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Industrial strength DREAD!
| I never knew
menopause included scary moments like that, I was coping well with
hot flashes, and some sleeplessness by eating a lot less and exercising
more and taking my vitamins, all was going very well - until the DREAD. |
A few months ago I walked into my living room with a cup of tea and a
book. All was well in my world and I was going to sit and read for a bit.
Suddenly, a surge of adrenalin let me know that something terrible had
happened, and that I had to rush somewhere, for something extremely important.
I quickly put the cup of tea and book down and started freaking out. What was wrong? I could barely take stock of events in order to figure
out that NOTHING WHATSOEVER was wrong. It took me quite awhile to concentrate
and think about each person in my life, and think about what they were
doing, that they were OK and that there was no emergency.
It felt like I was ignoring some matter of life or death, so it became
a full blown panic attack even as I was trying to calm myself down and
reason with myself. I felt at that moment the kind of panic and craziness
one feels when a close loved one has suddenly died--I felt like I was
falling off the world. This only lasted 20 minutes at most, but it was
forceful, and it scared me. I didn't tell anyone as I thought it might
be some mental illness creeping into my life. I ran into a woman, a stranger,
a month later. We started talking about everything, which was odd, as
she was a stranger, but we just "clicked". She was a year older
than me and I asked her about menopause. She described a panic attack
exactly like the one I had, and I said "OH! That exact same thing
happened to me!"
I was so RELIEVED to know where that industrial strength feeling of DREAD
had come from. HORMONES! I never knew menopause included scary moments
like that, I was coping well with hot flashes, and some sleeplessness
by eating a lot less and exercising more and taking my vitamins, all was
going very well--until the DREAD. Now I know that IF it happens again,
I will just sit down and wait for it to pass, rather than freak out and
have it ruin my week worrying about it.
I remember when I was pregnant - at 5 mos. I could not read the newspaper
or watch TV news without sobbing hysterically. Every bad thing that happened
just put me in despair. This despair only lasted a few weeks (and I never
told anyone about it, figuring it had to do with being pregnant). But
the way I got wound up so fast, I never forgot about it! I have never
had PMS, so I consider myself lucky.
Dee
For more information about progesterone and/or Anxiety:
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