Hormone hell

[eveiya]

Bleh. I have, always, fairly extreme PMS, experiencing all the symptoms of a bad cold/mild flu plus added brain-effects (blurred vision, aphasia, mental fog, inability to concentrate, depression, lethargy, pre-migraine-type visual and auditory symptoms and sometimes full-blown migraines and so on) for three days before my period and two or three

Comments

[lenine2]

Hah, I flaunt my menopause!

I am in awe of you taking those classes. My old brain just can't do that kind of creativity anymore. Creative Textiles? I'd love to see the contributions, but couldn't come up with one with a single idea myself.

Is the snow all gone?

[eveiya]

Gah, I envy you your menopause - I didn't sleep at all for weird pointless feverish hormonal mental activity like flashing lights in the brain!

My problem with these arty classes isn't so much having the ideas - if anything, I end up unable to decide between all the possibilities - but with finding the staying power to actually see the project through to completion. After I've done the research, designed the whatever, chosen the materials and decided on the methods, I tend to lose interest.

I'll find out today about the snow; there was still plenty of it on Wednesday evening when I came home from college, and I haven't been out since then. Looking out, the town seems clear now, and that's all I can really see from my flat.

[eveiya]

I think I'll ban all shameless and uncouth menopause flaunting from my LJ henceforth! :-D

This first episode of Human Planet was about probably vanishing or threatened traditional ways of making a living from the seas and oceans around the world, so in some respects quite depressing - also because some of the things they filmed people doing to survive involved extreme danger and hardship for little reward. I think there's strong anthropological/ethnographical element in all of Le Guin's writing; perhaps she was influenced in that by her father, who was a famous anthropologist.

It's looking like most of our snow's been rained away too now.

[eveiya]

I'm a Le Guin addict - The Left Hand of Darkness is probably my favourite book ever. The "strong religious stuff" in her novels is, I think, predominantly Taoist philosophy, sometimes mingled with some Native American traditions. There's a fairly interesting interview in The Guardian in which she says she arrived at her Taoism mainly through reading the ancient Taoist texts.

As someone who's almost always too cold, I look forward to the hot flashes!

[joyful_molly]

I'm struck with the flu and in bed (well, back there in two minutes, just waiting for my tea), but I'll drag myself from my grave tonight if you wish for some verbal arse-kicking or a chat. I know that state you're talking about, and it completely sucks rotten lemons. :-/

Edited because I posted before I was finished: ever thought about CIC? Everybody swears it's a thing of the devil, but it really improved my life quality enormously.

[eveiya]

I think you should probably stay firmly in your bed tonight, because it's highly likely that I'll be in mine! I don't think my current state has reached the level of suckitude just yet; it's more a kind of restless lethargy, where I can't really be bothered with anything much. I suspect it probably has quite a lot to do with the time of year.

So what's CIC? I've never even heard of it.

[__wilderness__]

I can't flaunt menopause at you, so I'm not banned :)

That said, that does suck. And that horrible disappointment/disgust with yourself is nasty. I hate that. But I don't know any miracle cures to stop that - if you find them out, let me know?

*hugs*

[eveiya]

I guess a kind of restless discontentment with myself and my life is my normal state, and that's OK - I wouldn't recognise myself any other way. However, I'd rather be dissatisfied with what I'm doing than with what I'm not doing, if you know what I mean. I almost wish right now I was more annoyed and disgusted with myself than I am, because that might be sufficient to goad me into action and snap me out of this lethargy, whereas this low-grade wangst isn't even strong enough to change anything.

The only “miracle cure” I know of is time - I've been in this kind of state, and far worse than this, often enough in my life that by now I know I will come out of it eventually. But with five weeks of this college block remaining, and all ten week's worth of work still to do, simply waiting it out this time could wreak a lot of havoc for me.

*hugs back*

[jaiden_s]

I don't have PMS, but I do have horrific periods that are only bearable with birth control pills and copious amounts of advil. I can't imagine PMS on top of that. D:

I'm actually looking forward to menopause, or as my doc calls it, "circling the drain." He has such a way with words.

[eveiya]

I think my actual periods are best described as short and sharp - quite a heavy blood flow with vicious cramps and tiredness for the first three days then tailing off quickly after that and over altogether within about five days. I guess that's fairly average? My normal cycle isn't 28 days but more like 24 or 25 days, though