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Is PMS Real? 10 Ways You Can Tell I’m Not Faking It

Tuesday, May 21, 2013 by Jessica Booth

Is PMS real? Some experts say… maybe not? I know. Try not to experience the same sudden feeling of rage that I felt when I read that sentence. There are apparently a lot of experts out there who question the validity of pre-menstrual syndrome – they call it a culture-bound syndrome, which basically means that it is diagnosed based on how society thinks women should behave when they get their period and not on actual biological reasoning.

It’s a little confusing, because it doesn’t actually mean that PMS is not a real disease. What it means is that, in the words of one Jezebel writer, women are “being told that they have PMS as a sort of convenient excuse for their moods, which aren’t particularly agreeable.”

Um, I don’t know about you girls, but for me, PMS has always been a very real syndrome that has nothing to do with me making excuses for my moody behavior. While I can completely understand how it can be used as an easy out, I know it can always be something you can’t control. I’ve dealt with so many horrible PMS symptoms that are exhausting. So, here are 10 ways you can tell I’m not faking my PMS. I’m pretty sure you’ll be able to relate:

 

I suddenly start breaking out as much as a 12-year-old boy. 

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Source: Tumblr

 

I feel depressed. Not just sad, but legitimately depressed, like I need to see a therapist.

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Then I get angry over nothing. Look at me the wrong way and I’ll probably kill you.

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Then I go back to being sad and start crying over everything, including commercials and also my cat’s cute face.

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I have cramps that make me feel like I’m giving birth to an invisible baby.

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Source: Tumblr

 

Oh, and the bloating. For a week, I feel like a balloon.

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And don’t forget about the headaches. The constant, pounding headaches.

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I’m so tired I could fall asleep standing up.

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Plus, I start fighting with my boyfriend over every little thing just because… well, I don’t know why. 

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Last but not least, I want to eat everything. Like literally everything. I’m not kidding. 

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Do you have these same PMS symptoms? Do you think PMS is real or fake? How do you feel when you get your period? Tell me in the comments!

 

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Posted in: Your Body
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  • Jane

    Please let me kill those “experts”. Do they seriously think we WANT to be like this once a month? I don’t get headaches, and my cramps aren’t terrible, just annoying, but I get depressed and pick fights for no reason (normally, I’m a very cheerful girl who hates fighting, so imagine the confusion of my guy friends when this happens!), and I completely lose my apetite (and normally I could eat an entire packet of crisps and still be hungry, and eat 4 bowls of pasta in a row, so this is NOT normal for me!).
    The only good things about my period are that I’m not really physically in pain (apart from a few stomach cramps, but they’re ignorable) and that’s it’s REALLY regular, which is awesome! In the two years since I got my period, I’ve only ever missed one.

  • Don!

    Pms is extremely real. Maybe some girls never experience it, but it is different for different people (many women have never been through pms).
    I am a left brain kind of person so everything has to make logical sense to me, until the week before my period then I don’t make logical sense. I experience all of the above, and my cramps feel like death to my uterus. I also cry for absolutely nothing. I have threatened many of lives during this time. I’m just saying don’t say it isn’t real or made up by men because you don’t go through it. I noticed this phenomenon in me before I knew what pms was.

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  • Kitny

    I get cravings, bloating, fatigue, mood swings, irritable, cry over nothing, back pain and sometimes cramps but oddly enough I become almost obsessed with my boyfriend. He’s like a ray of sunshine on a cloudy day when I PMS.

  • alyssa

    i get half of these symptoms as it is.

  • Chloe

    When I first started having my periods I came home from schools and started crying about nothing, the I ate chocolate ice cream.

  • Jane

    PMS isn’t real needy. It was invented by the boy-run media to make us girls seem crazy.

  • sendyouonyourway

    I hardly ever get PMS. Any aches I get before my period usually aren’t caused by the menstruation itself.
    But it really balances things out. I get sick very easily and you don’t want to know how many blood tests and pills I take a month.

  • Alicia

    How do I know my period is coming? Pimples start popping up and I’m even more grouchy than usual .

    And then there’s the first day: mind-numbing pain

  • Lexxi

    I once was PMS-ing with really bad cramps and was kinda emotional so I decided to curl up with some food and watch a cheesy movie. I picked How To Train Your Dragon because it’s just an all around “feel-good” film. I started crying before it even started…

  • Sweettreat

    I’d like to see one of these “experts” curled up on the floor and crying because they have horrible cramps (hey! kind of like what happens to me every month!) and then see them say it is some “culture-bound syndrome”.

    • Karen

      Hell yeah!! When some “expert” says PMS isn’t a real thing I wish i could lend him my bloated belly and cramping womb and then he can write a thesis on the matter.