Hi everyone!
As someone who is currently struggling really badly with what I'm assuming are menopausal symptoms, I'm hoping I've finally found a place I can come to where I can actually talk about them, and not feel like I'm going crazy! I'm 51 years old, and I'm an author, so I spend a lot of time on my own, which isn't always a good thing. It certainly doesn't feel like it right now. I also have a tendancy to overthink things/bottle things up/not talk about things I probably should be talking about, and with my anxiety levels through the roof at the moment, everything just feels a little overwhelming.
I honestly thought I would sail through the menopause because, at first, it was just the hot flushes I seemed to be experiencing, and I can deal with those. They're not affecting me at all, but the anxiety... It's hit me like a bolt out of the blue, and that's what I'm really struggling with right now. I'm tearful all the time, my concentration is shot to pieces, which isn't great when you're trying to write books! And because I spend so much time on my own, the loneliness is starting to kick in, and, well, I'm just hoping that I can at least find people here who can, hopefully, understand what I'm going through. Because I'm finding it so hard to get to grips with the changes the menopause seems to be throwing at me, which does nothing to help the anxiety.
Anyway, I just wanted to say hi, and to introduce myself. A fellow author I'm friends with on Facebook told me about this forum, and what a friendly and helpful place it is, so, I've bitten the bullet and finally started reaching out to others who just might be feeling the same way as me - isolated, anxious, and just in need of others to talk to, because I don't really have that, to be honest.