Do ADD/ADHD symptoms get worse during PMS

[triple*eee]

I have not been offically diagnosed ,but I notice my symptoms getting much worse the week before my period starts.

Usually a day or two before I start, I have a hard time sleeping because when I close my eyes, it's like a fast forwarding movie. Everything is zipping thru my mind so fast, I have to sit up and turn the light on. It almost makes me physically sick.

Does this happen to anyone?

Denise

[AntyNet]

hi Denise!

I don't really notice any changes (abnormal) before my cycle starts. Sometimes I become feaverish (that is my "warning sign" that its about to start) the day before.

But that's just me. I'm sure you will get a lot of feedback here

-Anty

[Onwari]

I have been diagnosed with ADHD. ADHD symptoms are much worse for me about 4-5 days before. I am taking Wellbutrin for the PMS and it takes the edge off.

[Mariela]

What you describe about the fast forward movie happens to me too, but is due to my bipolar disorder, not my ADD.

[OUCourtney]

I find that right before my period, my attention seems to drag somewhat. I know women always talk about being emotional during PMS, but mine seems to be so extreme... do you think this maybe ADD related?

[Draga]

This term around I am so weak I want to do nothing but sleep and can't focus....DTTW (Dead to the World)

[Conlaw]

The week before my period, I am much more easily overwhelmed. And I am easily frustrated and impossibly impatient! Standing in line at the grocery store is agony . And pity the poor clerk who turns that stinkin' blinking light on and makes me wait I am also more distractible. Susan

[addwifey]

ADD definately exacerbates PMS symptoms! Mine is so severe that the first day of my period is actually a relief. For up to two weeks before, I can tell things are changing. My mood swings are constant and worsen as the day gets closer. I crave chocolate so bad that I raid the kids stashes. Concentration is nonexistant (worse than normal). Energy is low, should I go on?

[Vero]

YES!!!!!! I used to be a wreck the week BEFORE my period. My doctor & gyno agreed that it's because that's when your hormone levels start to fluctuate. Once I got on the right meds the PMS was much better.

[triple*eee]

Thanks everyone! I am currently in the throws of all that right now! I should be starting my period in the next day or two and I expect the racing fast forward thing to start any time.

I always get a severe migraine the day before I start or the day of. Only sleep will make it go away.

I heard that calcium helps with PMS symptoms and they say to up your calcium intake the week before you are to start. I've been doing that so we'll see.

Denise

[EYEFORGOT]

So how do you know if it's the ADD or a bipolar thing or a "just you" thing?

Thanks to meds I'm not impossible to live with (the emotional extremes are not too extreme and I save my antagonism for my posts here), but I want lots of chocolate and pastries, I want lots of hugs but my sex drive is actually lowered (that's hard to imagine with me, but yes, once in a while it happens), I don't sleep well, I'm so tired all day I don't accomplish hardly anything, my mind races like a mouse on his wheel and....don't let me scare you here...but I start talking to myself...a lot. And that is especially during PMS and the beginning of my period.

Maybe I do it because my mind is racing and I find it especially difficult to focus during this time. But I'd like to have a reason for it. A frontal lobe thing, a bipolar thing, a "it's not my own warped personality" thing. Anyone here a neurologist? Tell me it's hormones. Just tell me I'm not going crazy and don't tell me I already am, too late.

[ADDiVa]

Me, too!

Due to taking Prozac for my depression (in addition to Adderall XR), I think the emotional side of my PMS-beast is much better (but not gone).

But I find that once a month, I will pull an "all-nighter" and (usually) sit at the computer all night. Just can't sleep - too much going on in brain, too little time to myself. I can really accomplish things once everyone in my house is asleep - I know where they all are, they're presumably safe, I can dive into anything (taxes, emails, excessive self-soothing Spider Solitaire)...!

happy to be here!

[RhapsodyInBlue]

I just get all sleepy like a snake. Not nasty, just sleepy. But I crave foods I might not care about other times. PMS=me being very quiet. I AM more forgetful

[blueberrysoda2]

I get really tired and tense right before my period, yes. But I seem to get a weird POST menstrual syndrome where I also get tense, but in a wound up way. I get amxious and am more vulnerable to panickiness at that time. I can't relax or concentrate well either. I, too, have a mild form of bipolar and so I don't know if its the ADD or bpd. I think its the bpd just being effected by hormonal changes.

[adhdxyz]

I don't recall having PMS symptoms until after I got married and had kids. Every year it gets worse and worse. I am so moody my PMS week that I am surprised by husband and kids have not gotten a hideaway cottage to escape to until I give them the OK to come home.

I feel that my ADHD definitely contributes to my PMS.

At work, I had the office roommate from you know where. He was a big mouth bass, who coughed all day long, talked loud on the phone, cracked his knuckles, talked about baseball 24x7. During my PMS week, I am surprised he survived. (I am surprised I survived.) Everything MAJORLY got under my skin. I would wear big headphones to block him out. The position of his desk ticked me off because he put it right in the middle of alot of open space, which made the office look smaller than it was. I hated the picture he put on the wall. I hated the way he hung it on the wall. PMS mama. Luckily we changed offices and I now have a new wonderful roommate. He checks my calendar when he thinks I am PMSing so that he is forewarned. Too funny.

My ob-gyn started me on Tranxene (Clorazepate) a few years ago when I told him I was majorly stressed having an adhd son (medicated) and an add husband (self medicated). The Tranxene helped alot. I would only take half of one if at work otherwise I felt like I was a zombie drooling. At home, one was definitely a PMS helper.

Anyway, I started taking Adderal XR 20 mg in the morning on March 18. Believe it or not, the first week I was taking it ended up being my PMS week and I didn't even realize it until afterwards. The Adderal made a major difference.

When I started on Adderal, the doctor called the Tranxene a horse tranquilizar and said it was way too strong to take for PMS and that she could prescribe something else if needed. Hopefully I won't need anything. (I'm afraid to take the Tranxene now, but it definitely did the trick for PMS.)

Now this is scary. My 14 year old ADHD non-medicated daughter is pulling the "I'm PMSing" with me when I ask her why she is so moody and crabby. She even has taken my quote of "Leave me alone. I'm bleeding to death". (I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree....)