Men will say that women are irrational at times, which makes them unreliable and reckless behind the wheel. Statistics don’t really support this, but Charlotte Parnell, a 35-year-old woman from Bracknell, Berkshire could be the exception that makes the norm.
Road rage is characterized by loss of self-control, but what Charlotte was feeling whenever she got behind the wheel was a fury so blinding she was afraid what she might do next. So, to prevent a tragedy from happening, she stopped driving altogether.
And it was all down to severe PMS: premenstrual dysphoric disorder, or PMDD, which is like PMS ten times worse. She makes the confession in a video posted to her YouTube channel, in a bid to help other women like herself cope with the disorder.
For an entire week before her menstruation, Charlotte turned into a female Hulk, the green rage monster from the Marvel comics. Whenever she ended up driving somewhere, she would have fits of road rage so violent that she was afraid she might actually go physical on a fellow motorist.
The decision to stop driving for an entire week made sense to her. At least, this way, she could channel all her fury on the people she knew, who understood that she was going through a difficult phase.
“My road rage was out of control. With my PMDD, I feel like two different people – one is the normal me, the other lives in a completely different world,” she says.
“It was dangerous. I felt furious behind the wheel. I'd shout and swear at people out of the window, if people cut me up, I'd be so mad,” Charlotte further explains. “It got to the point where I didn't dare driving in my PMDD week. I knew it could be dangerous with the way I was feeling.”
Besides road rage, Charlotte would experience bouts of aggression, violent mood swings, suicidal thoughts, depression, foggy thinking and a general lack of self-control. Since her diagnosis, she’s been trying to combat the PMDD symptoms through a healthy diet, exercise and meditation.
It’s more than what others suffering from road rage are willing to do to curb these tendencies, if you think about it.
And it was all down to severe PMS: premenstrual dysphoric disorder, or PMDD, which is like PMS ten times worse. She makes the confession in a video posted to her YouTube channel, in a bid to help other women like herself cope with the disorder.
For an entire week before her menstruation, Charlotte turned into a female Hulk, the green rage monster from the Marvel comics. Whenever she ended up driving somewhere, she would have fits of road rage so violent that she was afraid she might actually go physical on a fellow motorist.
The decision to stop driving for an entire week made sense to her. At least, this way, she could channel all her fury on the people she knew, who understood that she was going through a difficult phase.
“My road rage was out of control. With my PMDD, I feel like two different people – one is the normal me, the other lives in a completely different world,” she says.
“It was dangerous. I felt furious behind the wheel. I'd shout and swear at people out of the window, if people cut me up, I'd be so mad,” Charlotte further explains. “It got to the point where I didn't dare driving in my PMDD week. I knew it could be dangerous with the way I was feeling.”
Besides road rage, Charlotte would experience bouts of aggression, violent mood swings, suicidal thoughts, depression, foggy thinking and a general lack of self-control. Since her diagnosis, she’s been trying to combat the PMDD symptoms through a healthy diet, exercise and meditation.
It’s more than what others suffering from road rage are willing to do to curb these tendencies, if you think about it.