Dixie D’Amelio shares insight into her premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), including the ‘extreme’ symptoms she experiences each month.
“Basically extreme anxiety, depression, loss of will to live and a lot of irritability and anger,” Dixie, 22, said during Hulu’s The D’Amelio Showpremieres with two episodes on Wednesday, September 20. “Hopefully the people around me can understand that.”
In October 2022, Dixie publicly announced her PMDD diagnosis via an Instagram Live.
“I didn’t feel great and I didn’t know exactly why. I was recently diagnosed with PMDD, which is a premenstrual dysphoric disorder,” she said at the time. “It really affects your mood and your behavior and a lot of different parts of your life.”
As she learns to live with her PMDD, Dixie said We weekly only that it sometimes causes her to end up in a ‘very dark place’ mentally.
“It’s just a back and forth thing and it’s never something I think I’ll ever fully master, but I’m getting better at it,” Dixie continued. “Because I could talk to my parents, I talked to my father [Marc D’Amelio] last night… he understands that he doesn’t have to fix everything, but I just want him with me and he can, and so does my mother [Heidi D’Amelio].”
Dixie offered more details during The D’Amelio Showin which she explains that she gets “really bad PMS” before her menstrual cycle.
“People will say, ‘Oh my God, everyone gets that,’” she said during a confessional. “No, I didn’t know you weren’t supposed to want to die every month before your period.”
For Dixie, PMDD has affected “every aspect” of her life, including her relationship with her younger sister Charli D’Amelio.
Tensions between the two were high, as they argued constantly throughout the first two episodes of The D’Amelio Show season 2.
Dixie explained that Charli, 19, “wasn’t really around” when she was diagnosed. (Charli was a competitor on Dancing with the stars season 31, which she ultimately won.)
“I never really explained it to her,” Dixie said. Charli, for her part, agreed.
“I did my own research on PMDD to at least understand it a little bit, but she never really explained it to me,” Charli said during her own confessional.
However, Dixie had the chance to further discuss the diagnosis and how it affected her mental health on the ‘Green Room Talks With Jenna Andrews’ podcast.
During season 3, episode 2 of The D’Amelio ShowDixie traveled to Nashville for a writing camp, but also secured the podcast gig.
“I’ve talked a little bit about having PMDD, which I found out I had this year – late last year,” she said while taping the episode. “I can explain it to the people around me because it certainly affects your relationships with people, but at the same time you still can’t do much about it.”
Overall, Dixie would “like to advocate for people with PMDD.” However, she noted that it is difficult for her.
“When you go through it so often, it’s hard to do anything when you’re taken off the job for two weeks every month,” she explained.
New episodes of The D’Amelio Show release via Hulu on Wednesday.