Telling family
and friends
By Ben Jonas Goedeke · 3 min read · checked against its sources
The people close to you feel the hard week too. Explaining it once, calmly, spares everyone a lot of guessing.
Choose a good day
Talk when you feel well enough to listen as well as explain. Keep it simple: what happens, roughly when, and that it passes.
Use kind words about yourself
Describe it as a real condition you are looking after, not as you being difficult. Mention your strengths as well as the hard part. How you talk about it shapes how they will.
With children
Children need honesty at their level. For young ones, short and simple: "I am feeling sad right now. It is not because of anything you did. I need a little time to rest." Older children can hear more, including that it is real and that there is help for it.
Whatever their age, reassure them that you are, and will be, okay.
Ask for one thing
Give each person something they can actually do: taking over dinner, a quiet evening, a walk together. Specific help is easier to give.
Keep the record your doctor needs. Tideline is a period and mood tracker for iPhone: write one sentence a day, and after two cycles it puts the week before your period next to the week after it starts. Free to track, no account.
Get Tideline on the App Store
Keep reading
Sources
- IAPMD: Talking with kids
- IAPMD: What is PMDD?