realizing_you_are_lucky epitome of incomprehensibility Here's an example: for a long time, I thought that when people talked about period cramps, the word "cramp" referred to a slightly uncomfortable, bloated feeling in your abdomen. Because that's what I felt with periods. So clearly "cramp" meant two different things in different situations - it couldn't be like a muscle cramp, right? Aaaand then when I was about 27, I had one morning where, for minutes on end, I had abdominal cramps so painful I could hardly move. I didn't have my period. I don't remember what triggered it - it was probably something I ate, not having quite adjusted to the Milky Way Galaxy weaning me off lactose tolerance. Anyway, I thought, "Oh, THAT'S what they mean by cramps. So I don't really get period cramps. I'm lucky and I never realized it." 260704 ... nr that is indeed very lucky. i never realized how much of a difference diet made in this, but in retrospect i'm not surprised, because it seems what we put into our bodies can affect basically anything. a few years ago, i was on an anti-inflammatory diet for a month on the advice of a dietician, and that was the only month in my entire adult life in which i didn't have to take any advil for period cramps. i realize i am lucky that, after years of investigating and explaining and pushing, i finally have the right people and tools to give my body what it needs. i am knocking on all the wood in sight. 260704 ... e_o_i Yes, knock on wood! I'm not as lucky with other common PMS symptoms: tiredness, mood swings, headaches, sometimes constipation - yup x 5. (And only the last one is very diet-responsive). But it's not all bad - I find I often get a surge of energy the day before, or night before, when I want to stay up and write. Which is something I get randomly anyway, though, so idk about correlation vs. causation. ...But I came here to add the fact that my and my dad's OCD symptoms weren't nearly as debilitating as some people's, and basically faded on their own as we grew up - see generational_symmetry. 260711 ... e_o_i Another recent one: a friend of Matthew-from-poetry-events mentioned being recently laid off from a job, and that had me reflecting how I'm lucky to be jobsome, if not quite jobful. 260711 ... e_o_i corrects math (...also realizing that I listed 4 PMS symptoms as 5...just count tiredness twice) 260711 what's it to you? who go blather from