I Have PMDD, and This Sound Healing App Helped Me Have Calm, Less Emotionally Tumultuous Periods

PMDD is a psychological well being situation that impacts about 10 p.c of all menstruating folks, per the Cleveland Clinic. It is a extreme type of PMS characterised by shifts in temper, nervousness, vitality, and ache ranges within the 10 to 14 days main as much as your interval. Medical doctors aren’t precisely positive why it occurs, nevertheless it possible has to do with the steep drop within the hormone progesterone within the days earlier than menstruation, affecting your “feel-good” neurotransmitter serotonin, which regulates sleep, temper, and ache, per the Nationwide Institutes of Well being.

The standard remedies for PMDD embody remedy, antidepressants, and life-style adjustments like decreasing stress, getting higher sleep, and consuming a balanced weight loss program with wholesome protein and fat, all of which I’ve applied. Whereas these strategies do work to maintain my PMDD in test, I nonetheless generally want one thing extra to take the sting off every month (particularly if I am beneath a lot of stress).

That is the place pure therapeutic modalities come into play. Enter: SOAAK, a sound therapeutic app that simply launched its new frequency composition known as “PMS Help,” to assist folks handle the signs of PMS and PMDD. I would by no means tried a pure technique for my PMDD, however when given the possibility to strive the app free for 30 days, I jumped on the likelihood.

Here is my overview of the SOAAK app’s “PMS Help” frequency, the app itself, and whether or not sound therapeutic labored to alleviate my most annoying (and generally debilitating) PMDD signs.

First, what’s SOAAK?

SOAAK applied sciences is a well being tech firm in affiliation RenuYou—an in-person pure clinic in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The corporate began about 9 years in the past when co-founder Henry Penix and firm president Laura Widney mixed their data of know-how and naturopathic therapeutic. When the duo’s in-person shoppers started asking find out how to reap the advantages of sound therapeutic remedy within the consolation of their houses, the pair started working with scientists, medical doctors, and app engineers to create the SOAAK app.

Whereas the idea of a sound therapeutic app is pretty new, sound therapeutic remedy itself has existed for generations as a staple of Conventional Japanese drugs. You may typically discover tuning forks, Tibetan singing bowls, or gongs utilized in sound bathtub remedies, to assist folks loosen up and scale back a mess of bodily and psychological well being signs, in line with December 2020 overview in Integrative Drugs (Encinitas). Even spa-like music throughout a therapeutic massage, or the sounds of nature, will be thought of sound remedy.

The SOAAK app has 30 totally different sound frequency compositions to select from primarily based in your wants. The most well-liked embody:

• “Sleep nicely” (for insomnia)
• “Anti-anxiety”
• “Temper increase”
• “Focus” (for higher focus throughout the day)
• “Headache and migraine assist”
• And now, “PMS assist”

Every 20-minute frequency composition will be downloaded and performed at any time, very like a meditation. Every composition has quite a lot of tones set at totally different Hertz (Hz)—a measurement of sound. Probably the most generally used frequency in religious therapeutic is 432 Hz, which has additionally been related to lowered coronary heart price and blood stress, per an August 2019 overview in Discover: The Journal of Science & Therapeutic. However there are zero to (principally) a trillion totally different Hz frequencies that may be mixed and customised to fulfill your want, in line with Widney.

You’ll be able to take heed to frequency compositions of their authentic type, or layered beneath sounds of nature or music. Different app options embody:

• A collection of 21-day packages on numerous psychological well being and motivational subjects from scientists, physicians, life coaches, and extra. One instance is “Therapeutic Your Internal Baby” with psychotherapist Amy Van Slambrook.
• A well being biometrics part—the place you possibly can join your wearable machine (like an Apple Watch) to maintain observe of issues like coronary heart price, coronary heart price variability, sleep cycle, and extra.
• A digital well being concierge—a chat the place you possibly can ask questions concerning the app’s frequencies, packages, and different self-care suggestions. This device may also suggest frequencies primarily based in your present well being biometrics.
• A gratitude journal—the place you possibly can replicate in your day or expertise with a frequency.
• A twin audio function—which lets you play the frequencies whereas watching a video, listening to a podcast or audiobook, or listening to your personal music.
• A frontrunner board—the place you possibly can “gamify” your sound therapeutic expertise by seeing the way you match up with different high app customers.

