Do You Ever Feel Like You're One Step Away From Losing Your Mind? You're Not Crazy — You're Dysregulated.

'm writing this blog post from experience. Not from a textbook. From this morning, actually — driving to work, nervous system already fired up before 9am. So if this feels personal, that's because it is.

The Straw That Broke the Camel's Back

You know that feeling? Everything is fine, fine, fine — and then one thing happens and suddenly you are absolutely not fine.

The house is a mess. Your pants feel tight because you're bloated. You didn't sleep well. Your husband said the wrong thing. Your schedule got changed without warning. Someone asked you for free advice for the hundredth time. The kids are loud. The weather can't decide what season it is.

And you just... snap. Or shut down. Or cry in the car. Or all three.

Here's what I want you to know: you are not crazy. You are not dramatic. You are not "too much."

You are dysregulated. And there is a difference.

Nervous system dysregulation is what happens when your capacity gets maxed out and your body shifts into survival mode — fight, flight, fawn, or freeze. It's not a character flaw. It's a physiological response. And for women, especially neurodivergent women, especially in the luteal phase of our cycles — it can feel absolutely overwhelming.

The Hormone Layer Nobody Talks About

One of the first things I do when I'm feeling like I'm losing my mind is look at where I am in my cycle. Because so often when I look back I realize — oh. of course. I'm in my late luteal phase. My period is about to start. My progesterone is dropping. My estrogen is low. My cortisol is already elevated from life. And my nervous system has approximately zero buffer left.

This is not weakness. This is biology.

Progesterone is your calming hormone. It supports GABA — the neurotransmitter that helps your brain feel safe and settled. When progesterone drops in the late luteal phase your brain literally has less of the chemical it needs to stay regulated. Add any external stressor on top of that and you've got the perfect storm.

For neurodivergent women this is amplified even further. Our nervous systems are already working harder baseline — processing more, masking more, managing sensory input more. We have less buffer to begin with. So when the hormones drop AND something unexpected happens AND we haven't eaten enough protein AND we didn't sleep well — the dysregulation can feel extreme.

And it makes complete sense that it does.

(Want to understand your hormones more deeply — including what's happening in each phase of your cycle and why? Check out my Harness your Hormones course- se more below)

More on Neurodiversity

We actually just came out of Neurodiversity Celebration Week and I posted some content about this that really resonated with a lot of people. Because yes — these neurospicy brains of ours can do truly remarkable things. The pattern recognition, the hyperfocus, the creativity, the deep empathy. On the good days it really does feel like a superpower.

But on days like today? It does not feel like a gift. It feels like a burden. And that's okay to admit too.

If you want to hear more about the neurodivergent experience in a small town — including late diagnosis, masking, finding your people, and celebrating different kinds of minds — Michele and I just talked about all of it on Small Town Big Minds podcast. Go give it a listen. 🎙️ [podcast link here]

What To Do When You're In It

Okay so you're dysregulated. You're in it. What do you actually do?

Here are the tools I reach for — as a practitioner AND as a human who lives this:

🧠 Vent into AI I know this might sound funny but hear me out. Sometimes I just need to dump everything out of my brain and have something help me make sense of it. Using AI to vent, get my thoughts organized, or have my brain explained back to me can genuinely help me regulate. It externalizes the chaos.

📓 Journaling and task management apps Getting the swirling thoughts OUT of your head and onto something external is huge. I use journaling apps and task management tools to calm the mental noise. If it's written down my brain can let go of trying to hold it.

🌬️ Breathing Whatever breathing exercise you like — box breathing, 4-7-8, just slow deep exhales — do it. Any of them work. Just come back to your breath. It's always there.

🫁 Vagus nerve work This is one of my favorites and it's underutilized. Your vagus nerve is the superhighway of your parasympathetic nervous system — the rest and digest side. When you're dysregulated you're in sympathetic overdrive — fight, flight, fawn, freeze. Vagus nerve stimulation helps bring you back down.

Ways to stimulate it: humming, singing, gargling, cold water on your face, or a vagus nerve stimulator tool like the Pulsetto. Note: if you have blood pressure issues be cautious with direct neck massage over the vagus nerve.

🌸 Flower essences and homeopathics Rescue Remedy is my go-to — I use it a lot. Comes Forte is a homeopathic originally formulated for sleep but works so good when your nervous system is in overdrive (I even give it to my dog to calm him down). These are gentle tools that work beautifully in the moment.

🪡 Acupuncture and ear seeds Acupuncture is incredible for nervous system regulation. And on days when I can't do a full treatment I'll place ear seeds on myself — small seeds or pellets on acupressure points on the ear that I can press throughout the day for ongoing stimulation. This is something I offer my patients too and the results are genuinely noticeable.

🌀 Stimming — yes really If you're neurodivergent, sometimes the dysregulation is partly because you've been suppressing your natural stims all day. Let yourself stim. I have fidget toys, an acupressure ring that I roll on my fingers when I need stronger input, and I almost always have a blanket on my lap — even in summer — because that weight and pressure makes me feel safe and grounded. There is no shame in this. It is your nervous system doing what it needs.

🥚 Check your basics Before anything else ask yourself: have I eaten? Have I had water? Am I overcaffeinated? Did I sleep? Have I had protein today? You cannot regulate a nervous system that is running on empty. Treat yourself like a zoo animal — your environment and your nutrition matter. (I wrote a whole post about this — [link here])

🛋️ Rest without guilt If you can find 10-15 minutes to lie down in a quiet dark room — do it. Not scrolling. Not thinking about your to do list. Just resting. Neurodivergent brains burn through energy faster and need more recovery time. This is not laziness. This is maintenance.

🎨 Make something with your hands So much of modern life — especially screen based work — gives you no visible evidence of what you accomplished. Your nervous system craves tangible results. Mow the lawn and turn around to see it. Pull weeds. Chop fire wood. Make art. Cook something, or make bread. Do anything where you can see and feel the outcome with your own body. That sense of accomplishment is genuinely regulating.

✅ Check one thing off your list Part of my dysregulation is often the feeling of being behind and overwhelmed by everything I haven't done. Finding ONE task I can complete — and physically checking it off — gives my brain the dopamine hit it needs to start calming down. Writing this blog post this morning was that task for me today.

🚶 Move your body Even a short walk. Movement helps metabolize cortisol, shift your nervous system state, and give your body somewhere to put all that activated energy.

This State Is Temporary

I want to say this clearly because when you're in it, it doesn't feel true:

This will pass. It always has. Think back to every time you've felt this way — it has never been permanent. Not once.

You will regulate. You will feel like yourself again. You will have good days where your neurospicy brain feels like the gift it actually is.

But right now, on the hard days — honor it. Give it what it needs. Don't push through at the expense of your nervous system.

And if you find yourself here every single luteal phase — feeling like you're losing your mind right before your period, cycling through dysregulation and recovery month after month — that's information. That's your hormones asking for support.

Ready to Understand Why This Keeps Happening?

If late luteal phase dysregulation feels like your personal monthly nightmare — I want you to know there's a reason AND there's something you can do about it.

Harness Your Hormones is my self-paced 6-module course that breaks down exactly what your hormones are doing throughout your cycle, why the luteal phase hits so hard for so many women, and what you can do to support your body naturally through each phase — through the lens of both functional medicine and Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Because you deserve to understand your own body. And you deserve more than just surviving the second half of your cycle every month.

Founding round pricing is still available until the end of March— $99 with code Hormone99 (normally $175). 🌿

👉 [Enroll here]

And if you want to work together one on one to really dig into what's happening with your hormones and/or your nervous system — I'd love to see you. [Book here.]