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Case Studies
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the pan in the wrong cupboard. She went to bed angry, woke up
angry, and nothing in life seemed right. Once her husband brought
home dinner to surprise her, since it was her night to cook. Instead
of thanking him, she began crying: she was sure he was trying to
pacify her because he felt she was incompetent to cook a decent
dinner.
But Lois knew her children were the ones who suffered most.
During the week or two before her period, her two daughters, a five-
and seven-year-old, always watched Lois carefully, afraid to say or do
the wrong thing. Normally, when she picked them up from day care,
the three of them talked about their day or sang songs or planned an
evening of family fun. But for a week or two each month, Lois would
always find something that made her yell at the girls. They talked
too loud, or they didn’t answer her questions, or they bickered with
each other until she wanted to scream. On those nights, the drive
usually ended in an explosion; both Lois and her girls would run into
the house, unable to enjoy anything that evening.
When Lois began taking an SSRI during the luteal phase of her cy-
cle, things changed drastically. She and the girls enjoyed their rides
home every night, and the family was able to continue planning a
game night and movie night each week throughout the month. They
enjoyed short outings to a pumpkin farm and petting zoo. Because
Lois felt so much better, she had more energy for everything in her
life.
Some people think that PMS was invented by women to excuse their
need to “vent” occasionally. However, research shows that PMS and
PMDD are very real. Depending on the individual, the severity of
symptoms ranges from mild to debilitating. Many women who suf-
fer from PMS will experience problems that lead to relationship dif-
ficulties, or they may find it hard to be productive and dependable at
school and on the job. But some women suffer such major changes
during the later part of the menstrual cycle that those who know
them are sometimes terrified by these women’s behavior.
For instance, Kendra was a freshman in high school when she
first experienced a “fit of anger” that surprised even herself. She