Has anyone else experienced severe anxiety around the monthly misery?  I was an anxious child, had panic disorder when puberty set on, and now I realize I have panic attacks every month around that time.  For the rest of the month, I am completely calm.  It is not just the situation that psychological scares me, I think it is hormonal, because it occurs before it actually starts, and stops before it ends (although it is usually on its way out).  I've noticed it's at its worse right before I get it - about a day or two before.

Right now, I am in that situation, and I just had a panic attack and I feel like crap.  We're going on a vacation tomorrow and I know it's "about that time", and I don't do well in new, stressful situations when I have anxiety like this, so I am unhappy about this right now.  I am hopefully starting T soon.  I feel such a sense of unease and instability.  It's a very deep sense of it.   

Anyone have any theories about this, or experiences?  Maybe other bad, possibly hormone-related experiences?

I don't know; I always had horrendous mood swings surrounding the red death, but I attribute that to PMDD. That, of course, disappeared when I got on T. You might check with your dr about getting a prescription antidepressant to fix your moods surrounding those times, until you're able to get on T.

SD

I think I'll literally be getting a T prescription in two or so weeks.  I'm already on Fluvoxamine (not a good drug; really old, not used often anymore) that I've been on for about a decade.  I'm on such a tiny amount, though, I doubt it does anything, but when my dose was higher, I was very "foggy".  I am appreciating the clarity I'm feeling now.  I also attribute part of that to accepting my identity, though.

I was just curious about whether it was hormone related.  I know I had bad panic disorder when I started puberty, so it makes me wonder... Aside from panic, mostly I just get a bit more touchy, but I've noticed it is far more just outright panic than anything else.  Not even mood swings...

FWIW, I get really anxious with red death too. I've had anxiety issues in the past as well, but for the most part, they're pretty much cleared up, except with a few things that trigger it, or red death.

My anxiety around that time is probably because I'm terrified something will go wrong, like bleeding out onto the pants and stuff.  I don't want to be embarrassed, which probably comes from my social anxiety.  I do have plenty of mood swings, though.

I get out of control in other ways. I smashed the glass in on my back door a few days ago. Then it turned up today.  It seems like everyone gets it at the same time.

That's the only time I'm actually emotional and I really hate it cause it's not who I am. It pisses me off. That's when I feel like "MY WORLD IS ENDING AND I AM THE ONLY ONE SUFFERING IN THIS WORLD. MY LIFE IS DEPRESSING." It's so stupid.

I already have anxiety problems,but that time of the month produces a pretty terrible mental state. Like, everything is scary and worth considering suicide over.

I got extremely hateful and self destructive around that time. I haven't had that at ALL since starting T though. Thank god. For me it was related to the fact that I knew my body was doing something that wasn't male and wouldn't allow me to use the urinals at that time. Freaked me out.