SOAAK App — $29.99

• Person-friendly
• Comes with 30 totally different frequencies
• Bluetooth pairing to your Apple Watch
• Can play and pause the frequencies if you want

• Doesn’t checklist the hertz (Hz) frequency info within the app
• Month-to-month price will be dear for some

My 30-day SOAAK app overview

I made a decision to begin utilizing SOAAK’s “PMS assist” frequency initially of the month (my interval often hits on the finish of the month) to get the total impact earlier than and through that 10-day window.

Once I opened the app on day one, I used to be greeted by my title on the high, a weekly calendar, and a every day affirmation with the optimistic message,”I can adapt to any scenario that comes my manner.” (You’ll be able to choose to have every day affirmations despatched to you through electronic mail or textual content, too.) General, I discovered the app very user-friendly and straightforward to navigate. Plus, it simply appears to be like high-tech and aesthetically pleasing.

I clicked on the “frequencies” icon on the backside of the web page, and scrolled till I discovered “PMS assist.” The outline of the frequency stated it helps assist “balanced feelings, hormones, ache reduction, and decreased bloating.” As I started to play the unique model of frequency, it appeared like I used to be floating via outer house, however with decrease, extra grumbling undertones than I would imagined. (It did not sound as high-pitched and flighty because the stress-relief composition, for instance.)

I discovered myself gravitating towards the music model of this frequency—a guitar strumming sound with the frequencies enjoying beneath—which I listened to throughout my lunch break on the primary day (with an alarm set on my cellphone in case I dozed off, after all).

For the remaining days, I made a decision to both take heed to it at night time or in morning, in mattress with my comfortable sleep masks on. I began by listening to them out loud, however found that sporting headphones presents a extra elevated expertise. Some days, I could not get round to listening to your entire 20 minutes, so it was good that I used to be in a position to pause and play it every time I wished. I received into the routine of listening after which logging how I felt afterward within the gratitude journal.

Throughout my “good time” of the month, I discovered that SOAAK’s “PMS assist” frequency was a nice strategy to cap off or begin my days. I entered a meditative-like state, the place I used to be conscious, however my mind felt calm and sluggish. It felt just like after I take heed to binaural beats—i.e., beats set at two totally different frequencies and recorded utilizing two separate microphones, for a layered impact in every ear— which can have the potential to change brainwave exercise, per the Sleep Basis. (Nevertheless, extra analysis is required to verify any well being advantages.)

On some days, “PMS assist” additionally gave me a soothing, head-tingling sensation that I really feel after I watch or take heed to ASMR (a bodily sensation in response to visible or auditory stimuli, additionally known as autonomous sensory meridian response, per UCLA Well being). I undoubtedly added “PMS assist” to my rotation of stress-free content material that I take heed to frequently, and really feel that it might assist me loosen up even after I’m not within the throws of PMDD.

Then got here the true take a look at: the ten days earlier than my interval.

Did SOAAK assist my PMDD signs?

One of many predominant methods I do know I am headed into that pre-period time is after I begin having repetitive, intrusive ideas. They have an inclination to get caught on a loop, and are sometimes unfavourable self-talk in nature. When this occurred this month, I turned on “PMS assist,” irrespective of the time of day, along with my morning or night time ritual. I even performed it as soon as whereas strolling with my canine, and whereas cleansing my condominium.

Listening to the frequency helped my mind instantly concentrate on one thing else, and the racing thought loop simply…stopped. Even when I attempted to get the ideas going once more, it was more durable to conjure them up. It felt nice to get instant reduction from certainly one of my most annoying PMDD signs—particularly after I’m beneath extra stress. I additionally really feel like my nervousness generally was barely decreased after listening to it spontaneously.

