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[honeybun]

You can find her books on Amazon. Self help for your Nerves is the one I have. They are old fashioned but it has been the one book for me that's helped.


And it only cost 99p 



Honeyb
x

[Kathleen]

Hello Unhinged and welcome to the forum (loving the name btw)

Like you I lurked for some time and found the site a great source of information and comfort, but being able to chat to all the other women who are going through the same thing is even better, it's good to talk!

I hope you find the regime that works for you and that you start feeling better soon.

Wishing you well and take care.

K.

P.S Can I ask how your Adrenal problem was diagnosed? I wonder if that is something us women of a certain age should be looking out for.

[SadLynda]

Hi Shirley, from a fellow sufferer.

Read all this great advice with interest, and a light at the end of the tunnel is just great.

Shirely, I know that 'unhinged' feeling all too well.

[Unhinged]

Hi Ladies, am sneakily posting from work - yeah work on a Sunday!
Thanks Honeybun, I am going to get Dr Weekes book, sometimes old-fashioned is best!

Hi SadLynda, sorry to ehar you're suffering too, I looked at your newbie post, yes the crying - it's so exhausting! I do understand if you're worried about HRT, I was too which is why I put it off; particularly as my grandmother died of breast cancer, but it got to the point where my quality of life is most important to me. Sounds really bad but I'd even sacrifice a few years to have some good ones. Personal choice everyone has to make I know.

Kathleen, thankyou for the welcome, yes doesn't it really make a difference when you can talk to others who are in the same leaky boat! With regards to the adrenal mass, they found this by chance. I have a hiatus hernia which causes GERD - the reflux was so bad I was waiting for an anti-reflux operation, but got so tired of waiting on the NHS that I saw a private consultant. He ordered a CT scan to make sure it wasn't something else causing my stomach discomfort, and the mass showed up on the scan. Lots of people get them apparently, and the chance of them being malignant is pretty low, but even when they are not malignant they can be what they call "active" and influence hormone levels in the body - too much or too little cortisol (stress!), adrenaline surges, amongst other things, and can cause Cushings disease. I am seeing an endocrinologist now who has done a variety of tests and I should get results by end of month. Because an adrenal mass is not rare, I do wonder if lots of people have them - particularly women over 50 - and don't realise it. They can cause as many problems as the meno hormones, and if any women are experiencing troubles - particularly where HRT is not helping, I think it is well worth checking out. A doctor can arrange tests for cortisol, and refer to an endocrinologist too, but I think they won't do it unless it's specifically requested - the expense of course! I hope that helps someone somewhere; it's not always the menopause that is totally responsible, as I may find out depending on my results.

[warwick01]

Hi unhinged

I too am really suffering with Anxiety which is really severe. I am 56 and was doing fine on Oestrogel with separate Prog. However, for almost a year now I have suffered to the point I have become almost agrophobic. I make any excuse not to go out, as I feel so ill, panic, dizziness, jelly legs ect. I was told I had become sensetised to the gel and it has stopped working as well. I have tried other HRT such as Everal, estrodot, but to no avail. I did however feel the anxiety improved on Angeliqu tablet. Unfortunatly at week 7 the depression it me like a ton of bricks, I couldn't get off the bed and had intrusive thoughts about dying (scared the crap out of me) gone back on the gel and the anxiety is back too.

I think to myself things will settle soon Funny thing I was reading a book this morning about Agrophobia and realised I had this when I had my daughter 39 years ago but never told anyone as I was only 18. I lived a secret life of panic, could not travel on pubic transport ect. Things improved after a few years of suffering.

p.s have never been able to take ad, they make me really ill

Wx

[Unhinged]

Hi Warwick,

Sorry to hear you're suffering too, I have never tried ADs, and this anxiety thing has come out of nowhere for me and it's quite a shock! I too am putting off social activities and I completely understand your phrase "I make any excuse not to go out, as I feel so ill" - that's hitting the nail right on the head, the affects from the anxiety are so much worse than the other meno symtoms and they really make me feel so unwell, every single day, jelly legs as you say, sometimes I feel like I'm going to collapse, shaking, gasping for breath and a constant geenral malaise like I have a bad virus. I keep thinking like you, hoping it'll settle soon.

