full moon

[duckduck]

Does anyone else become a moody, mad, irrational, irritable, man hating, short tempered, bloated, angry bitch when it is a full moon - not realising it is a full moon - and then cry, shout and be totally miserable? Then realise it happens around full moon?

I know in hosp having my babies there were more born, wards were busier and more heightened emotions around full moon but Im not sure if this is a midlife crisis, Im knackered or its just the flipping moon? Anyone else??

[fuzzypicklehead]

I'm glad somebody else posted about thisI've been cranky as hell-- somewhat moody today too, and feel like crap!

[duckduck]

if anyone does find a site or info on this then pls put a link on. There must be some relation between moon/mood/tide or something. I am no mystic meg and kinda disregard all that kind of astrostuff but there must be something. Sometimes it doesn't happen too badly and the affect isn't too bad but this has been properly desperately difficult. I just want to go and sit by the sea and be a self obsessed moron and that isn't the real me. And yes, feel like crap too - really physical as well as just mental.

[CaptChaos]

I always used to believe in the full moon/lunacy correlation as well, but apparently it is urban myth, no scientific basis at all.

There is this article which has links to learned ones which show no statistical basis for it. scienceline.org/2008/03/ask-grant-fullmoon/

[duckduck]

cool, that was interesting reading....and i only skimmed it and am going to go back to big dig tomorrow. I kind of get the gist of it that if you are feeling down/slightly unbalanced/life's shite then you seem to be more susceptible to feeling different when there is a full moon. However, Am going to look into it more and in the meantime go to bed feeling like total crap and hoping the sun shines tomorrow. urban myth/smoke/fire - god knows. I just know that this has been one hell of a bad mood sad crap weekend and those seem to happen more when the moon is big. May be a case of get over self.

[5madthings]

Oh is it a full moon today? That helps explain mine and the ds's behavior today, we have all been irritable and cranky.

Full moon effect is quite common I think, my midwife friend comments on it.

[MammaTJ]

I started my working life working in a big Victorian Psychiatric hospital. They would have extra staff on the day before, the night of and the day after the full moon and believe me, they were needed.

[duckduck]

5mad - how old is ds? I wondered if it was just a girl thing. Do boys get affected too - mine refused to go to see his dad this weekend and has been v moody. I thought he was just reacting to me.

[goodtoesnaughtytoes]

This makes sense. I've been snappy all weekend. But there are other things going on too soo could be a mixture- first day back at work tomorrow after 11 months maternity leave. First day sending 10 month old to nursery . Came on today. DP being annoying/living in a bubble grrr....

[CaptChaos]

Mamma me too, which is why I originally believed in it. However, it seems that ours and many others anecdotal evidence doesn't hold water. Came as a shock to me, I can tell you!

[duckduck]

so how come if hospitals and prisons are so affected is there no scientific whatsit to prove the correlation. If it means crime rates rise, divorce lawyers get richer, children hide under beds (and Im only talking about my house) then its puzzling that every time I have looked into it on the net it just seems inconclusive. bum, I wish I had worked harder - id have done a phd or something on it. There has got to be something somewhere. I don't seem to be the only one who goes nucking futs.

[WorraLiberty]

I think it's a load of Billy bollocks personally.

So when you're snappy at other times, what do you blame it on then?

A period
Lack of sleep
Stress
Financial worries
Or just a plain old bad mood
Low blood sugar

But when there's a full moon, people will blame it on that instead of any of the reasons in the list.

[CaptChaos]

Not a clue! duckduck

It might relate to expectations of behaviour though. Where we all 'gear up' for things to be worse on full moon nights, and so we interpret fairly run of the mill behaviour in a more extreme way.

It is counter intuitive, but there are large bodies of evidence which suggest that there is no such badger as full moon fever.

[duckduck]

hmmmm, which is why i have ignored for ages and thought Im full of crap for thinking it. but this is one of those times when all those things have happened to the extreme, im so not myself and then I find out it is a full moon.

I often get through vile periods, sleepless nights, stupid ijit man, no cash and lack of chocolate without wanting to commit suicide. Anyway, its good to know that there might be something somewhere and I can see the counter intuitive bit.

However, I talked to dh about it and he is now v pleased, wagging his tail and said "see, Ive done nothing wrong, its the moon". dontcha love em. grrrrrrrr. maybe IABU but I will keep a check on the calendar. maybe just apeshit crazy need to get off net and into bed.

[acsec]

'D'P has been unreasonable all day and in an horrendous mood. I have been super productive.

[redwellybluewelly]

Certainly our delivery unit is busier at full moon, all of our community midwives joke about it

And dd's sleep gets worse as well. And several mum friends have also mentioned full moon sleep issues.

[WorraLiberty]

I had someone quite 'Woo' on my FB years ago.

She'd post things like, "Oooh full moon, can you just feel the energy?"

And all her placebo affected mates would chime in and say "Yeah, it's ooozing"

Bless....

[MoominmammasHandbag]

I am in my late forties and, apart from a few years when I was on the pill, I have always started my period on the full moon. Even when my periods restarted after a break for pregnancy and breast feeding they quickly got into the same cycle. To be honest I always assumed this was quite normal hence the term " mooncup".
Consequently I am always at my peak of PMT madness just as the moon approaches its fullest. Anyone else like me?

