Schizoaffective Disorder Plus Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder

Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) is the first major mood disorder I suffered from as a kid. However, I did develop early symptoms of bipolar disorder as a teen as well, and that later led to schizoaffective disorder, bipolar type. Premenstrual dysphoric disorder is a very extreme form of what is commonly known as premenstrual syndrome (PMS). Untreated, I don’t have minor bouts of irritability or sadness during my period--I have full-on depression accompanied by suicidal thoughts. The way I treat my PMDD is with birth control pills.

Maybe it’s my schizoaffective anxiety or even paranoia, but I’m honestly afraid my right to birth control might be taken away now that Roe vs. Wade has been overturned. Let’s just say there are some people on the U.S. Supreme Court who worry me. But, for now, I have my birth control, so I guess I’ll cross that next bridge when I come to it. I hope voting can keep that from ever happening.

Years Leading Up to Schizoaffective Disorder, Bipolar Type with PMDD

Allow me to flesh out the story of getting PMDD as a pre-teen and, later, bipolar disorder. I got my first period at 10, and I first suffered from depression around the age of 12. But I was quite manic at the age of 11, and it felt great, so I didn’t complain to anyone. It turned out I had a great figure (to which I later bid farewell after a few years of being on an antipsychotic,) and I showed off my body with tank tops and miniskirts. My mom didn’t mind; she thought I looked great, a teen of the '60s who wore miniskirts herself. I was enamored with the '60s, right down to my music tastes: the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and Janis Joplin, to name a few. I liked to wear my mom’s vintage fashions.

What triggered my depressive episode when I was 12 was that a friend accused me of having made a potentially racist comment about a character in a TV show. I didn’t mean it that way. I didn’t ever want to be racist. But I didn’t defend myself, and just from having made what someone else considered an insensitive comment, I plummeted into a depression, right in time for my paternal grandfather’s death and the whole family plummeting into sadness.

I had similar ups and downs all through adolescence that culminated in a schizoaffective psychotic episode when I was in college.

I don’t use birth control to treat my schizoaffective disorder but for other symptoms. But my schizoaffective disorder makes my PMDD worse. My birth control helps a lot with my PMDD, and I don’t want to give it up. Hopefully, I, and millions of other women, won’t have to.