Helen Flanagan shared an update with her fans about her ongoing battle with Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder on Instagram on Friday. 

The former Coronation Street star, 34, was diagnosed with PMDD in 2023 and revealed that the condition makes her ‘feel horrendous mentally before her period’ to the point where ‘she couldn’t cope’. 

Now, the actress has taken to Instagram to provide an update alongside a humorous video of herself explaining how she feels during the different stages of her period. 

Revealing her reel is inspired by Vicky Pattison, who also suffers from the debilitating condition, Helen said: ‘PMDD post ✨ Reel inspired by @vickypattison (heart emoji)

She added: ‘We message sometimes about PMDD and I always love her posts on it and the awareness xxx

‘My PMDD has been a lot more manageable recently and I’ll later in caption say somethings that help me control it.

Helen Flanagan has shared an update on her struggles with Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder as she admitted she has ‘four personalities in one month’ in a comical social media video posted to Instagram on Friday 

The former Coronation Street star, 34, was diagnosed with PMDD in 2023 and revealed that the condition makes her ‘feel horrendous mentally before her period’ to the point where ‘she couldn’t cope’

‘I always feel like I have four personalities in one month and any boyfriend I’ve ever had knows how bad my PMDD can be x

The star went on to explain that she always suffered from ‘intense symptoms for roughly 10 days including severe depression, sadness, hopelessness, worthlessness, anxiety, and ‘crippling’ OCD’. 

She added: ‘The Luteal phase for me can be the very worst. I used to have very bad intense symptoms for about 10 days, severe depression- sadness, hopelessness, worthlessness, anxiety/ ocd- ocd so crippling I thought I was going mad, exhaustion, brain fog.

‘Now I get about 4 days before my period where I don’t feel myself mentally. I also get severe bloating before my period where I can pᴀss off at being pregnant. 

‘I also am always so desperate to come on my period as I know how much happier I will feel when I bleed and I will just feel more able to cope with anything life throws at me and feel I have my sanity back x.

‘I had this from being about 16 but never really knew what it was x’.

She continued: ‘I’ve been prescribed sertraline before for my PMDD but it didn’t work for me x (just sharing my personal experience here, we are all different and great if sertraline works for you) It just made me feel angry which isn’t me at all. 

‘I then tried Yasmin the contraceptive pill to help control my pmdd and that really didn’t work for me (again great if it works for you I think we all react differently to things) 

Now, the actress has taken to Instagram to provide an update alongside a humorous video of herself explaining how she feels during the different stages of her period

Revealing her reel is inspired by Vicky Pattison, Helen said: ‘PMDD post ✨ Reel inspired by @vickypattison (heart emoji) We message sometimes about PMDD and I always love her posts on it and the awareness xxx’

She added: ‘My PMDD has been a lot more manageable recently and I’ll later in caption say somethings that help me control it ✨’ 

‘It made me feel really sick ( I had hyperemesis gravidum in all pregnancies so very sensitive to hormones) and I just felt low on it and not myself.

‘I also took medication for adhd for years, that I ended up being really poorly on so I was really put off medication so wanted to go though a more natural route as I didn’t feel I had much choice x (also again if medication works for you, for some people it really does that’s great, just sharing personal experience) x.

‘I did Cycle Syncing with my friend Grace which I absolutely loved I felt like I got such a better understanding of myself and my cycle and understanding the different stages helped me take more control back and worked out strategies’

The star has been candid about her struggles before and revealed during an interview on the Full of Grace podcast last June that she ‘used to feel horrendous before her period’ and pleaded with doctors for medication to ‘level her out’.

The actress has been incredibly candid about the breakdown she suffered early last year, which forced her to pull out of her acting comeback.

And during an interview on the Full of Grace Podcast, Helen shared how she hoped the medication would ‘fix her,’ but instead it made her feel ‘absolutely terrible.’

In a clip from the podcast, Helen said: ‘I just, I couldn’t cope, I just felt so awful and I would feel so depressed.

‘[I would go to] the doctors and be like ”I honestly feel so horrendous mentally before my period, I need to take something to level me out.” 

The star has been candid about her struggles before and revealed during an interview on the Full of Grace podcast last June that she ‘used to feel horrendous before her period’ and pleaded with doctors for medication to ‘level her out’ 

Helen shared how she hoped the medication would ‘fix her,’ but instead it made her feel ‘absolutely terrible’ 

Read More Helen Flanagan admits she used to ‘feel horrendous before her period’ and pleaded with doctors for medication to ‘level her out’ amid mental health woes

‘I thought it was gonna kind of like fix me but it actually made me feel absolutely terrible.’

Last February, it was revealed that Helen was bowing out of her role as Miss Scarlett in the show Cluedo 2 after she was ‘advised to withdraw for medical reasons’

However, she failed to give further details of the reason behind her departure – sparking fear among fans.

Taking to Instagram last March, she revealed that across January and February last year she was fighting a secret battle with her mental health following her split from Scott Sinclair, 36.

Helen revealed to The Mirror at the time that she was seeing things and felt like she was in danger after having a reaction to her ADHD medication.

She confessed she struggled to deal with the split: ‘I don’t see it as a break-up, I see it as a divorce. We were together 13 years. But instead of processing it all, I threw myself into work and shut off my emotions.

‘I just went into survival mode. Then it all came to the surface earlier this year and I was mentally and physically breaking down.’

She then started medicating for her ADHD and suffered a bad reaction to her medication, explaining at the time: ‘It was really sad and very scary. I was seeing things and I felt like I was in danger all the time.’

Helen shares three children – Matilda, 8, Delilah, 5, and Charlie, 2 – with her ex, Scott. The couple ended their 13-year relationship in 2022. 

Helen is now dating former footballer Robbie Talbot, 45. The pair began dating in February 2024 after meeting at a restaurant. 

WHAT IS PMDD AND WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS? 

Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) is a very severe form of premenstrual syndrome (PMS).

It causes a range of emotional and physical symptoms every month during the week or two before your period. It is sometimes referred to as ‘severe PMS’.

It occurs during the luteal phase your menstrual cycle. 

Emotional symptoms:

mood swingsfeeling upset or tearfullack of energyless interest in activities you normally enjoyfeeling hopelesssuicidal feelingsfeeling angry or irritablefeeling anxiousfeeling tense or on edgefeeling overwhelmed or out of controldifficulty concentrating

Physical symptoms: 

breast tenderness or swellingpain in your muscles and jointsheadachesfeeling bloatedchanges in your appeтιтe, such as overeating or having specific food cravingssleep problemsincreased anger or conflict with people around youbecoming very upset if you feel that others are rejecting you

Source: MIND