Living with PMDD is like having the Grim Reaper visit every month
Key takeaways
- Ruth Clegg Health and wellbeing reporter Annika Annika has had premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) for more than eight years Warning: This article contains discussion of suicide.
- "Did I really do that?" she asked her sister, who had hugged Annika close to keep her safe as she slept off an attempted overdose.
- "How can my hormones do this to me?" she asks.
Why this matters: a developing story that could shape the day's news cycle.
Ruth Clegg Health and wellbeing reporter Annika Annika has had premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) for more than eight years Warning: This article contains discussion of suicide. The morning after she tried to end her life, Annika Waheed's period started. The feelings of despair left her and the "weight of the world", as she describes it, lifted.
"Did I really do that?" she asked her sister, who had hugged Annika close to keep her safe as she slept off an attempted overdose.
Annika would spend two weeks of every month haunted by suicidal thoughts, and then, like the flick of a switch, the darkness would dissipate as soon as she started her period and she would "be able to see and function again".