Julie’s hormone know-how helped her deal with anxiety

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15 Feb Julie’s hormone know-how helped her deal with anxiety

Posted at 00:01h in anxiety, interview by
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Hormonology Helped Her

As part of a new series, “Hormonology Helped Her”, I’m interviewing Hormonology fans to find out how they use the knowledge about their hormonal effects in their everyday life.

If you have a story to share and would like to be interviewed, email me!

Julie’s anxiety overwhelmed her—before she learned about her hormones

In 2005, Julie Basel ran across my book, 28 Days: What Your Cycle Reveals About Your Love Life, Moods and Potential on Amazon.

For this 43-year-old special education teaching assistant and mother of two from upstate New York, this book was a game-changer: Julie got a whole new understanding of the anxiety that had been crushing her—and she shares how this led to a dramatic change in how she now deals with that anxiety.Julie Basel

What did you know about the hormonal effects in your cycle before Hormonology?

Prior to following Hormonology, my knowledge of hormones was slim. I knew I got bloated, sore and moody before my period, but that was the extent of it.

How did the hormone information you learned from Hormonology change how you feel about your monthly cycle?

Hormonology has had an enormous impact on my life. There are so many peaks and valleys that women experience and, so often, when I recognize them, I will cross-reference my cycle day with the book or Hormone Horoscope app and there it is—a physical, hormone-related reason for my feelings or sensations.

Has learning about your hormones had an impact on others around you?

The information helps me greatly when I notice changes in my teenage daughter. Teenagers know everything, of course, but I can usually figure out on my own where she’s at in her cycle based on emotionality, cravings or even acne. I hope that by helping her track her own cycle now, she will have a good handle on it into adulthood.

Is there one area in your life, in particular, that has improved because you know more about the hormones in your cycle?

Anxiety. That dreaded word. It plagued me for many years. As a young mom, I would find myself becoming increasingly edgy and anxious. I didn’t know why.

I became ultra-sensitive to how I felt and I began Googling symptoms. This was a bad idea. Every headache was a tumor. Every stomach pain was my gallbladder or worse. Fatigue was some grave disease.

It was dark and lonely. From the outside, I had it all together. But on the inside, I was a nervous wreck—to the point of random panic attacks and even bouts of depression.

Doctors wanted me to try medication. I sought help from a counselor. I exercised. Nothing was really helping.

One day, in the midst of my Googling, I stumbled across 28 Days. And my life CHANGED. It was like a light bulb going off. These symptoms I was experiencing were NORMAL. I didn’t need medication. I didn’t need counseling. I needed to track my cycle… and simply accept it. All of it—peaks AND valleys.

Still, a decade later, I have 28 Days on my nightstand. Do I still have anxiety? Of course. But, I have learned that accepting it allows it to pass much more efficiently that feeding it.

28 Days and the Hormone Horoscope App are my tools of choice to keep my anxiety under control because 90% of the time, my cycle plays into my feelings (physical and emotional) and how I react to those things.

Anything you want other people to know about hormonal effects in their cycles?

I want women to know that they’re not alone. Anxiety manifests in many ways but, for me, learning how much our bodies go through during those 28 days has been invaluable in my road to acceptance and understanding.

LEARN MORE

Are you challenged by anxiety like Julie? Find out how your hormones may be impacting this issue in my Hormonology Guide to Anxiety.

Then, track how your symptoms change across your cycle by writing them in a journal or by using my Hormonology Hormone Horoscope App, which is a menstrual cycle tracker that delivers the daily Hormone Horoscope.

You can use the insights you discover to help manage your anxiety symptoms, share them with your healthcare provider to improve treatment and understand yourself more.

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