“How do we validate women’s experience without reinforcing a cultural script that says midlife automatically equals decline?” – Dr. Sarah McKay
Last fall, humor writer, Casey Rand, wrote a piece for McSweeney’s titled “Is it perimenopause or the fascist death knell of late stage capitalism?” , that perfectly captured the perimenopause vibe of the moment — is this a perimenopause symptom or a psychosomatic response to an unjust world on fire? It’s hard to pick a favorite from her list, but here’s a good one: “Are my migraines hormonal, or am I thinking too hard about how Peter Thiel has more money than all nurses on Earth combined?”
Super fun to hit a certain age and ride towards this body hazy stage alongside daily snippet of news that seems hell bent on crushing any glimmer of hope for the future. Symptom or stress? Chicken or egg? Eggless chicken? Both? Neither? All of the above?
On one hand, validation can have such a positive effect on how we perceive something as stressful – I feel this, this is what it is, this is what I can (or can’t) do about it.
On the other hand, how close to the line are we getting between education+awareness and symptom searching in a way that negatively affects our response to the information shoved in our faces on a daily basis? The psychological can become the physical. The physical can become its own flavor of psychological stressor. There is a light side and a dark side to the mind-body-mind connection.
LINKS:
“Is it perimenopause or the fascist death knell of late stage capitalism?” by Casey Rand or McSweeney’s
Conversation with Carine Carmy on pelvic health and symptom dismissal
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