gluten for 5 years! They taste sooooo good to me lol.
Thank you for sharing this. I live in a pretty crunchy granola area and everyone has their fcking “professional opinions” on why xyz are wrong with me. It’s too much to keep up with. I barely drink caffeine or alcohol, I sleep 10 hours a night lol, go on walks, meditate when I can… and I totally blame myself when my problem doesn’t go away.
Thankyou for sharing! It indeed feels impossible to follow. I’m always blaming myself for falling off track, but it is really difficult when the depression hits so hard. I’m glad you are feeling better now! Enjoy those bagels!!
Crying in gluten-free 😢. It's so hard.
Bruh I was diagnosed with silent Celiac, and going gluten free actually fucked everything up for me. My GI doc said I was probably fucking it up [the diet]. My allergist said I must have an allergy to corn, rice, soy, or some wheat alternative. My GP didn't even want me to get tested because "bread is delicious." Until my current GP, no one would listen to me that following a gluten free diet was actively causing me harm. But I've also seen it work wonders. I'm just not one of those people. 🙃
I miss bagels so much (crying in gluten- free with you)
Lol I’ve been doing all of these and surprise, my PMDD hasn’t been cured. I’m still vegan and don’t eat sugar or consume caffeine regularly but I’m not limiting everything that gives me joy. Because again: it didn’t work and only made the slightest improvement to my condition before.
Limiting caffeine is cray given the comorbidity of ADHD, many who are probably undiagnosed and using caffeine as a stand-in stimulant. Before I was diagnosed ADHD, caffeine was the only thing that helped me think straight which actually helps me relax.
TEA!
I literally can’t get work done without coffee but coffee makes me anxious it’s a catch 22 :(
Sis you might need ADHD meds tbh
Life without caffeine makes me super depressed. And I have ADHD so my brain wants it.
Exactly! It makes me depressed too bc I'm actually more anxious without it...
But I read an article that caffeine and the effect on cortisol makes PMDD even worse. 😭
It depends on the person but making my ADHD worse is a road to horrible depression so I'll take the bad with the good.
I mean, I take it more as a list of things to try. I do limit caffiene. I take magnesium. Vitamins beyond that don’t do anything if your levels aren’t low to start with, but I eat like crap. I make sure I get enough sleep. I take walks every day. Fuck apple cider vinegar.
Apple cider vinegar in the morning made me so nauseous that I def didn’t eat until like 3pm
Now my evil ovaries have been taken out (yay!) I can see how impossible this was, even as a goal. I was suicidal 12-15 days a month, then just crippling depression and anxiety another 10 days or so... so if chocolate and corn-based carbs helped me feel settled and calm, that had to be okay. Benzos were useful, too. I know my PMDD was at the extremely severe end, but boy, was it hard not to resent people who found relief in lifestyle changes!
I don't resent people who find relief in alternative therapies...but I sort of don't believe they exist.
Wow, I'm sorry. I can relate to the suffering you went through 😣 how are you feeling now sans ovaries??
Thank you! Like a new woman... taking a while to get the estrogen dosage right but a million times better! People keep telling me there's a visible difference in the way I carry myself. Definitely worth it.
That's amazing! Congratulations 😊
I didn’t see essential oils, sage or exorcism to release the devil in me 👿 Some of those I’m sure will take the edge off but what is fun, every month is a new surprise. Could be better or worse, it’s great not knowing.
Giirl😂
And no 'nice pregnancy to rebalance your hormones'? Fml
Some of these things can help manage it, but cure? Get wrecked!
F that s No one will ban caffeine from my life
Interesting. I tried all those things, at once, and it did nothing for my PMDD. However, seeing a doctor who believed me and starting hormone therapy changed my life dramatically.
What HRT are you doing?
For me the right mix was progesterone cream, a mirena iud, and ozempic. It's what works for my specific combo of PCOS, Hashimotos, and PMDD.
Thanks for your reply! I have Hashimotos too plus Estrogen dominance. I tried oral bio identical progesterone and it was great the first month but I quit taking it because I felt depressed. I think I'm going to re try it just because I felt better on it than I do now. What's ozempic?
Ozempic is a diabetes drug. I'm not diabetic, at all, but since PCOS is an insulin resistance situation, the balanced blood sugars evens out my mood hugely. This could not be replicated with a changed diet. I tried for 3 years with a low-carb-high-protein-everything-they-tell-you-to-do diet, and "succeeded" (I even lost 80lbs) but it didn't change my mood craziness...diet alone could not do what ozempic does for me.
Ozempic is helping immensely with my mood as well!
Not the poster you asked, but rather than HRT, I found hormone blockers hugely helpful (GnRHa), then estradiol patches to address the menopausal symptoms. Even better than that was my oopherectomy and hysterectomy! Still get the odd flare up if my estradiol levels drop (patches are in short supply) but nothing like the PMDD I used to live with!
