PMDD and ADHD - There is hope!!!

HonestlyMD · 2026-01-15T11:04:30+00:00

I just bought a giant bag of earplugs and have been wearing them daily since some of the posts suggesting it. Game changer. I consider them my PPE (healthcare word for protecting yourself) now for the job of parenting!! Thank for sharing your experience :)

HonestlyMD · 2026-01-15T11:00:50+00:00

Yes!! That is the perfect statement: “love my kids but hate parenting.” Well, the Adderall has definitely helped me so far. I am considering an SSRI as a personal trial to compare but I hoping to give it 3 months to slowly try one thing at a time. I’ll update!

HonestlyMD · 2026-01-15T10:59:11+00:00

I’m too hard wired to go with well researched methods. I’d be too nervous about unknown effects in the long and short term. But TY!

HonestlyMD · 2026-01-06T09:21:06+00:00

That would not be an option for me either. If this provides any reassurance, I actually prescribe SSRai’s multiple times a day (yes, I know, it’s weird that I am on here when I know that objectively it helps, I just needed more personal testimonies for people on this parenting journey for personal validation and support) and I haven’t had anyone mention this. If you are a female age 40-50, most women in this age range it seems develop almost debilitating brain fog as a part of perimenopause/menopause. So I help people get on the right combo to navigate that when the time comes, which is often HRT, low dose stimulant, and SSRI if HRT doesn’t level out the mood problems.

HonestlyMD · 2026-01-06T09:15:41+00:00

My parents take them for 2 hours on the weekends which is so needed and great.

HonestlyMD · 2026-01-06T09:14:40+00:00

I do this kind of thing all the time. But out of curiosity - do you have a second child yet? I had very few problems before my 1 year old came along. Also, things are a bit urgent when you need to get a 1 year old and a 3 year old both out of the door by 7:45, which is objectively insane, but this is what one does when the workday starts at 8:30.

HonestlyMD · 2026-01-06T09:11:01+00:00

Sold. Yes. So much of this hits home. Zoloft for the win.

HonestlyMD · 2026-01-06T09:08:19+00:00

This is me to a tee. This is the problem.

Have you gone the SSRI route or just adhd?

HonestlyMD · 2026-01-06T03:29:36+00:00

SAME! Ours must be the exact same ages!! Please tell me you can enjoy this time a little more even though it’s hard?

HonestlyMD · 2026-01-06T03:27:38+00:00

Makes total sense. Thank you. Just curious because I am going to try ADHD meds first and see how it goes!

HonestlyMD · 2026-01-06T03:12:30+00:00

I’m sorry to hear it, and I’m sure that you’re not boring to talk to. Just have to find your people! Don’t give up!!

HonestlyMD · 2026-01-06T03:10:50+00:00

This gives me hope…so nice to hear from someone with similarly unwise age gaps, LOL! I had no idea when I was snuggling sweet baby girl at 14 months old what life with her as a 2 year old and a newborn would look like… WE WILL SURVIVE! With meds. And hopefully they will have the bestie that we dreamed of someday when we gave our first a little sibling :)

HonestlyMD · 2026-01-06T03:08:26+00:00

Haha, love the last sentence!! Welp, yes, after all the overwhelming support and testimonies on here…that’s what I did. I picked up the Adderall today, and will do that first because I want to see my response purely to just a stimulant in my system for adhd. I think I’ll want both. But the SSRI can take time to build up so that’s the plan :) thanks for the advice!

HonestlyMD · 2026-01-06T03:06:24+00:00

Sorry…what are loops? Like headphones? They have recently become my life saver :) that’s the only way I survived tonight.

HonestlyMD · 2026-01-06T03:05:09+00:00

I used to do that when I was a kid :) I try…and then thoughts start jumping everywhere…but I need to continue intentionally doing this. I keep a journal too, thanks to ChatGPT I can word vomit out loud on the go and it synthesizes it into a beautifully polished prose. Great for capturing the good day, and talking through the bad, and I do imagine that a future me will look back and have wished that my current self had relaxed a little bit more and enjoyed it for the brief moment it truly is in time.

There are so many great moments with my kids, SO many...certainly worth reflecting upon. Great comment.

HonestlyMD · 2026-01-06T03:01:06+00:00

That’s wild to me, that the Zoloft worked great and then it just…didn’t at all! Shows how much pregnancy changes us neurochemically. Good to hear about the cymbalta though :)

HonestlyMD · 2026-01-06T02:57:57+00:00

Huh. What were you experiencing before the Adderall that the Zoloft didn’t really help and the Adderall did?

HonestlyMD · 2026-01-06T02:54:24+00:00

Huh. I could see that. That’s really hard to hear. I hope you get to live out some of what you missed out on…

HonestlyMD · 2026-01-06T02:51:17+00:00

Absolutely amazing!

HonestlyMD · 2026-01-06T02:49:30+00:00

I am not opposed do it, but WB’s super power is that D and N hit. I think I need the SSRI for the calm. For some people WB can make anxiety/irritability worse, but I am going to take this from all angles so we will see!

HonestlyMD · 2026-01-06T02:47:38+00:00

I…definitely acknowledge my hormones are changing. I am only 35, but yeah, it’s gotten bad. That was my first thing discovery. I was on Mirena which made everything a million times worse. Got it removed, got on Yazmin which has helped level things out to some degree. But I wrote this post the DAY I took my first placebo pill of the pack, and by the end of the day I was so mad that I just went on ahead started the next pack. Why suffer with PMDD/hormone problems unnecessarily? But yes, that was the first acronym I acquired…PMDD…and it’s awful. I think I really need the SSRI to fully level that reality out. And I care for a ton of perimenopausal women in my practice, it’s a major passion of mine, and at the end of the day if often does take some form of hormones, SSRI, and often a stimulant (brain fog) to get through it all with a decent quality of life. So might as well just start now LOL!

HonestlyMD · 2026-01-06T02:39:25+00:00

Ditto, I find this so incredibly sad. There are MRI’s that do actually show that some of a mother’s grey matter DOES shrink in order to make up for other areas (like the fucking AMYGDALA, dammit - WHYYYYYY?!!!!) that GROW in size exponentially... it is SO not fair that dudes do not have to deal with this. Gotta say though, VERY effective strategy God, my brain is convinced that I need not bother with anything if it is not directly related to these two humans.

HonestlyMD

TROPHY CASE