I have either become a curmudgeon overnight, or I have PMS

(See?)

(See?)

All is clear. *flees*

Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside a dog, it's too dark to read. - Groucho Marx

(It's nothing personal).

You'd probably be mad at me for ducking too, right?

Meh. People want to kill me with guns all the time anyhow.

GRRRRR.

Back in 1993, a dear friend of mine and Donut C. talked to me once on the phone about how she was going through a really bad bout of PMS.

I said something stupid along the lines of "I can imagine how that might feel."

About twenty minutes later, after a full detailing of what it can feel like combined with various references to my boneheaded nature, she then made it clear that all would be well in future if I never spoke lightly or uninformedly about the subject again. I have taken this knowledge to heart since then.

Not very emo.

OH GREAT YOU'VE GONE AND MADE THIS RACING PUG CRY

HE'LL NEVER RACE AGAIN!

OH NOES

PMS is irrefutable evidence of a decidedly NON-beneficent deity.

people feel the same way about luna

translation: it's happening again.

x-post

But no one else gets to blame my behaviour on that but ME! =)

This is the part that sends me INTO FUCKING ORBIT! Why can't those who are PMS'ing be held accountable? It's like this automatic "Get Out Of Jail Free" card.

Identifying natural female experiences as a disease in need of treatment is highly controversial especially because the implications for all women could be devastating.
Feminist scholars suggest that viewing PMS as a disease is born out of our patriarchal society. The symptoms that are associated with PMS are often in conflict with the way a woman "should" behave. Anger, irritability and increased sex drive are patterns of behavior that go against social norms for woman. Some people believe that PMS, along with other female-attributed disorders, are used to enforce gender stereotypes.[19]
It is notable that the emergence of PMS as a disorder was created during a time when women's roles in society were changing. Particularly, women were beginning to enter the work force at increasing numbers. This coincidence has not been ignored especially among those who believe that PMS is used as a method of social control.
Multiple SSRI's have been used to treat PMS which is not without controversy. The makers of Prozac began marketing the generic form, fluoxetine, under the name Sarafem to treat PMS. This coincided with their loss of patent on Prozac which has lead to suggestions that their motivations are not completely benign.[20] Recently an oral contraceptive named Yaz has become the first and only birth control pill approved to treat PMDD. The marketing of Yaz centers on this aspect of the drug.
In some societies, this part of a women’s life is not seen in a negative way as is most often found in Western countries. The diagnosis and definition of PMS and PMDD are not universal across the world. The belief in PMS and its affects is mainly a Western creation. This is not to say that other places in the world deny the possibility that women are affected by their menstrual cycle but defining PMS in terms of a disease is specific to the West and the United States in particular. Official recognition of PMDD has only taken place in the U.S. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accepts PMDD as an illness but the World Health Organization (WHO) does not. In Europe, PMDD was forcibly taken off the list of indications for Prozac due to lack of supporting evidence for its effectiveness. Many of the symptoms of these two disorders are seen as negative in the U.S. and in need of treatment. This allows the medical system to become involved and regulate this part of women’s lives.[21]

Yea, we have hormonal imbalances every fucking day.

xpost: Women are much more aggressive than men if verbal agression is counted

Does that make it right?

can males get PMS? cuz i really think i get it every few weeks

-- latebloomer: the Clonus Horror (latebloomer), Thursday, July 7, 2005 4:56 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark Link
maybe you're just a jerk

-- matlewis, Thursday, July 7, 2005 4:58 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark Link

matlewis otm, lol

But no one else gets to blame my behaviour on that but ME! =)

This is the part that sends me INTO FUCKING ORBIT! Why can't those who are PMS'ing be held accountable?

Hehehe. I should point out I wasn't entirely serious of course. I'm well aware of my savage/irrational moods at those times, and feel pretty bad when I realise I'm snappy over stupid nothings, want to throw things, biting people's heads off etc. I have in fact said "I'm sorry I think I am PMTing" before to explain myself. Amusingly, guys don't want to know anyway theyre all "ewww TMI".

