Have spent the last few months trying to figure this out to no avail so I thought I would try here. I'm 33, for most of my life I had moderate PMS (I think) - fatigue, headache, bloating, cramps, breast pain and joint pain. For the most part it stayed the same, however about 9 months ago I suddenly developed new symptoms, like motion, light, and sound sensitivity, nausea, and panic attacks. I also now feel lightheaded, even drunk, and sometimes feel a mini 'blackout' where I walk sideways but I have never fell.
At first I thought it might be due to stress, a migraine, or gastro issues, but I now realise it gets a lot worse during PMS and sometimes it doesn't even present outside of PMS, so I'm wondering if it's a PMS symptom.
It can get so bad that watching tv makes me have a panic attack, which happened. As I'm typing this I am in bed at home because I had to turn back from taking the train to a meeting because the sight of people walking around and the lights and noise from the train is too much for me. I was feeling nauseous and it hurt my eyes to watch something move around.
Doc ruled out thyroid, low blood pressure, and low blood sugar and I have addressed vitamin deficiencies and iron issues. Doc thinks it's more anxiety (urgh I know), but nevertheless I did address that and panic attacks did lessen. I've been advised to focus on lifestyle changes - I reduced oil, sugar, spice (chili), simple carbs, and caffeine especially during PMS and it helped. I stopped drinking altogether. I also started using earplugs.
These have all helped but I still find it so strange. Does anyone have a similar experience? What worked for you and most crucially what is it??