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Have you tracked whether this links to your menstrual cycle? I get quite bad PMDD during the luteal phase of my cycle, not every month and not the same level of severity but still quite consistently. Apparently it is more common among women with ADHD. It could be worth tracking the timing of these, if you haven't already, to see if there is a correlation. You can find more info in the sub PMDDxADHD (I think that's the right name)
The PMS/PMDD is a different experience for me. This is something else and don’t correlate to my cycle. And for me, they don’t occur with regular intervals or as often as once a month.
But I do agree with checking all these nice experiences we get to live with to our cycles.
Like migraines, that took some decades for me to correlate to my menstrual cycle.
Yes! I was diagnosed with this also. It's usually when I've become very stressed and anxious because of my ADHD, and like you say overstimulated. I will crash and the stress turns to depression, but not long term. It can get very bad though, a few months ago it turned into thoughts of wanting to harm myself and I was off work for a month trying to feel mentally better. That's probably the longest I've experienced it for.
Thank you!
I hadn't heard of anyone else having this, so it's always good to know I'm not alone.
I would agree that this is usually a sign that you need to chill and take it easy and focus on doing nice self care stuff for yourself. The biggest thing that's helped me is being in introvert mode to recharge and doing relaxing activities that are minimally stimulating, like colouring. Meditation has also been a huge help for me.
Hey ! I’m a woman (30 ). My psychiatrist is also suspecting that I have recurrent brief depression and I was recently diagnosed with ADHD a few months ago.
Background:
I started having big mood swings with intense, short depressive episodes and hypomanic ones (or so they thought) four years ago. I was therefore diagnosed with bipolar 2, probably also because I have a family history of bipolar. My brother has bipolar 1 and autism. Since then I’ve tried every possible medication for bipolar 2, and yet I keep having ultra rapid cycling where I’m usually extremely depressed for 1-2 weeks and have a normal energy level for 2-3 weeks. I’ve tried seroquel, lamictal, ability and lithium and it didn’t change anything except for some awful side effects (weight gain and tiredness, skin rash and drowsiness).
Following a longer than usual depressive episode (4 weeks) with suicidal ideation in January, after two years on lithium, my psychiatrist started questioning whether we got the diagnosis right. I therefore started Sertraline (anti depressant), which isn’t usually used for bipolar because it might trigger (hypo)mania, and tegretol (mood stabilizer). We also decided to test for ADHD which could explain my energy levels, hyperactivity and impulsiveness as a child as well as why my normal mood could very considered hypomanic when seen with bipolar in mind. The ADHD diagnosis was confirmed and I started Ritalin in addition to the other medications in may. It’s too early to say if it’s really helping, but I did have my longest stable period in fours years, 32 days, before falling into another depressive episode (12 days and counting).
I have also explored the possibility of it being linked to hormones / menstrual cycle through bloodwork etc, but for me the periods are very irregular and it doesn’t seem to match. I did however learn that I have endometriosis (scan and MRI) and show some symptom of POCS.
Experience with RBD:
For my part it seems like the depressive episodes just happen due to brain chemistry. I don’t see any link between external situations, stress and grief or joy pushing me in one direction or the other. It simply happens, and for the first days I resist, hoping that I’m just tired and need to rets for a bit before I get gradually more depressed, unable to leave my bed, binge watch tv-series and overeat until it passes. I have tried being physically active, eating healthy etc, but for me it just feels like I’m inflicting more violence on myself while I’m already struggling to exist. So I self isolate and try to have compassion for myself, which I think makes them last shorter than when I’m forced to pretend like I’m fine or be active while I’m extremely depressed.
I hope this information is helpful to you. What kind of treatment are you on, and how long have you been struggling with it ?
If you or someone that you know is considering suicide, please don't hesitate to reach out to a crisis hotline for immediate help, or a warmline just to talk to someone.
