Question by Matt: Is meditation good medication for the effects of menstruation?
I understand it can be stressful, but my wife is always so angry when she’s on her period. Does meditation help mood swings? I don’t mind participating too. I already do yoga.
Best answer:
Answer by Nitram
Just go out to the pub with your mates, that’s the best treatment
ETA
Well Rhianna, sometimes one can be too much of a “new man” and extricating oneself from a bad situation is often the wisest thing to do
I’m going to expand on my answer because of Rhianna’s comment about me. Don’t take this personally.
Psychotic women don’t know what it is like to live with themselves. The only thing you can do is to leave the situation before it gets out of hand. If you read a book it develops into screaming “you never talk to me”. If you try and talk “you always say that you b’tard”. If you goto your office the door crashes open and your computer winds up spread all over the floor. The police get involved because the neighbours don’t like women screaming and the guy gets arrested (always released no charges).
I use to have to drag my oak table and barricade the door to my office so she couldn’t get in, then put a pair of headphones on and listen to loud music to cover up the screaming.
3+1/2 weeks out of 4 fine, the other was totally nutty and you’re better out of it. Nothing helped. Of course in the end I just made her get her own place and leave when the police actually saw her in full flight and supported me for once.
What do you think? Answer below!
Not a great answer Nitram, and that’s not going to help his poor wife is it?
Mood related PMS is often difficult to manage. Meditation won’t change whats gong on hormonally, but it might help her to relax. She could give it a go. Pilate’s and yoga are great options too. I personally find exercise really helps. Also, just by actually understanding what is going on does help. Many people say diet affects PMS, there is little evidence to support this, however some studies do show that caffeine and alcohol can increase mood related symptoms, so she might try and avoid that.
The only other thing she might try is vitamin B6, therapeutic doses of B6 can sometimes help PMS, although the evidence supporting it is at best shaky. Some studies have failed to show any benefit, and some have shown a mild benefit. It’s still worth a try. She could try taking it roughly two weeks before her period is due, but make sure she does not exceed 100 mg q.d.
A lot of people recommend trying Agnus castus fruit extract, the evidence to support it is very poor indeed.
Is your wife taking any hormone contraception? If she is, that can sometimes cause problems. Is she taking the pill for example? Yasmin is probably the best Pill in this situation. Theoretically speaking, any Pill that prevents ovulation should reduce PMS symptoms as it’s the release of progesterone into the bloodstream after ovulation that likely triggers PMS. Most of the time the Pill prevents ovulation but because contraceptive Pills contain the progestogen hormone it often remains a problem. Yasmin contains a progestogen called drospirenone and some studies show that it doesn’t cause the same problems as other progestogens so if she is taking another pill it might be worth switching and seeing if that makes a difference.
Firstly, PMT is merely existing emotions coming to the surface at a time when the ability to control them is lower. So, the anger is not actually a result of PMT nor menstruation.
Meditation is obviously a good practice in general. But the idea of yoga and meditation is to do the yoga first which actually helps to put you in a state where you are better able to meditate, so do them both and not just during PMT. You are probably already aware that the yoga even on its own has a very calming effect.
To deal with the problem in the longer term, your wife needs to find the source of the anger. Otherwise, anything she does is just a bandaid. Expressing anger is a good thing. The key is finding a healthy way to express it and not direct it at whoever is in front of you. Yelling and screaming without words can be effective, and I found using a punching bag very therapeutic. There is also a specific yoga action (it is not a posture) designed to release primal anger. I was shown this one by my Ananda Marga teacher.
Secondly, many yoga asanas are designed to compress or stretch out the areas around the hormonal glands (you need to do both) and have a greater effect on release of hormones than meditation alone. There are asanas that are specifically for men and women for this reason. However, women should not do any abdominal stretching asanas while they are actually menstruating.
Thirdly, I had problems with this when I was younger and found Evening Primrose Oil calmed me down a lot. It should only be taken in the week prior to menstruation commencing.
Lastly, I hope you are bright enough to ignore Nitram’s moronic answer as he clearly does not have a clue.