I want to preface this by saying I have a few health issues. I have severe anxiety and insomnia and had this for nearly a decade. I take propranalol, tried 3 SSRIS and sleeping tablets, but those meds all gave me bad reactions. I've done counselling and CBT and it helped a bit. Last year I ended up in hospital and had mri, ct and ultrasound scans and have ovarian cysts that need an op, but I need to lose weight and struggling. My periods have always been heavy since my teens and left me with crippling pain which left me taking time off school, bled through clothing, near fainting and I was laughed at by a female dr at 16 even with my older sister going to an appointment with me. The way drs still dismiss us women in agony and try to normalise chronic periods is disgusting and I was told it was normal 2x more and got fed up!! Having these cysts finally found, but only after ending up on 3 iv drips and a cathetar for almost 3 months, made me cry at home knowing I had a problem all along. Fastfoward to the last few months and I wonder if I'm perimenopausal. My periods have stopped before a few times for a month or 2 and obviously the cysts affected that but I was 29/30 then and no I had zero chance of pregnancy. My periods and the way I feel have been up and down. I was getting a shorter cycle 4/5 months ago of around 25-26 days then this past 3 months it increased to 30ish days. I was due on the 16th/17th May and felt so depressed and anxious. My head was saying you are worthless, why are you even here and like a grey storm within me. It felt like my lowest point after losing my father a decade ago and my mother was ill with dementia and had to go into care. I was in bed and crying, not sleeping until 4am even now and then my period came on almost 2 weeks late and bled through 3 nights ago and had to wash my duvet. I wonder if it is perimenopause or my ovarian cysts playing havoc, but it really made my anxiety twice as worse and I dreaded that feeling of drowning in a depression again. I do not have children, there are other reasons for that, and my beloved cat kept me from being a crumpled heap sobbing and was extra affectionate these past few weeks. This feeling of doom has lifted, but still sometimes awake until 6am and I had been able to nod off at 2/3am last year. It feels overwhelming and I will get a dr's appt.