While some may feel irritable or moody around their menstrual cycle, Kim Cormack, 36, feels like a totally different person.
Content warning: this article contains references to suicide
Usually, she is bubbly and chatty with a zest for living life, but in the days and weeks leading up to her period, she struggled to recognise the person she was becoming.
“I’d just be so depressed and crying all of the time, and angry,” Kim explains.
It took multiple years of being misunderstood and misdiagnosed before a friend’s search on the internet found the answers she had been looking for.
She has premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), a complex condition which Kim says almost claimed her life.
“The last time it got really, really bad, I actually snuck out of the house at 10 o’clock at night. It was raining and I went…