Whereas I would not say “PMS Help” relieved my bodily signs (like cramping, complications, bloating, and fatigue), it did assist take my thoughts off any ache for a short while till any medicines I took, like Advil or Midol, kicked in. (Although some folks might discover ache reduction whereas listening; everybody’s totally different!)

General, I do really feel that SOAAK’s “PMS Help” frequency composition helped me have a calmer, much less emotionally tumultuous time main as much as my interval. It actually wasn’t a cure-all (I nonetheless use my conventional remedy strategies), nevertheless it did assist, and I imagine I can begin utilizing it along with remedy, treatment, and different stress-relieving strategies.

This leads me to a bigger query: Does sound therapeutic generally truly work? (Extra on this beneath.)

Does sound therapeutic remedy actually work?

There is no strong proof to recommend that sound therapeutic remedy can treatment any illness. The research on sound therapeutic remedy for each bodily and psychological well being situations are restricted, have combined outcomes, and sometimes showcase quite a lot of outcomes. That stated, it could actually nonetheless be a useful supplemental remedy along with different clinically backed remedies, particularly to assist promote leisure.

On a broader scale, we do know that our nervous methods reply to sound—for the higher, and generally, for the more severe.

“Our autonomic nervous system has the tendency to reply and co-regulate to the rhythms round us,” says Ellen Vora, MD, a board-certified psychiatrist specializing in ladies’s psychological well being, and writer of The Anatomy of Anxiousness. “This implies, in instances of stress, our our bodies can decide up and sync with sounds round us—like noisy metropolis life or folks shouting, which have sure sound frequencies—inflicting us to really feel even worse.” These sounds can improve our coronary heart price and even ship our nervous methods into fight-or-flight mode, she provides.

However once we take heed to extra stress-free frequencies, like wind rustling via timber, birdsong, ocean waves, or sure music, our coronary heart price may also sync up (and decelerate) with this rhythm, stress-free us, says Dr. Vora. This is also why the sound of issues like singing bowls elicit a chilled response. Dr. Vora says it might assist us transfer via pent-up feelings, or what she calls “emotional constipation.”

Actually, a small July 2017 observational research within the Journal of Proof-Primarily based Complementary & Different Drugs discovered that individuals who listened to a low-frequency, Tibetan singing bowl meditation scored considerably decrease on nervousness and despair scales than previous to listening, suggesting it does have some psychological profit.

Backside line: Sound therapeutic remedy, within the type of sound frequencies, can’t essentially treatment or heal you, and extra scientific research are wanted in an effort to absolutely perceive its impact on mind chemistry. But when it brings you a way of calm, and helps you higher cope with issues like PMDD or PMS, it is innocent and will be value a strive, particularly along with care out of your physician.

And remember: For those who’re having depressive ideas, ideas of suicide, or ideas of harming your self or another person, that is thought of a psychological well being emergency that requires skilled care. Name your physician and go to the closest emergency room as quickly as potential. You too can name or textual content “988,” the Nationwide Suicide and Disaster Lifeline, for instant assist.

Is there a future for sound therapeutic remedy?

Sound therapeutic remedy could possibly be the wave (pun supposed) of the way forward for holistic well being care. There is no denying that apps like SOAAK are providing handy and straightforward choices to cease the consequences of stress and nervousness in its tracks, and show you how to lead a calmer existence. Although we nonetheless have a protracted strategy to go in utterly understanding the impact of frequencies on well being and the human physique, I’ve a sense we’ll begin to see increasingly sound remedy apps (and different holistic apps) crop up within the coming years.

Each Penix and Widney say they need to assist folks “reclaim their well being, and take their care into their very own arms.” Utilizing this app has actually made me suppose extra concerning the methods I can higher handle myself throughout my 10-day, pre-period part, and reclaim this month-to-month routine.

If you wish to strive SOAAK

When you’ve got PMDD, PMS, need to get higher sleep, or are simply plain curious concerning the results of sound therapeutic, obtain SOAAK as we speak on IOS or Android and begin a seven-day free trial. From there, you possibly can go for a month-to-month subscription of $29.99 per thirty days, or a yearly subscription at $24.99 per thirty days (or $300 per yr).