Mental Wellbeing - how do i deal with depression during menopause
Mental Wellbeing - how do i deal with depression during menopause
Visceral Menopause = Menopression
This blog was my attempt to re-adjust my sanity levels by relieving my inner tension and releasing my oily snake to torment elsewhere - the latter for just a few hours...if I'm lucky! Because depression in menopause is very real and anything that helps dealing with it must be welcomed with open arms. I will share with you natural ways to cope with your depression during menopause.
Depression menopause needs more discussion!
I will give you a visceral journey into my menopausal torment, 'menopression'... Why? Because it is important to know that depression in menopause is common and this stage of a woman's life, is rarely discussed, extremely mis-understood and rarely adequately supported.
Wrong emphasis
Currently, the world most of us live in focusses too much on enhancing our physical assets to maintain youthful appeal. Too little on developing our loving spirit. And not at all on our unavoidable passage into the realities of ageing and how to make this final transition a positive one.
Visceral menopause
I didn’t have a black dog like Winston Churchill, my menopausal creature of terror was a giant 20ft, slippery, oily snake. It twisted and turned around my internal organs, squeezing and biting, making my skin crawl, my joints ache, unseated my mind, leaving me bone weary and desperate to be anywhere else but me.
Social hibernation fall out
I found that I didn’t have the strength to polish the fetid turd that was my emotional state for polite society. I felt raked dry by the hormonal changes occurring within me and hibernated away as much as possible to limit the damage clearance from the inevitable fall out of my social interaction!
Menopause heightened my emotions
Menopause heightened my emotions to the point of skinning my heart, pushing me right the the edge. I became defensive, erupting in volcanic anger meanings I was either being offended or causing offence. "See-saw Margery Daw, Johnny needs a new Master!" urrrgggg
Blogging for sanity
I found I could create inner peace through the expulsion of my words, venting on 'paper' put my jumble in order briefly...until my snake returned! Writing became a ritualistic cleansing I was almost forced to make, seeking the divinity of its anchor. Akin to a snake's poison being forced out by squeezing its fangs on the edge of glass.
My Menopause in art form
If I were able to depict how I was feeling in those days, you would see a large white canvas with a large red gash gouged through the middle, dripping and drooling from its edges. The background near the wound is a blue wash, also seeping down the paper.
The whiteness on the canvas representative of my white skin and previous innocence to the curses of ageing.
The red whip slash represents the anger in which this bloodied wound was cast, a lightning flash. It was still dripping because the pain wasn’t over, the journey felt continuous and healing was unwritten in the future.
The blue symbolises my emotions and the tears for the anguish this is causing me. I'm felt much affinity with Van Gogh's removal of his ear in that time. I am sure he wanted his inner demons to just shut the fuck up too!
The mental and physical connection
My menopause created depression within me through the physical changes manifesting in my body. This insidious demon slithered through my physical self and slathered into my emotional self, tangible becoming intangible. Because there is no separation between the mind and body.
The truth didn’t set me free
The symbolism of all of this is not lost on me, nothing is in fact lost on me in this apart from my temper, my memory, skin tone, sleep and ability to eat what I like. I could see my depression directly relating to my menopause, with nothing to do with my surrounding life but the facts were a little useless in the face of all the angst and suffering.
Menopause depression symptom management
Finding the right kind of support makes a massive impact on depression in menopause. Because of the undeniable connection between mind, body and soul it is important to use treatments that can respond on those levels. For instance, corralling the heightened emotions to a more manageable state will reduce the amount of cortisol (stress hormone) inflaming your body. So whilst you are calming your emotional state you are improving your physical body and the act of self care nurtures your spiritual wellbeing.
Natural ways to achieve that include the use of essential oils, herbs and mega vitamin therapy.
Essential oils for menopause
Clary Sage essential oil, Peppermint essential oil, Lemon essential oil, Lavender essential oil, Geranium essential oil, Lemongrass essential oil, Frankincense essential oil, Rose essential oil but to name a few. Yes, that’s quite a list and it will be down to you as an individual as to what specifically will work for you.
I get great success when I create my customers a bespoke essential oil blend, this way we use up to eight different essential oils, layering the mental, physical and spiritual support.
Bespoke wellbeing for depression in menopause
In order to help you to navigate your menopause away from depression you need a bespoke wellbeing package tailored precisely to your needs. I offer you this by way of bespoke wellbeing consultations, you may just need to see me once. Each one takes me around five to six hours to put together, they are extremely thorough with no stone being left unturned and this reflects the complexity of holistic health and means successful results.
Self health workshops
If you prefer to work upon your own health and wellbeing, I can support you to do that with my series of self health workshops. You can begin with getting to know how your body works, move through using plant medicines for wellbeing and culminating in awakening your spiritual self.
*Buying essential oils
The world of Essential Oils is not equal, it is unregulated and only 8% of the ingredient needs to be present for it to be marketed as pure. This means that if you are thinking you’re getting an absolute bargain by paying next to nothing, which I used to think, you’re really not.
They are precious medicine, extremely versatile, so what appears expensive in the first instance is actually very cheap. I’ve done the research for you, I sell the therapeutic grade essential oils, which you can buy them directly from me.
This has the added value of me being on hand to support you to use safely and effectively.