18 Examples Of What Menstruation Feels Like

I was recently driving back from dropping a friend off at LAX for an early morning flight and had some top 40 radio station on since the auxiliary cord wasn’t working in the car (oh, the struggle). Adele’s “Someone Like You” comes on over the speakers and I decide to let it play since I’m almost home anyway. Suddenly tears start to stream down my face and I mumble the lyrics, thinking “Why the fuck am I crying? Adele has never made me cry before. There is nothing wrong right now and certainly not in my personal life so why would this song about heartbreak be making me cry?” Oh yeah, because I was about to get my period that day.

Later that week, gazing at a sunset over the ocean in Santa Monica made me weep. I laughed at myself but enjoyed the beauty of the view just the same. Realizing these emotional overreactions are quite common, I decidedly asked a bunch of girls (meaning these answers are in no way copied and pasted from Reddit) to share about those times when their emotions skyrocketed out of control while on or nearing their periods. Damn those hormones. Whether it’s sappy commercials, irritability toward a significant other, or digging for hope in a pint of Ben & Jerry’s – remember, you’re not alone.

1. I can’t control myself around food. I’m like a ravenous chipmunk. Then when I’m full I get so disappointed in myself that I cry.

2. I dropped a fork. Better cry myself to sleep… totally happened.

3. I also take everything personally when I’m PMSing. “I’m tired.” “Of me?! Why? What did I do? Whyyyy?!?!”

4. I get choked up even watching cheesy commercials. Anything meant to be touching at all and I’m suffering to not embarrass myself.

5. That Guinness ad with the guys in wheelchairs playing basketball? Don’t watch it if you’re on your period. Word from the wise.

6. That Apple commercial for FaceTime when they show the deaf people using it to sign each other… that killed me.

7. Let’s just FORGET about ASPCA commercials that time of the month, yeah? Bad enough normally, but puppies + hormones = ugly cryfest.

8. Anytime I get angry about something stupid my bf will ask if I’m about to start…which makes me more mad…and then I end up starting the next day and laugh.

9. I get paranoid and convinced my bf is gonna break up with me every month and find a girl who isn’t bloated. Fortunately, he knows my cycle well enough to ignore my crazy behavior.

10. When I’m driving around LA during my period, I find myself looking around at all the palm trees, the sky, and just feeling so happy to be living here and thinking “My life is awesome!” and then I get really touchy and emotional because it”s like, so great, to live here, and I um *sniffies* , love it so much…

11. I cried uncontrollably when I heard “Wind Beneath My Wings” in front of a room full of people during the Oscars and then announced that I think of my sister when I hear it. Then I posted it on facebook too. Now nobody will talk to me.

12. I yell at my boyfriend for things that he sometimes does, and sometimes doesn’t do…like REALLY scream at him…. and then when he is nice and sweet about it because he knows I’m just having a bad PMS attack, I cry and apologize and feel bad.

13. I cry about every little thing and cramp like a son of a bitch. It literally (Rob Lowe Parks and Rec voice) feels like a million little smurfs are stabbing me and have crawled up there to tear up my ovaries. I also crave cupcakes and In-n-Out.

14. Sometimes I eat an entire cake or tub of ice cream or crave like four hamburgers but have zero idea where my appetite came from and without fail a few days later… BAM!

15. I really crave sweets also when I’m about to start and can’t stop no matter how hard I try I’m a scavenger. For instance, that is me NOW, so I know I’m about to start.

16. I always feel ugly and fat and wonder why I hate myself so much and how I let things get so bad and then my period starts and I’m like, “oooooh riiiight….That was temporary insanity”.

17. My boobs get so huge and awesome at the same time that I’m super irritable and then the second I bleed, they deflate. This clearly works wonders for my personal life.

18. A girl I was dating had a coupon to a movie theater that she thought was for the one we were at but wasn’t, and she cried because I had to spend $14 on a matinee. (Okay, that one is from a guy… but I let it slide because I laughed.)