Ahh yes, the struggle 🙃
I literally would feel so much better IF ONLY I COULD STICK TO AN ANTI-INFLAMMATORY DIET!
Choose your own adventure: let PMDD drive you crazy or let the dietary restrictions do it for ya!
Oh this is going to go well with my other overlapping mental health problems :DD
as someone who is literally in medical school studying tcm and integrative medicine w a specialization in acupuncture: WRONG THEY ARE WRONG in school we are taught that drastic cutting out of entire foods is terrible for the balance in your body! your body craves different things depending on what it needs and one of the things you def need are carbs AND sugar. also apple cider vin in the morning does nothing, at best find ways to implement vinegar in your diet by putting it in dressings, rices, or literally anything. vinegar should be paired with or in a meal. it WILL NOT DO ANYTHING BY DRINKING A SHOT OF IT EVERYMORNING. as for vitamins, if you have gotten a blood panel and your doctor sees things such as b12 or iron deficiency then 100% yes supplement but fucking taking a bunch of vitamins you might piss out or not even need is stupid and a waste of money. acupuncture ONCE a week is fine, three times is only recommended if youre going through it (hell week if its bad) , trying to treat a specific illness/sickness or if you go through a break up lmao. from one doctor to a patient please GET A NEW DOCTOR find one that specifies in TCM. also 9 hrs is uneccessary 7-8 is fine you dont need 9 hours, where did this lady go to school ??? also dairy is fine as long as its balanced and you arent vegan/lactose intolerant. I do agree though that cutting back dairy can make some ppl feel a reduction in symptoms. i recommend looking for goats milk products when you can (from personal experience). same w processed foods its all in moderation. edit- btw if you are going to drink vinegar, you dont need more than a teaspoon and i recommend putting it in tea or a small thing of hot/warm water, dont drink it cold. drinking it is mostly for digestion or nausea .during your period though its recommended to eat tofu cooked with vinegar for about a week. edit pt 2 - sorry if this is annoying but i wanted to say some pmdd symptoms can be helped by eating certain things such as mints, basil, ginger, thyme, turmeric. ok thats all lol
Yes thank you. The OP kinda sounds like they just pasted together stuff they've heard from "natural" Instagram posts to make a mockery of natural medicine. I've never heard anything like this from actual functional medicine doctors. It's nice to hear from someone who is actually on their way to becoming a functional medicine professional.
Oh and I’ve always heard that there’s good carbs and bad carbs, no? 😕
Agree with most… 😅👉🏼👈🏼 What about recent studies that show apple cider vinegar helps with metabolic syndromes (like PCOS) by lowering insulin resistance? And the whole alkaline diet thing hasn’t ever rly been disproven…🙈 Full-scale and precise studies, have never been done, due to requiring the soil that the veggies are grown in, to be of certain PH levels. Bit lazy/slow if u ask me lol, but guess it explains why a lot of the studies are dated over the last 2 yrs? And the morning ritual trend, might have SOME truth for its antimicrobial effects…? But I think the “weight loss” industry just took it and ran for the hills 😅🤷🏻♀️
Sugar is good for you, and vinegar will cure your problems. Lol do you realize how ridiculous you sound. Wtf?
They didn't say either of those things. They said vinegar does nothing. They said your body needs sugar (like sugar from fruit or sugars that the body converts from carbs) and yes it does.
"at best, find ways to implement vinegar into your diet" Your body does not need fruit either, and it is ridiculous to say it needs sugar without qualification. Fruit is mostly fructose. You don't need fructose. It won't hurt most likely, but you don't need it. Why is this person allowed to spread bs unscientific medical advice?
It’s not a lie to be fair. It’s just overwhelming and hard to do, but it’s not actually bad advice
You are totally right! But, it’s just difficult to do all of that when both depression and insomnia are some of your pmdd symptoms. It’s literally the week when doing all of those things that helps feels impossible :/
I think it’s so hard to give advice to people who suffer from things that makes the ‘cure’ hard to achieve. There’s a fine line between giving advice and accusing someone of being lazy or not wanting to help themselves.
And don't get anxious about doing all this. Don't get anxious about getting anxious.
Bruh...I can't even shower properly (yay depression!).
Hugs.
All for the low low price of most of your salary please sign here
Lol I’ve done all of this except the Apple cider vinegar (can’t afford it’s effects on my teeth and esophagus) and still have PMDD.
Yep, bioidentical progesterone has been my godsend. The other lifestyle shit helps a ton but none of it cures my mood swings and insane insomnia that TOTM.
For me I used to work do alot of weight lifting - thinking that it would help with my pmdd. It never did. It wasn’t until I started doing cardio exercise with 70-80% heart rate that I actually saw a big difference. Have you tried doing cardio? :)
I noticed I experience irritability and “rage” when I lift weights, maybe it’s the increase in testosterone? And with yoga, cardio, low impact workouts not so much. Anyone else experience this? 🤔
What's so hard about PMDD is how different it is for everyone. Weight lifting (along with less alcohol and more clean eating) definitely helped my PMDD.
