Dixie D’Amelio is sharing insight into her Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD), including the “extreme” symptoms she endures every month.
“Basically, extreme anxiety, depression, losing the will to live and a lot of irritability and anger,” Dixie, 22, shared during Hulu’s The D’Amelio Show’s two-episode premiere on Wednesday, September 20. “Hopefully, the people around me can understand that.”
In October 2022, Dixie publicly revealed her PMDD diagnosis via an Instagram Live.
“I wasn’t feeling great and not really sure why. I recently got diagnosed with this thing called PMDD, which is premenstrual dysphoric disorder,” she said at the time. “It really affects your moods and your behavior and many different parts of your life.”
While she’s learning to live with her PMDD, Dixie told Us Weekly exclusively that it sometimes causes her to get in a “very dark place” mentally.
“It’s just such a back and forth and it’s never something I think I’ll ever have a complete handle on, but I am getting better at it,” Dixie continued. “Being able to talk to my parents — I talked to my dad [Marc D’Amelio] last night … he understands he doesn’t need to fix everything, but I just want him there for me and he can do that and so can my mom [Heidi D’Amelio].”
Dixie offered more details during The D’Amelio Show, explaining that she gets “really bad PMS” ahead of her menstrual cycle.
“People are going to be like, ‘Oh my god, everyone gets that,’” she shared during a confessional. “No — I didn’t know that you weren’t supposed to want to die every month before you got your period.”
For Dixie, PMDD has impacted “every single aspect” of her life — including her relationship with younger sister Charli D’Amelio.
Tensions were high between the two as they continuously bickered during 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’ve done my own research on PMDD to kind of understand, at least, a little bit, but she’s never really explained it to me,” Charli said during her own confessional.
Dixie, however, got a chance to further discuss the diagnosis and how it impacted her mental health on the “Green Room Talks With Jenna Andrews” podcast.
During season 3, episode 2 of The D’Amelio Show, Dixie took a trip to Nashville for a writing camp, but secured the podcast appearance as well.
“I have talked a little bit about me having PMDD, which I found out I have this year — the end of last year,” she shared when recording the episode. “I can explain it to the people around me because it definitely affects your relationships with people but at the same time, there’s still not much you can do.”
Overall, Dixie would “like to advocate for people with PMDD.” However, she noted that it’s difficult for her.
“When you’re going through it so often, it’s hard to do anything when you get taken off the tracks for two weeks every month,” she explained.
New episodes of The D’Amelio Show release via Hulu on Wednesdays.
