Severe PMS - treated with anti-depressants..?

[Mij]

I started a thread here:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/feeling_depressed/972524-anti-depressants-for-severe-PMS-any-ex perience?msgid=19902995

if anyone has any experience? Much appreciated.

I haven't found the thread, sorry, but I would say that about six years ago I had quite a lot of anxiety relating, I think, to my hormones (PCOS and my mother had horrific PMS) and my symptoms were much improved by taking St. John's Wort. I took it at first as droplets of ointment in water, and then as tablets, and felt much much better and things became much more manageable. HTH.

link to thread

Thanks Primrose - will read in case I was way off-beam.

When I was a lot younger I took paroxetine which is in the same group as fluoxetine, which you mentioned, in being an SSRI type, and I have never felt as bad in my life tbh, particularly when coming off the drug. I'm sure they've helped a lot of people, but when you ask about whether the coming off and the side effects are worth it, I would say that IMHO it might be worth trying the herbal remedy first. I was certainly less 'myself' on and after paroxetine than I was before. Hope you find a good remedy.

Thanks for your responses (and for sorting the link - technofail). I know St John's Wort is known to benefit some, and I hadn't thought of it because, well, I wasn't expecting to go down the route of any treatment for depression, as I'm not strictly speaking depressed. Ooosabeauta, do you know what dose you were on? The GP said I'd be on a low dose, as I'm not depressed, but that I'd still have to come off it slowly. But any mood altering management approach concerns me because, as you say, I don't want to lose what makes me me, if I can do something else that will just cushion the extremes.

It's early days, and the placebo effect is very strong, but I've been back on the pill for a week and I haven't had a blow-up at DD1, or done anything unkind, in that time.