Managing PMDD Stress with Mindfulness
PMDDers actually have an altered physiologic response to stress in the luteal phase; Meaning, as PMDD Warriors, our bodies actually respond differently to stress when we are in the luteal phase. So, stress management is really important for PMDD.
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After years of struggling with the debilitating effects of PMDD, I'm sharing my personal journey and the powerful impact mindfulness has had on my life.
In this episode, I explain why I encourage a multi-pronged approach to managing PMDD, with mindfulness at the forefront. Join me as I dive into the profound connection between stress and PMDD, backed by insightful research conducted by clinical psychologist, Liisa Hantsoo, Ph.D.
Discover why mindfulness is an essential tool for managing PMDD and how it can help reduce symptoms such as depression, anxiety, mood swings, and irritability.
Explore the potential benefits of incorporating mindfulness into your life and learn how it can fill the gaps in PMDD resources.
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Title: Managing PMDD Stress with Mindfulness
Episode number: 2
Date: September 29, 2023
Solo episode: Diane is the only speaker
INTRO (00:00)
If you want to learn how you can live better with PMDD, this podcast was created for you. This is Mindfulness for PMDD with Diane. I'm Diane and I'm a registered dietitian and lactation consultant. I'm also a mom, a PMDD warrior, and a trauma-informed mindfulness teacher. And this is where I discuss topics related to PMDD.
Through the lens of mindfulness and meditation and where I share all about how mindfulness has gotten me to a place of greater peace and acceptance. With my PMDD, I also chat with people who have helped and inspired me along the way so they can share their wisdom with you too. So let's get started.
SAFETY NOTE / DISCLAIMER (00:55)
This podcast is not a substitute for psychological therapy or medical advice. Please take care when listening to this podcast, as some may find certain words or subjects triggering or difficult to hear. Take only what serves you and leave the rest behind.
WELCOME (01:13)
Hot tip. In this episode, if you hear a little, a little ring a ding dinging, you're not going crazy. It's my one year old Yorkie T Rex's dog tags which I wasn't able to completely remove from this episode. So please bear with me and I hope you enjoy this one.
Hello and welcome to Mindfulness for PMDD with Diane. I'm Diane and, as I record this, I have just discovered that I am day one and I'm experiencing elation at that realization because that means that I got through this past cycle without my symptoms getting too horrific. I did get some pretty extreme, or…I have had severe lethargy for several days, and there were a few days with pretty rough brain fog, but my mood was pretty good this cycle.
And I love that. And I am so grateful for that. So today I want to discuss why I'm such a big fan of mindfulness for PMDD. And the answer in a word is stress. I feel very strongly about the benefits of mindfulness as a stress management tool for premenstrual dysphoric disorder. And I want to start with kind of going over the relationship between stress and PMDD.
STRESS AND PMDD (02:53)
So there's a clinical psychologist called Liisa Hantsoo–I hope I'm pronouncing her name, last name correctly–and she's conducted research on the stress response in PMDD. And you can actually, I'll put in the show notes a link to a talk that she did for the IAPMD, the International Association for Premenstrual Disorders.
And something she talks about is that there's a two way relationship between stress and PMDD in that (1) PMDD may make us more reactive to stress and (2) stress may make our PMDD symptoms worse. And in fact, research that she's been involved with supports the idea that people with PMDD are in fact more sensitive to stress during the luteal phase.
And PMDDers actually have an altered physiologic response to stress in the luteal phase; Meaning, as PMDD Warriors, our bodies actually respond differently to stress when we are in the luteal phase. So stress management is really important for PMDD and is recommended for PMDD by organizations like the IAPMD, by MIND, the UK mental health organization, by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office on Women's Health, and by the American Academy of Family Practitioners, to name just a few. So all those health organizations.
Okay, so great, but why is mindfulness the tool to try to reduce or manage stress? Why use mindfulness to try to reduce or manage stress? I love mindfulness because it's a stress management tool that can be used almost anytime, anywhere, by anyone. And it has the potential to be brought into and affect all aspects of a person's life.
And research has suggested that mindfulness may help improve the quality of life and mental health symptoms for people living with chronic conditions. So, specific to PMDD, there was a small pilot study that looked at the efficacy of a mindfulness based stress reduction program for PMDD, and it looked at whether it was worth studying mindfulness based stress reduction on PMDD in a controlled environment.
And the results of this pilot study suggested that MBSR is acceptable, well tolerated, and potentially beneficial in women with a menstrually related mood disorder. And specifically, the study showed that after this mindfulness based stress reduction training program, the participants experienced clinically and statistically significant decreases in depression, hopelessness, anxiety, mood swings, sensitivity, irritability, and conflict with others.
MINDFULNESS FOR MANAGEMENT OF PMDD (06:51)
And you know, as PMDD warriors, we have to confront some pretty negative thoughts and feelings every month. And we may often feel like we have to push ourselves during the follicular phase, or our good days, to make up for all the balls we feel we dropped or all that we feel we missed out on during our so-called hell week or bad days, right?
And maybe we experience guilt or shame because we feel we aren't doing enough or being enough as a result of what PMDD does to us. And so we give ourselves a hard time for that. But the nice thing is that we can actually begin to address these issues by integrating mindfulness into our lives, both through mindfulness meditation and by developing mindful living.
So, we can use our awareness of breath and body and sight and sound and sensations and touch, to help pull ourselves out of our heads and into the present moment. Mindfulness is a practice that can help down-regulate the nervous system. When you feel like you're freaking out, it can help manage negative thoughts and feelings.
It's been shown to reduce anxiety and depression and may even help improve sleep. Mindfulness also helps to reduce stress by bringing down our cortisol levels, helping us feel more able to manage our emotions, helping us find more control over our thinking, and making it a bit easier to manage. Even physical pain. I also feel like mindfulness can really help fill some gaps at a time when there just still aren't enough PMDD resources out there at the moment.
Part of that is because PMDD is still a pretty new or relatively new diagnosis. Right? So PMDD was added to the list of depressive disorders in the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) in 2013 and the new code for PMDD in the ICD (International Classification of Diseases) became effective in January of 2022.
And so, whether it's because of this recency of PMDD becoming an official diagnosis, or other factors, many people have had to wait a long time to get a diagnosis of PMDD.
So mindfulness can also be a really nice tool to help with PMDD while you are waiting for a diagnosis or waiting for medication or waiting for therapy. And finally, the last thing I want to say about why I promote mindfulness for PMDD is that management of PMDD might look like a combination of a lot of different things.
So, for example, for me, PMDD management means that I take an SSRI, I've made dietary changes with the help of a fellow dietitian, I've cleaned up my sleep hygiene, I take in regular walks and low to moderate intensity exercise. I've also recently started seeing a therapist again, and I've even done things like become a minimalist and take up mindful activities like knitting.
That was the new skill I learned during COVID, knitting. By the way, side note, I've come to view my minimalism, or my simplifying of my home and my life, as actually an extension of my mindfulness practice. So I'm definitely planning on making that an upcoming episode. Stay tuned for that. But the point is that I'm not saying mindfulness is the be all and end all of PMDD management, but that mindfulness can play an important role in a multi pronged approach to managing PMDD.
All right. Thank you so much for listening. I really appreciate it. I appreciate you and I will hopefully catch you in the next episode.
OUTRO (11:43)
Thank you so much for listening. If you liked the show, please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts for links to everything mentioned in this episode.
You can check out the show notes, and you can find me, Diane de Jesus on Instagram @mindfulnessforPMDD. Now I invite you to pause, take a breath and look around.
