Can Menstrual Period Cause Anxiety?

Please share this one!

… Continued …

Menstrual period may put some women at greater chance of getting chronic changes in serotonin and developing low levels of serotonin.

And since there are some cells of the brain that use serotonin as a messenger are also involved in regulating mood, this may be the answer of why some women can experience excessive feeling of anxious before or during menstruation.

If you have anxiety before or during period – how to improve it naturally?

In general, the appropriate lifestyle changes and strategies that can improve the symptoms of premenstrual syndrome also can help relieve symptoms of PMDD, including for anxiety.

The following are some lifestyle approaches you can follow to help treat and improve anxiety.

Exercise

Boosting your physical activity can help improve you mood and release stress, particularly true if you are a sedentary individual. It also can help improve other symptoms of PMS such as cramps, bloating, and constipation.

However exercise is not just moving your body physically. To get the most health benefit of exercise, you need to do it regularly.

Furthermore, make sure to do it moderately – excessive exercise can be counterproductive!

What are things you need to avoid?

The following factors are often reported can worsen anxiety [5]:

  1. Sedatives such as alcohol, especially if you consume it excessively.
  2. Chewing tobacco, such as smoking (cigarette smoking). Nicotine with caffeine can make anxiety get worse.
  3. Poor in sleep. Sleep deprivation can be bad for your stress control.

Relaxation therapies

There are some relaxations therapies that can help boost your mood and control your stress better. Visit this page to explore some relaxation therapies that meet to your body needs!

A healthy-& well-balanced diet!

Don’t forget to your diet! It may not help as significant as other steps mentioned before in improving anxiety. But with appropriate diet, it can help relieve other symptoms of PMS or PMDD.

In general, experts often recommend women with PMS or PMDD to avoid /restrict the following foods:

  1. Foods high in salt /sodium.
  2. Refined sugar.
  3. Beverages high in caffeine.
  4. Fatty, fried, or other unhealthy processed foods.

Focusing your diet with fish (high in omega-3 fatty acids), whole grains, fresh fruits, and vegetables may help improve anxiety – though this idea has not well established, more research is required!

Sometime, doctors may also recommend supplements of vitamin E, vitamin B6, magnesium, and calcium to help ease some symptoms of PMS or PMDD [4].

When medical intervention is needed?

Sometime, the lifestyle approaches alone doesn’t work – particularly for cases of severe anxiety. Therefore, sometime medication intervention is required!

Counseling can be a part of major treatment plan. In this session, a health professional can help you to explore the trigger factors of your anxiety and find the most effective steps to cope with the problem.

And for medications, antidepressants (such as and Zoloft, Sarafem, or Paxil CR – these medicines have been approved by the FDA) are some common medicines prescribed by doctors to help treat symptoms of PMDD such as severe anxiety.

For in-depth information, consult more with a doctor – particularly if your anxiety doesn’t improve and get worse!

Citations /references:

  1. www.webmd.com/anxiety-panic/guide/mental-health-anxiety-disorders
  2. www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/premenstrual-syndrome/basics/symptoms/con-20020003
  3. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/007193.htm
  4. http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/premenstrual-dysphoric-disorder
  5. http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/anxiety/basics/lifestyle-home-remedies/con-20026282

All of these citations accessed on Jan 2014

.

Please Leave a Few Words

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *