P.M.-What?

If you read Pajama Diaries on a daily basis, you’ll notice this week’s series touches on a sensitive subject. This past summer I was diagnosed with something called “P.M.D.D.” (Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder). It’s like P.M.S. gone haywire. It was pretty severe…it really affected my everyday happenings and got worse each month.

After I was diagnosed, I did extensive research on the symptoms and treatments. Although the doctor recommended a low-dose antidepressant, I was skeptical. After a month of hesitation (and more research), I tried it. It proved very effective in treating my symptoms. I imagine I won’t be on it forever, but in the meantime, it helps.

I decided to illustrate a portion of this journey in a strip series that runs this week and part of next week. Since the use of antidepressants can be a touchy subject, I’d like to stress that I’m not endorsing these pills. I’m documenting one person’s experience, and in no way do I believe antidepressants are the universal solution to this condition. What I do hope is that these strips bring to light a fairly treatable disorder that can be hard to diagnose and is quite debilitating.

With that said, this series not a downer – I actually kept it pretty light-hearted. I’m curious about the response.