Anxiety

It seems a stretch to start talking about anxiety in a discussion of a physical syndrome, but I don’t think the link is as much of a stretch as it sounds.

In fact the logic of it is pretty obvious: we’re all familiar with the effect of hormones on mood and behaviour, both in teenagers and in women.

Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS) is widely accepted as a phenomenon which affects most women from time to time. PMS affects individual women to a lesser or greater extent – some don’t get it at all. In my case, I get it only occasionally, perhaps a couple of times a year.

Despite being relatively unaffected by PMS, I suffer from tremendous anxiety, especially if I have a shock or if I don’t take my medication. It’s like the worst feeling of doom you've ever experienced and it can occur at any time of the month. Untreated, it can last and last. In my case, I'm most susceptible at night, and more susceptible still in the 3-4 days before my period starts.

Hormones control everything about us – they have a terrific effect on our mood, general disposition, and it could be argued that feelings of love, lust, fear, hatred are all emotions in response to hormone release. In particular, a disturbance of the adrenals will have a very real effect on emotions and general sense of well-being.

In my case, it’s an unavoidable feeling in the pit of your stomach that things are insurmountable – I’ve gone from being completely happy and contented one day, to terrifically anxious the next, perceiving problems in pretty much every aspect of my life be it financial, social, to do with my relationship, to do with my weight (of course!), my work commitments and on several occasions I’ve even felt as though I should end it all. One night recently I lay awake in a state of nervous anxiety even though I had absolutely nothing at all to be worried about - I couldn't even think of a reason to invent to get worried about!

Like other symptoms of the disease, the effects are cumulative putting the body and mind on high alert constantly, primally sensing danger everywhere, and instead just becoming extremely anxious about things that one would normally take in your stride.

Why this Happens

Anxiety in our case is caused by chemical disturbance: overproduction of adrenaline and cortisol (particularly) are designed to make us more alert, receptive to signs of danger: anxious for good reason and helpful when we are being chased by a sabre-toothed tiger, less helpful when we safe in our beds and should be sleeping or sitting in your own living room reading a magazine!

Furthermore low levels of estrogen are known to affect mood generally, this is widely accepted. As I've explained elsewhere on the blog, when insulin is too high, estrogen and progesterone too low.

What to do about it

High levels of insulin, and the hyper response to carbohydrates leads to levels of cortisol and adrenaline also rising so it's helpful to restrict carbohydrates. If the anxiety is happening at night, restricting carbohydrates in your evening meal and eating early enough that the body has finished processing your dinner well before retiring to bed is very useful

As the effects are cumulative, I'm afraid just modifying your behaviour for one day won't cut it: the effects build up over time. Modifying stress levels long-term, establishing patterns of behaviour which affect the entirety of the syndrome will inevitably drive anxiety levels downwards.