[WorraLiberty]

No, the term 'mooncup' comes from the latin/greek words for monthly.

[MammaTJ]

CaptChaos, we know we are right!!

Worra, you seem unusually snippy tonight, is the full moon affecting you?

[Illgetmegoat]

Duckduck - I see you mentioned PMT and (although I joke along with others about full moon madness at work) I had a hormonal imbalance that made me feel and behave as you describe.
I could have an absolute stinker of a period but feel relatively normal, a bit weepy and wussy but no biggie, or I could have a 'fine' period and be ready to commit acts of heinous violence against the closest person for such foul crimes as standing where I need to stand, talking to me, not talking to me, breathing on me, or my particular favourite the night time 'the air is too dry, I'm too hot, no don't turn the fucking fan on because now the fucking air is too heavy on my fucking skin, are you a sadist? Seriously, are you trying to wind me up, no now the fan is blowing the covers and they're touching me' ad nauseum. I felt so bad sometimes I would just be in a heap and wanting to end it all. It was hit and miss period wise, not a reliable indicator sadly as maybe I would have felt more in control.
I can't take hormonal birth control, it made it worse which was awful, but I didn't realise that even without it I needed help to get to normal - once I was being treated it was magical - seriously I felt like a rational, in control person for the first time ever. Half of the time I was patient, tolerant, kind and a fun mummy, for 2 weeks around my period I was satan - now when I'm an arsehole, it's because of usual arsehole inducing things not this irrational, uncontrolable madness that made me feel like I wanted to die.
It's worth an ask maybe?
Or widdershins round a Birch copse at the virgin moon when there is fresh dew on the grass.

[duckduck]

That sounds exactly like me Illgetmegoat. Oh my goodness - it sounds exactly the same! What help did you get - when you say "once I was being treated". What you say sounds exactly like how I feel/behave. I am the same and go from supermummy to superbitch and walk round with my personal black cloud. What treatment and who did you ask - I presume a doc does a hormone test?

And I know this sounds totally crazy werewolf but why the hell sometimes does hair sprout where its not meant to and like Ive showered in Growmore? And then other times I don't need to shave legs or get the tweezers out - that would figure that it could be hormonal I suppose.
Thank you so much - that does sound a bit more plausible than howling at the moon...

[fuzzypicklehead]

I know anecdote doesn't = evidence, but... I do know a person who has epilepsy, and whose seizure activity spikes and intensifies at the full moon. The person isn't in a position to know or understand about lunar activity, so it isn't because of expectation on their part. All of the seizures have been documented for decades and at some point the medical staff realized the pattern of seizures clustered around the full moon. I found it interesting, anyway.

[Badvoc]

Get my period on a full moon.
I am a fucking delight to be around ATM.

[Illgetmegoat]

Duck - It will be a case of talking to your Dr about a blood test, they are likely to test for oestrogen, FSH, T4 and to see if it is due to a thyroid problem or an ovarian issue (it can also be pituitary but less likely) and what levels of hormones you have. Treatment will be dependant on this.

I had PCOS and struggled to lose weight, obesity is also a factor in hormonal imbalance as fat produces it's own hormone feedback that interferes with ovaries, HI can cause obesity so it's a nice catch 22!
I follow a holistic treatment to try and get the best effect as it was impacting my life so much - get enough sleep (this is tricky but always try when I can, DC not keen today though!), monitored my diet better, my calories weren't way off but I could and now do eat a better range of foods inc getting B vits, vit d, Iron and folic acid, lost weight and keep to an exercise regime (sigh) and although I said above I can't use hormonal bc that was a bit vague but I have pcos and endometriosis so have had a mix of tx and meds for that and other conditions so I'm a bit special lucky me!.
You may end up on hormone treatment it just depends whether it's thyroid hormone or similar to hrt/birth control progesterone only.

I won't lie it did seem like quite a shift after struggling with losing weight for so long, being very discouraged and feeling awful but it made such a difference for me that now it's just routine. It's nothing invasive or that leaves you feeling only mildly shit instead of completely shit iyswim! It's definitely worth a punt I reckon, it's not fair to you to feel like this when you could feel like yourself all the time. Even if it isn't at least it's a first step to getting rid.

EPIC POST! Apologies for the novella

[flow4]

Statistics describe what happens in groups, not for individuals. So when Worra (or anyone else) says there's 'no evidence' of a full moon effect, that means the population of women as a whole don't experience it, not that you personally don't.

Statistically, you'd expect 1/30 women to start their periods on the full moon, and 3/30 to start within a day of it, and 5/30 - i.e. a sixth of us - to start within 2 days of it. And since most of us (estimates suggest about 85%) experience some kind of hormonal effect - PMT, moodiness, etc. - then you'd expect about 1 in 7 or 8 women to start their periods around the full moon and feel affected by it, though only a smaller number will feel 'loony'.

The rest of us don't feel a full moon effect though, so statistically speaking, there's no effect even if you're climbing the curtains and baying at the moon