16 Nov Finding Relief From Menopausal Depression, Anxiety & Mood Swings

You wake up after a rough night of sleep. First you’re hot. Then cold. Then sweaty. Then cold again. And your damp sheets got all twisted up around your heavy, aching body so that you feel like you’re in a straightjacket (and you wonder if maybe you should be!). You feel another tension headache coming on. 

The familiar weight of sadness has dropped its heavy bag on you––again. It was only yesterday you felt like your normal self––happy, confident, and optimistic. How is it possible to swing like a pendulum back and forth from one day to the next? Happy, sad, happy, sad. Then anxiety gets thrown into this vicious emotional cocktail too. You look in the mirror and wonder how you’re going to get through the day.

Are you going mad? Or is this simply menopause?

Let’s get something straight––there is nothing simple about menopause. Just because we can owe these intense emotions and mood swings to a naturally-occurring biological process, doesn’t mean our lives and sense of sanity are any less disrupted by it. It’s not until we arrive on the other side of menopause and are able to see clearly that we fully realize the depth of our experience and can chalk it up to a “process.” Like childbirth, menopause is full-on during its most intense moments and deemed “beautiful” once it’s all over!

What’s Behind The Mood Swings?

By the way, you’re not going mad, though it may feel that way. Many women have described menopause as feeling much like constant PMS. The declining of certain hormones may explain the similarity. 

Both estrogen and serotonin levels drop during the luteal or second half of the menstrual cycle––the phase when many women experience sleep disruption, mood swings, anxiety, and depression. They also decline during menopause, though over a longer period of time and without the same kind of springing back. 

Estrogen helps produce serotonin, our feel-good neurotransmitter, so as it declines, our sense of happiness and well-being does too. While we may be able to accept that our mood is part of a biological process, for many women it feels much deeper and more intimate than that. It can feel like an existential crisis.

“PMS drops you deep into your own being, and your own truth explodes forth. Whatever you have been successful at burying or denying yourself bursts forth at this time of the month.” – Natalie Ryan Herbert

Menopause offers up a similar experience. But it’s not hopeless. I’ll repeat that: it’s not hopeless. Menopause is one of those times in life when we, as women, have to pull up our bootstraps and help ourselves get better because no one is going to do it for us (and for centuries women have faced such ominous tasks both personally and politically). If we couldn’t handle the challenge, it would not be in our path to do so.

Let’s look at the different ways we can help ourselves ride through this challenging time with a better handle on the wheel.

How To Relieve Depression & Anxiety During Menopause

Lifestyle Changes

Making changes to your lifestyle is one of the most sustainable ways to manage menopausal depression, anxiety, and mood swings. It also puts you in the driver’s seat. Oftentimes our habits contribute to uncomfortable symptoms. I’ve met many women in my life who drink wine every day, eat packaged foods, don’t get regular exercise and wonder why they suffer through menopause. 

In my experience, three main areas of wellbeing to focus on are daily exercise, a wholesome, balanced diet, and a good night’s sleep. Incredible transformations are possible just optimizing those areas. 

Conventional Therapy

Hormone replacement therapy is popular, but bear in mind there may be unpleasant side effects. Hormones can be regulated just by making changes to lifestyle, as discussed earlier. 

Anti-anxiety medication, antidepressants, and the like may be helpful as short-term solutions. They are useful in balancing neurotransmitters so that lifestyle changes are possible. As you may have experienced, it’s difficult to find the motivation to make certain changes if we feel terrible all the time. 

Counselling is a good option. Whether it’s psychotherapy, psychiatric counselling, or cognitive behavioural therapy, having an opportunity to share our angst with a trained professional can help many women work out some deep-seated emotional pain and past traumas.

Alternative Therapy for Menopause Symptoms

“Alternative” is becoming more commonplace these days, as many women turn to yoga, meditation, and breathwork to help manage menopause symptoms. Though I would argue that these practices are more lifestyle changes than therapies! Once you bring these golden healers into your life, they’re likely to stick around for good, given their gentle superpowers for helping women achieve greater well-being.

Many women are also finding sustainable solutions for menopause symptoms through modalities like massage, Reiki, and hypnotherapy. Such treatments help to relieve energetic blocks and imbalances in the subtle body, that is, the non-physical, intelligent part of us that holds repressed memories, trauma, and other unprocessed emotions. It’s a highly intuitive system that often gets overlooked in favour of more conventional therapies that treat the physical body. However, energy work can also help bring the physical body into homeostasis, as well as balance emotions.

As an experienced Reiki Master Practitioner & Hypnotist in Clarington, Durham region, I have supported many women through their menopause journey. I’ve witnessed women come out of the dark and into a place of acceptance, self-love, and enduring well-being and physical health. If you’re dealing with menopausal anxiety, depression, or mood swings, please reach out. I can help.