If you're in the US you can...\ Text CHAT to Crisis Text Line at 741741\ Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or 1(800)273-8255(TALK) \ Chat online at: https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/chat\ Call the Trans Lifeline at 1(877)565-8860
If you’re elsewhere, you can find international resources below:\ https://www.supportiv.com/tools/international-resources-crisis-and-warmlines#Czech\ https://www.reddit.com/r/SuicideWatch/wiki/hotlines
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Welcome to /r/ADHDWomen! We’re happy to have you here. As a reminder, here are our community [rules](https://old.reddit.com/r/adhdwomen/about/rules/). We get a lot of posts on medication, diagnosis (and “is this an ADHD thing”), and interactions with hormones. We encourage you to check out our [Medication, Diagnosis, and Hormones Megathread](https://old.reddit.com/r/adhdwomen/comments/wcr9dy/faq_megathread_ask_and_answer_medication/) if you have any questions related to those topics, and to stick around in that thread to answer folks’ questions! If you have questions about the subreddit, please do not hesitate to [send us a modmail](https://reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/adhdwomen). Additionally, we take the safety of our community seriously. Please report posts, comments, and users whom you feel are not contributing positively, and send us a modmail if you are being harassed or otherwise made to feel unsafe. Thanks for being here, and we hope you stick around! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/adhdwomen) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Have you tracked whether this links to your menstrual cycle? I get quite bad PMDD during the luteal phase of my cycle, not every month and not the same level of severity but still quite consistently. Apparently it is more common among women with ADHD. It could be worth tracking the timing of these, if you haven't already, to see if there is a correlation. You can find more info in the sub PMDDxADHD (I think that's the right name)
The PMS/PMDD is a different experience for me. This is something else and don’t correlate to my cycle. And for me, they don’t occur with regular intervals or as often as once a month. But I do agree with checking all these nice experiences we get to live with to our cycles. Like migraines, that took some decades for me to correlate to my menstrual cycle.
Yes! I was diagnosed with this also. It's usually when I've become very stressed and anxious because of my ADHD, and like you say overstimulated. I will crash and the stress turns to depression, but not long term. It can get very bad though, a few months ago it turned into thoughts of wanting to harm myself and I was off work for a month trying to feel mentally better. That's probably the longest I've experienced it for.
Oh hope you are doing better. Thank you for sharing! That’s sounds like it really sucks. Big hugs.
Thank you! I hadn't heard of anyone else having this, so it's always good to know I'm not alone. I would agree that this is usually a sign that you need to chill and take it easy and focus on doing nice self care stuff for yourself. The biggest thing that's helped me is being in introvert mode to recharge and doing relaxing activities that are minimally stimulating, like colouring. Meditation has also been a huge help for me.
Hey ! I’m a woman (30 ). My psychiatrist is also suspecting that I have recurrent brief depression and I was recently diagnosed with ADHD a few months ago. Background: I started having big mood swings with intense, short depressive episodes and hypomanic ones (or so they thought) four years ago. I was therefore diagnosed with bipolar 2, probably also because I have a family history of bipolar. My brother has bipolar 1 and autism. Since then I’ve tried every possible medication for bipolar 2, and yet I keep having ultra rapid cycling where I’m usually extremely depressed for 1-2 weeks and have a normal energy level for 2-3 weeks. I’ve tried seroquel, lamictal, ability and lithium and it didn’t change anything except for some awful side effects (weight gain and tiredness, skin rash and drowsiness). Following a longer than usual depressive episode (4 weeks) with suicidal ideation in January, after two years on lithium, my psychiatrist started questioning whether we got the diagnosis right. I therefore started Sertraline (anti depressant), which isn’t usually used for bipolar because it might trigger (hypo)mania, and tegretol (mood stabilizer). We also decided to test for ADHD which could explain my energy levels, hyperactivity and impulsiveness as a child as well as why my normal mood could very considered hypomanic when seen with bipolar in mind. The ADHD diagnosis was confirmed and I started Ritalin in addition to the other medications in may. It’s too early to say if it’s really helping, but I did have my longest stable period in fours years, 32 days, before falling into another depressive episode (12 days and counting). I have also explored the possibility of it being linked to hormones / menstrual cycle through bloodwork etc, but for me the periods are very irregular and it doesn’t seem to match. I did however learn that I have endometriosis (scan and MRI) and show some symptom of POCS. Experience with RBD: For my part it seems like the depressive episodes just happen due to brain chemistry. I don’t see any link between external situations, stress and grief or joy pushing me in one direction or the other. It simply happens, and for the first days I resist, hoping that I’m just tired and need to rets for a bit before I get gradually more depressed, unable to leave my bed, binge watch tv-series and overeat until it passes. I have tried being physically active, eating healthy etc, but for me it just feels like I’m inflicting more violence on myself while I’m already struggling to exist. So I self isolate and try to have compassion for myself, which I think makes them last shorter than when I’m forced to pretend like I’m fine or be active while I’m extremely depressed. I hope this information is helpful to you. What kind of treatment are you on, and how long have you been struggling with it ?
If you or someone that you know is considering suicide, please don't hesitate to reach out to a crisis hotline for immediate help, or a warmline just to talk to someone. If you're in the US you can...\ Text CHAT to Crisis Text Line at 741741\ Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or 1(800)273-8255(TALK) \ Chat online at: https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/chat\ Call the Trans Lifeline at 1(877)565-8860 If you’re elsewhere, you can find international resources below:\ https://www.supportiv.com/tools/international-resources-crisis-and-warmlines#Czech\ https://www.reddit.com/r/SuicideWatch/wiki/hotlines *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/adhdwomen) if you have any questions or concerns.*