Perimenopause changes the internal environment of your nervous system in ways that make everyday stressors feel heavier, louder, and harder to manage. You’re not becoming less capable — your body is moving through a transition that affects how you experience pressure, emotion, and demand.

If you’ve found yourself more on edge, more reactive, or constantly bracing for something — even when nothing is wrong — you’re not imagining it. And you’re definitely not alone.

This post will help you understand why anxiety feels different in perimenopause, how to distinguish it from general anxiety, and what actually helps.

If you’ve hit your 40s or 50s and suddenly feel more emotional, more overwhelmed, more irritable, more forgetful, or more reactive than you’ve ever been, you are not alone — and you are not “losing it.”

If you’ve been forgetting words, losing your train of thought, or feeling mentally “foggy,” you’re not imagining it — and you’re certainly not alone. One of the most surprising symptoms of perimenopause isn’t just hot flashes or mood changes.

If you had the opportunity to watch yourself as you moved through your day, would you see a person behaved as though they valued themselves?

Clients come to therapy wanting to change something. Yet, change can be really difficult. You want to change – how do you make it easier to do?

How to change when you’re an overthinker and perfectionist - common barriers and how to get around them.

Mindfulness changed my life. What is it and why do I recommend it for overthinkers?

Happiness, joy, contentedness – bring them on! Anxiety, sadness, shame – they can stay as our enemies, am I right? Just like we pull our hand away from a hot burner, we pull away from negative-feeling emotions. Makes perfect sense.

Sloooow down. What if I told you that it is the pulling away that causes the real suffering, not the negative-feeling emotions?

…what are you missing in life while you’re working so hard to control your anxiety? What does trying to stop your anxiety cost you in terms of…your health?...your finances?...your relationships?...your time spent alive?...your work?...opportunities?

As overthinkers, our minds hold our thoughts in high regard. It makes sense, because as overachievers, our thoughts have brought us a lot of success. But sometimes, our thoughts paralyze us.

How did attachment influence your perfectionism? To make sense of “my needs are not met consistently,” your brain came up with the idea – ah, I must not be good enough, there must be something wrong with me. I know! I’ll become perfect!

Okay, so we’ve been given a brain akin to a nasty social media algorithm. What do we do about it?

Vanessa restricts to avoid feeling out of control, Jennifer uses sugar to cope with tension, and Ishani overeats to numb the feelings of anxiety.

What’s going on here? Why do Vanessa, Jennifer, and Ishani using food to cope with emotion, and others don’t?

What does it mean to “let go” of thoughts? This phrase comes up all the time in therapy. Picture yourself 5 minutes into a mindfulness meditation, and the whispery-voiced therapist says, “Notice the thought, and let it go.”

There is always a next step, a new place to prove yourself, a way to show yourself you have worth. High performance is desirable; however, the difference is that the high performer without perfectionism goes to bed at night aware of their value beyond their successes.

We want to avoid emotional pain. It generally feels awful. The physical sensations are sometimes unbearable. Suffering sucks. Ugh. Of course we want to get rid of these feelings!!

Insomnia - this is a story about the idea of one and done. Getting rid of. The impossible pursuit of “it’s fixed.”

Discover two processes (noticing the thought and categorization) that help create psychological distance from the thought, so we can begin to view thoughts as simply - thoughts.

Life is hard enough. You need an internal best friend, not an opponent. Here’s how to get one.