Yucko, anagrams!

This is the part that sends me INTO FUCKING ORBIT!

-- Alex in NYC

damn no one should have to go that far, son! ;_;

I laminated a "Get Out of Jail Free Card" but I learned after showing it to my parents and vice principal it was a very bad thing to use in charged situations.

Max - where did you get that blurb you posted above? Just asking because the medicalization of menstuation (and reproduction in general) is one of the things I'm studying right now.

Seriously -- in like a day or two (PLEASE, God, let it be), she'll be back to her old self, and I'll just have to SWALLOW MY PLANET-IMMOLATING RAGE about how she's been a COMPLETE BEEEEEEEEYOTCH for the last five. WHY can't I bring the fucking hammer down? WHY can't I hold her accountable? WHY does that make ME the irrational one?

erica--wikipedia!!

alex in nyc, the thing is, she is probably using enormous restraint to only be this mean; there is often a significant gap between how horrible i am and how horrible i want to be when i have pms.

WHY can't I hold her accountable? WHY does that make ME the irrational one?

It's a legit question! You should ask her!

Damn, how old IS Charlotte now? Kids grow up so fast.

Charlotte is three and a half, Oliver is one and a half. And I'm forty and at my wits' end.

NYC grinds everybody to powder.

haha I was trying to make a joke about your daughter PMSing. D'oh.

Having never experienced any of the emotional symptoms often attributed to PMS, I can't really offer and personal advice Alex. However, if it's that severe maybe she is one of the really unfortuate who suffer from PMDD. Would she be willing to see someone about it and try some form of therapy (traditional, accupuncture, whatever may help)? It sounds like she's so affected by this that is hugely disruptive to both your lives. That definitely warrants further treatment.

Wooo. I was PMSing pretty bad a few days ago, and the boyfriend and I went out to see our friends play with Dax Riggs (they're his awesome hired guns). I HATE his music with a burning passion and was veering between bored and pissed all night. I told my boyfriend at one point that I wanted him to rip his own face off and reveal himself to be a samurai warrior, charge the stage and cut off Dax's head with a sword.

keep her pregnant, alex. it's the only way....

hah but pregnancy can make you emotional too. :-) and then there's the post-delivery state. :-)

PMS ain't nothin' but love misspelled.

there is often a significant gap between how horrible i am and how horrible i want to be when i have pms. every fucking second of my life

Whether there is any actual correlation or not, Ms Lostandfound certainly got way, way more scary after we had our first and only child. Her cycle became more erratic, for sure, but there was no official Post Partum Depression or anything like that. In fact, it's so mysterious that I call it (we call it, while laughing nervously across chilly spaces, and only during certain semi-safe times) Post-Partum Premenstrual Perimenopausal BiPolar Cyclothymism. I mean, at some point, we could all blame our hormones/emotional disorders for being utter cuntfaces, but we don't. It's like if I got mad and tore a door off of its hinges and punched a few holes in the drywall and blamed it on testosterone or the PTSD I got from my childhood sexual abuse!

Ha ha, that came out of nowhere, really. And I'm actually a lot more balanced with this stuff than I first appear ;)

My motivation was to reassure Alex he isn't alone, that I've experienced something similarly bewildering and life-changing, but that also, it isn't just about me (or Alex, or whoever)...

A friend of mine didn't get the "baby blues" after her delivery. She called it: RED HOT STAGE because she was constantly angry. I do understand how she felt. PMS might be a bitch (hah!) but, man, do your hormones fuck you up after a delivery or WHAT? I don't have that big of a PMS problem (hah! in denial or WOT?). Actually I should ask my husband. I think I do get a bit more mental than usual but overall I think I tend to "implode"' more maybe?

Jody, if I lived in NY, I would be knocking off work now to go out with you for chocolatinis. Fuck you west coast!

i'm on the west coast now, luna! (think she would show up?)

lol

How are the chocolatinis on the west coast?

probably the same as anywhere else?

Remember them this way.