Why I Had PMDD for Years — And What Finally Helped
If you've ever felt like a completely different person the week before your period — irritable, anxious, emotional, exhausted, or like your body has genuinely turned against you — this post is for you.
And I want to start by saying something I wish someone had said to me years ago:
You're not broken. You're not crazy. And you're not alone.
Because I was you. For years.
My PMDD Story (The Honest Version)
For a long time, I rode an emotional rollercoaster every single month.
The week before my period was the hardest. I felt like a completely different person — reactive, overwhelmed, exhausted. I dreaded it. And so did my family.
My anxiety during that phase of my cycle was sometimes completely consuming. It would paralyse me. It made me not want to leave the house or see anyone.
And then there were the tears. Bursts of uncontrollable sobbing that sometimes felt like they came from nowhere.
I remember the moment I finally found out what was happening to me.
I'd rung a natural health supplier looking for advice — and within minutes I was crying on the phone to a complete stranger. The naturopath on the other end was so lovely. She said it so casually, assuming I already knew.
"It sounds like you have PMDD."
Even though I knew what PMDD was, it had never occurred to me that's what I was living with. My GP's answer was simple — go back on the Oral Contraceptive Pill.
I'd been put on the pill at just 13 years old for period pain and bad skin. I stayed on it until I was 30. Coming off it was awful. I swore I'd never go back.
I tried antidepressants too. A couple of different kinds. But I didn't like how they made me feel — and intuitively I knew there had to be another way.
So I threw myself into natural health and was determined to heal myself. I spent thousands of dollars on functional health tests and hundreds of dollars a month on supplements. And it helped — for a while. But as soon as I stopped, my symptoms would worsen. And spending that much every month just wasn't sustainable.
What I didn't realise at the time was that underneath all of it, on an energetic and emotional level, I felt broken.
My self-worth and self-esteem were really low. It was almost as if I didn't feel like I deserved to be well. I was stuck in self-sabotaging loops — but I didn't have the language for that yet.
It wasn't until I began using The Body Code on myself that things really started to change.
What Is PMDD — And How Is It Different From PMS?
PMS (Premenstrual Syndrome) affects around 75% of menstruating women. PMDD — Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder — is more severe, clinically diagnosed, and impacts around 5-10% of women.
The symptoms can be debilitating:
Depression and deep hopelessness
Rage and emotional volatility
Anxiety that feels consuming
Extreme fatigue
Sleep disturbances
Mood swings that feel completely out of proportion
But here's what most conventional approaches miss:
PMDD isn't just about hormone levels. It's about how your brain and nervous system respond to the natural fluctuations of estrogen and progesterone each month.
Which means treating it purely as a hormone problem — with the pill or antidepressants — often doesn't get to the root of what's actually driving it.
What Was Actually Going On In My Body
When I started using The Body Code and later developing my own Metabolic Circuitry Method (MCM), I began to understand something that changed everything.
My body wasn't broken. It was carrying layers of unprocessed emotional energy, stored stress patterns, and subconscious beliefs that were making normal hormonal fluctuations feel completely overwhelming.
When I started working on myself at this level — clearing imbalances in the hormone command centres of the brain, the endocrine system, the reproductive system, and the nervous system — something shifted.
The subconscious beliefs I found were things like:
"I am not safe." "I don't deserve to feel well." "I have to hold everything together."
These weren't just thoughts. They were programs running in the background — shaping my physiology, keeping my nervous system on high alert, and making every hormonal dip feel like a crisis.
Releasing them — layer by layer — changed my cycle in ways I genuinely didn't think were possible.
I stopped crying in the pantry. I stopped yelling at my kids over nothing. I started feeling like myself all month long.
Don't get me wrong — I still get a little niggly feeling from time to time during my luteal phase. But I have the tools to manage it now. And more importantly, I understand what my body is telling me instead of being terrified of it.
And it's not just me.
One of my clients messaged me after her first session:
"My cycle started today and it's so different — way lighter. And I'm not a complete psycho this time lol. I actually feel pretty normal :)"
That message made my whole day. Because I knew exactly what she meant.
Why Emotional and Energetic Support Works For PMS and PMDD
We're so quick to separate hormones, emotions and physical symptoms — as if they live in different parts of the body.
They don't.
When your body is carrying layers of emotional residue, unprocessed trauma, or chronic stress patterns — normal hormonal fluctuations can tip you into overwhelm. Your nervous system is already on high alert. And any additional shift feels like too much.
This is why the same hormonal change affects different women so differently. It's not just about the hormones. It's about the baseline state of your nervous system and the emotional load your body is already carrying.
The Body Code and MCM work at this root level — calming the nervous system, clearing the emotional patterns, rebalancing the hormone communication pathways, and bringing the whole system back into coherence.
Not suppressing symptoms. Not numbing out.
Actually healing.
The nervous system connection to almost all aspects of our health is huge - I write about in more detail here:
Why Your Nervous System Is The Missing Piece in Every Midlife Health Problem
Why Am I So Tired All The Time?
What This Work Can Address
Even if you haven't been diagnosed with PMDD — if your cycle impacts your mood, energy, digestion, sleep, or sense of self — this work can help.
Using The Body Code and MCM, we can identify and release the patterns driving things like:
Emotional overwhelm and mood volatility
Anxiety and depression in the luteal phase
Bloating and digestive discomfort around your cycle
Hormonal skin flare-ups
Food cravings and blood sugar crashes
Fatigue and brain fog
Feeling completely disconnected from yourself
This isn't about fixing your cycle or forcing it into compliance.
It's about supporting your body to move through it with grace, ease, and stability.
I’ve written two really helpful blog posts on gut healing and the connections between stress and hormones and gut health - you can read them here:
Can Stress Cause Digestive Problems?
Gut Healing From the Inside Out
You Don't Have To Keep Surviving Your Cycle
If your period has been running your life — or ruining it — please hear this:
This is not just how it is. This is not just your personality. This is not something you have to push through forever.
Your body is wise. It's not turning against you. It's responding to patterns — emotional, energetic, physiological — that can be identified, released, and changed.
I know because I lived it. And I've watched it change for client after client.
The best place to begin is with a Deep Reset Session.
In 90 minutes we ask your body what it's actually holding onto right now — and start releasing the patterns that have been keeping your nervous system and your cycle in a state of overwhelm. We follow what your body needs most. No protocols. No guessing. Just your body, showing us exactly where to start.
If your cycle has been a recurring theme, that's often exactly where your body wants to begin.
A Final Note
If you've spent years feeling like your hormones are running the show — know that there's another way.
You don't have to white-knuckle your way through every month.
You don't have to choose between the pill, antidepressants, or just suffering.
Your body already knows how to find its way back to balance.
Sometimes it just needs the right support to get there.
Want to understand what your body has been trying to tell you? Grab my free guide — Why Your Exhaustion, Weight Gain and Brain fog Aren't Random and start making sense of it all.
