Does your mental severely health plummet right before or during your period?
TW: mention of suicidal ideation and self harm
Apologies if this isn't the right place to ask this question, but I'd just like to see if it's only me or if it's because of my period. Like many of us, my emotions become a bit more unstable during this time. I'm someone who has been diagnosed with clinical depression for over a decade and have been dealing with anxiety for nearly as long.
I've noticed over the past few years, starting in maybe 2021, that my periods have made me feel near suicidal. My mental health plummets so severely and I have bad episodes more often on my period than I used to. I'm 31 and have no idea what exactly has changed. Fortunately this isn't every month, but maybe every 2 or 3 cycles I feel like I want to die in a way that's alarming.
To be clear, I'm not actively suicidal and I don't participate in self harm. I just want to know if anyone else experiences this and if so, is there anything you do to help it? I take birth control pills and have been since I was 14, and in the times I haven't taken them I felt like my cramps and emotions were worse. I've been back on them consistently for a few years now but every now and then I fall back into that ugly darkness and it freaks me out. I hate that a biological part of myself is making me feel so low and I'm hoping I'm not a freak of nature for feeling that way.
Any advice or perspectives from anyone who might go through the same thing would be appreciated. Thank you for taking the time to read this.