Life WILL be better. Promise.
While I was staring at my computer screen yesterday at work, typing in a prescription, my eyes suddenly started to well up and within seconds I had tears waterfalling down my cheeks.
"What happened?" you ask.
"Absolutely nothing," I respond. "It's just a weepy mood swing."
I can't stop them. They sneak up on me at the most inopportune moments and any attempts on my part to squelch them are impossible. I am not sad. I have not had an emotional encounter. I am just as I was seconds before.
But my damn hormones don't know that.
I'll be honest: puberty sucked. I wasn't able to go a day without raging, crying, or thinking the world would be better off without me. I can truly say that it was without doubt the worst time of my life. When my pubescent hormones finally regulated though, life was better.
Cut to childbirth. I had one day of postpartum depression, but it was a doozy. I talked myself down from the ledge ( metaphorically!) and realized if something happened to me, my daughter would be left motherless. Not a happy thought. Nor was the idea my husband would remarry and provide her with an evil stepmother ala Sleeping Beauty. But I got through it and when I came out on the other end, life was better.
Switch to present day and menopause. The mood swings have no rhyme, reason, or thought behind them. They just come on, hitting like a freight train jackhammering down the tracks, hell bent on emotional destruction. Nothing can or does stop them. When I start to feel them trying to escape I usually go to a quiet place and just be with myself until they pass. It's not that I'm embarrassed by them - I'm too honest about this time in my life to suffer embarrassment - but I just don't want to be a Debbie-downer to all those around me whether it's at work or home. Let's face it: we smile when we see other people smile and we get depressed when we see other people are sad or hurting. It's a fact of human beings that we are empathic to the emotions of others. I never want to be the intentional cause of someone's sadness, only their joy and happiness.
Now, isolation works for me. But chocolate, a glass of wine, or even throwing yourself into a social set might work for you to help alleviate these negative and swirling moods. I firmly believe that whatever works for YOU is what you should do, not listen and take to heart what works for someone else.
But one thing I promise: when you get through the looking glass craziness, life will be better.
"What happened?" you ask.
"Absolutely nothing," I respond. "It's just a weepy mood swing."
I can't stop them. They sneak up on me at the most inopportune moments and any attempts on my part to squelch them are impossible. I am not sad. I have not had an emotional encounter. I am just as I was seconds before.
But my damn hormones don't know that.
I'll be honest: puberty sucked. I wasn't able to go a day without raging, crying, or thinking the world would be better off without me. I can truly say that it was without doubt the worst time of my life. When my pubescent hormones finally regulated though, life was better.
Cut to childbirth. I had one day of postpartum depression, but it was a doozy. I talked myself down from the ledge ( metaphorically!) and realized if something happened to me, my daughter would be left motherless. Not a happy thought. Nor was the idea my husband would remarry and provide her with an evil stepmother ala Sleeping Beauty. But I got through it and when I came out on the other end, life was better.
Switch to present day and menopause. The mood swings have no rhyme, reason, or thought behind them. They just come on, hitting like a freight train jackhammering down the tracks, hell bent on emotional destruction. Nothing can or does stop them. When I start to feel them trying to escape I usually go to a quiet place and just be with myself until they pass. It's not that I'm embarrassed by them - I'm too honest about this time in my life to suffer embarrassment - but I just don't want to be a Debbie-downer to all those around me whether it's at work or home. Let's face it: we smile when we see other people smile and we get depressed when we see other people are sad or hurting. It's a fact of human beings that we are empathic to the emotions of others. I never want to be the intentional cause of someone's sadness, only their joy and happiness.
Now, isolation works for me. But chocolate, a glass of wine, or even throwing yourself into a social set might work for you to help alleviate these negative and swirling moods. I firmly believe that whatever works for YOU is what you should do, not listen and take to heart what works for someone else.
But one thing I promise: when you get through the looking glass craziness, life will be better.
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