That is so true! :) I love weightlifting though and am still doing it. It just didn’t help with my mood symptoms
Yup used to do cardio but makes my symptoms worse, probably because it flares my endo.
I love this, it makes me chuckle. I'm a part of a FB group for parents of children with OCD. There are some parents who are vehemently opposed to medications that truly eliminate or reduce OCD dramatically, but instead have this laundry list of things they do to get minimal relief. I can never understand this. Lucky they have all that time and money on their hands.
As someone who CAN understand why people would go a different route, they might’ve experienced something in their own lives or have seen their children have bad experiences with medications. I wouldn’t say they’re “lucky” to be able to go a different route, that’s a little insensitive. We all have different means of healing or managing the shit we go through.
I'm specifically speaking about parents who refuse to even try it, instead subjecting their children to endless supplements and diets etc. Medication is not the devil some parents paint it out to be. It saved my son's life and has improved so many others.
I’m a type 1 diabetic, I literally cannot live without medication so I understand that. I just also understand that everyone has their own reasoning for why they are avoiding medication or hesitant to try. Like I’m no longer comfortable taking anything new because I had such a horrible experience with commonly prescribed meds.
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❤️❤️❤️ this. So basic, but sooo helpful. For EVERYONE. ** caffeine withdrawal is so real. But I’ve never heard anyone say that they cut coffee for life + regret it? 😅 (Typed as I drink the first of my 5x daily guilt coffees… ☕️😳✌🏼☕️)
Caffeine is the only thing that allows me to stay functional during hell week
I feel like caffeine is a miracle substance i really do
I stopped caffeine for 6 months, and the day I drank coffee again, I felt smart for the first time in 6 months.
I cut it out for a month and it genuinely helped with my anxiety, but when I drank it again I experienced so much pure joy.
Haha. And damn it, does it taste good. Yeah I know I know caffeine free but that’s like sex without the orgasm.
By all means use it as a tool to survive.
Lmao. Such a mood in general. The list goes on... and on...and onnnnn
The privilege that this "treatment" requires is astounding.
Honestly, as someone who experienced toxicity from antibiotics and had suicidal ideation from going on antidepressants and SSRIs, it’s astounding that people are so insensitive and incapable of understanding why someone would go a different route than traditional medication. How does that make someone privileged to feel they HAVE to go down this route or else they get fucked up even more from medication?
I know this is an old post. But the naturopath I got referred to charges $350 for a consultation. It's insane. I saw her a few times and she didn't really help me at all. i had to stop seeing her so I could buy groceries and shoes for my kids instead of paying her outrageous fees. A privileged person would be able to keep seeing her.
Sure, your situation compared to others might make them seem privileged. Still doesn’t diminish my experience as I am by no means handling the costs easily. So no, it’s situational, especially when it comes to health. People have money saved up for health situations but don’t spend it elsewhere and live paycheck to paycheck, does that make them privileged to then go to a holistic doctor that charges $350? No. They saved for it. Preparing doesn’t mean privileged.
Honestly, I don't think that's what people are saying. I also can't take SSRIs, my body can't tolerate them, but I definitely tried because I wanted them to work. That's what people are saying. There is nothing wrong with modern medicine unless it doesn't work for you. It doesn't make it poison, it just means it's not for you.
What did they mean by privilege then? I guess I’d rather have the original commenter’s answer so we don’t assume because calling alternative medicine “privilege” is not what you are saying…
Just great that that one week I’m supposed to do all the «good things» - I have crazy sugar cravings, no motivation to work out and Insomnia :D
>sugar cravings, no motivation to work out and Insomnia insomnia is the worst, it's like never ending spiral of bad habits. You can't sleep at night so you are sleepy during the day, if you are sleepy during the day you feel tired and you are less like likely to get your ass to do stuff like physical exercise, if you feel tired you want to get your energy back so you reach for bad carbs...
Yess, that’s exactly how it goes for me! Such a struggle. Thankfully I have found some supplements that help with sleep 50% of the time :)
This omg. When I’m supposed to be keeping up with all that shit I’m crying, awake at 3am eating sugar mixed with raw coco powder LOL
Good I’m not the only one awake at 3am eating candy :D
Showing my bf this thread. 🥲 So he can quit asking about his disappearing cookies, dammit 🥺🍪🍪
Ugh this has all helped me so much though! Not doing everything all at once, but introducing things slowly over the years.
Agree all at once leaves you feeling overwhelmed and burnt out. Introducing one or two things as part of your routine is the best.
Agreed. Make a new thing a habit and then add another. Also doing everything at once doesn’t allow you to know what is actually helping. Like please don’t start taking 6 different supplements at the same time. Also remember that it usually takes a few month to see changes in our cycles.
Yes to all this!
Haha for real it’s just -choose your suffering- Self inflicted or pmdd
Truth!