"Intrusive thoughts about dying", yes I get those at my worse times, even thinking about the best and quickest way to do it - don't think I ever could, but the thought still comes in doesn't it? I am considering hypnotherapy to try to turn the negative thoughst around when they come.

You have given HRT a real good go, wonder if beta blockers or even valium might help as the other ladies have suggested, for the really bad moments. I'm going to look into this myself. I will try anything, and you've been suffering for so long. I have to do something because I can't risk my job, and at the moment I sometimes can't even bear to have a face to face conversation with someone, I just want to lock myself away on my own. It's good to talk with you and other ladies who know exactly what I mean.

[GypsyRoseLee]

Warwick01 it's very interesting that you say you also suffered with anxiety and agrophobia when your daughter was born, and that it went away after a few years.

Did you realise it was most probably post natal depression?

The only other time in my life that I have sufferered with anxiety like this was after my first baby was born. I was riddled with panic every day and irrationality anxious about stupid things. I was a complete mess. Scared of my own lovely baby. I took ADs but they made me feel robotic. In the end I stopped taking them when my daughter was 3. Felt better inside and never looked back until all this peri madness started 2 years ago.

[babyjane]

Hi unhinged and welcome.  Glad you are enjoying the forum already.  I have benefitted a lot from things I have read and learned and ladies I have talked to.  It has more to offer than a lot of things that taste nasty and come in bottles or blister packs 

[Unhinged]

Thanks very much for the welcome Babyjane, and yes the things that taste nasty (ha ha) and other medical stuff is just a part of the advice I've gained from here, I think just knowing I'm not the only one has been the biggest help I've benefitted on from this forum - how did our previous generations manage without the Internet and access to the support what we have on here?!

[dazned]

They didn't ! Years and years ago some women were committed to mental asylums ! Just awful. 

[Unhinged]

Hi Dazned, yes it's horrific isn't it, the things people were put in asylums for, it doesn't bear thinking about. Even my own mum didn't have any help except to be told she was agoraphobic and given sleeping tablets. I remember when I was a kid seeing her holding a breadknife to her wrist, I was not aware what was happening of course, but looking back she went through hell with her menopause. We don't all feel like it all the time, but we are so lucky.

[babyjane]

there have been quite a few times when I, feeling low and bothered about something trivial, have logged in only to find someone else talking about the very same thing.  It gives you a lift every time it happens.

I was scared of my mum when I was a child.  Now I am sure it is because she had a hysterectomy when she was 38 (as did I) but in those days there was no help or explanation given about the effects of hormones.  She was quite cross and irritable most of the time and I was always scared it was my fault.

[Unhinged]

I understand Babyjane, my mum was often irritable and cross like your mum was, I was always walking on eggshells, scared of saying the wrong thing because I didn't want to upset her. Now that she's gone, I so wish I had known what was happening so I could have helped somehow, just done something to make things easier for her  - though at a very young age I probably wouldn't have understood even if it was explained to me.  I feel gutted that she didn't have help and might have been scared and no help offered to her, except thank god for my Dad who really looked after her.

[babyjane]

I came to realise in later life that part of the problem was my father and our home situation (long boring story).  After he died she moved to live nearer to us and had a wonderful final 14 years of her life.  She became a lovely mum and nanny to our three children and it was so well deserved.  She had a rough time when I was young.

[Unhinged]

The start of the story doesn't sound so good Babyjane but that's lovely that she had a lot of good years with your family for the latter part of life. It's very hard to come to terms with bad stuff happening to your parents, particularly when it's outside your control; my mum had a terrible unbringing in the 1920s and 30s, she had a very cruel father and the archetypical wicked stepmother, the stories other family members told us about what they did to her makes my blood run cold. I find it hard to deal with sometimes, I'm so grateful my Dad came along to rescue her and was with her for over 50 years til the end. So at least both our mums had a happy ending!