How I Saved My Nervous System at Menopause

Have you seen Coldplay? Now that’s an experience I’d recommend to anyone.

If you have a chronic or diagnosed issue with depression or anxiety and/or are medicated for it, please see your own practitioner, as this article is not for you. Anything natural I discuss can be harmful if you’re on these medications, and is contraindicated. I do not provide medical advice, and this short essay is specifically for perimenopausal and menopausal women with nuanced anxiety issues brought on by hormonal changes.

I have never found myself to be a typical anxious person. I always thought that anxiety meant panic attacks. Historically, the only time I had experienced this was when I was overmedicated with thyroid medication. After I had my thyroid removed, my TSH was suppressed to undetectable levels, which gave me “traditional” panic attacks now and again. It wasn’t fun.

Here are the leading root causes of anxiety:

• Genetic predisposition

• Brain chemistry imbalances (neurotransmitters like serotonin, dopamine, GABA)

• Chronic stress or trauma

• Medical conditions (e.g., hyperthyroidism)

• Substance use or withdrawal

• Hormonal shifts (especially in women during perimenopause or postpartum)

We have all felt anxious. I do not label, and I think that the over-labelling our society loves to do can do more harm than good.

Feeling anxious is normal, and it is a human-built-in survival mechanism. It helps us get shit done.

When Anxiety is Dysfunctional:

• Chronic (lingering for weeks/months)

• Excessive or disproportionate to the situation

• Triggered by vague or imagined threats

• Interrupting your life, relationships, or health

Has it gone too far?

• You avoid people, places, or responsibilities because of fear.

• You wake up with dread even when nothing specific is wrong.

• Your body is constantly tense, wired, or exhausted.

• You have panic attacks or overwhelming surges of fear out of nowhere.

• You obsessively overthink "What if?" scenarios.

• It disrupts sleep, digestion, hormones, or concentration.

• You need to control everything to feel safe.

Once menopause hits, women can feel all of this intensely, even for the first time in their lives. Our nervous system might react to a massive shift in our internal chemistry. Add to this, real-life problems which can also be very intense. This might be the perfect storm for many women. I happen to be one of them, which is why I am sharing this with you. Boatloads of ashwagandha and rhodiola didn’t cut it for me. Neither did the estrogen I was taking.

My experience in perimenopause was a cakewalk compared to when I hit around 1 year or close to one year with no periods. Menopause itself was much more than hot flashes, to the point where I no longer felt like the same human being.

Perimenopause and menopause are not the same, although you’ll often hear the terms used interchangeably.