BLOG No. THIRTY THREE

Welcome back to my blog on anxiety and depression. Today, as promised (a term that means a pledge might happen) I want to regale you with a case study of a lovely person with PMDD.

She had dealt with PMS during her teens and early 20s, which she had overcome with meditation and yoga. But after the birth of her second child, the mildly disabling PMS turned into a nasty PMDD. Her husband stayed longer at work to be away from her, and her kids, three and five, stayed in their bedroom during the “dark days”.

About seven or eight days prior to her cycle, “Annette” would start to have terrible fatigue, nag at her children, accuse her husband is having an affair at the office, and generally made her family miserable.

Her moods were all over the place, she lost interest in sex, and her sleep was very unpredictable. Some nights she couldn’t fall asleep and on others, she might crash for over 12 hours. During this miserable time she pushed friends away, avoided her parents and siblings, and in her words she JUST “rode out the storm”.

Her gynecologist gave her Prozac, which had worked for her in previous years, but now it seemed to just aggravate the whole affair.

The gynecologist gets tired of fighting insurance companies and red tape, so he decides on a new career. He has always loved old cars, so he decides to go to mechanic’s school. He excels in his courses and then the final exam comes. It is to tear down an engine and put it completely back together. He accomplishes this task, and awaits his grade. When the teacher gives him 150% he is puzzled, so he calls for an explanation. The teacher tells him, “I gave you 50% for tearing the engine down, 50% for putting it back together, and another 50% for doing it all through the exhaust pipe”.

“Annette” sought me out after I helped one of her friends with a similar situation. As fore-mentioned, she had been suffering for about three years since the birth of her second child. A day or two after her period started, the mysterious, drastic fluctuations of moods ceased, and she became old self. She told me that she was Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Of course we discussed D2 dopamine and how I thought it was the culprit. I ramped up a course of Lamictal over about three and a half weeks. A week before her next cycle she waited for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde to return.

It didn’t. Five years later, the PMDD has not returned.

Well, I need to get to bed early. I am going to the horse races tomorrow! Hopefully, they have a good Chardo-NEIGH! Until next time when we discuss de-realization and depersonalization, this is Dr. G saying keep the faith!