Someone mentioned thinking the over-prescribed poor souls would probably have done better with more of certain vitamins. As someone who had severe emo issues as a kid, I studied how messed-up body chemistry causes psych issues like anxiety, depression, and volatility. There is one book everyone should read called "The Mood Cure". With supplementing amino acids and taking therapeutic vites you can feel so SANE. Even if bc pills or one's own wildly fluctuating peri-menopause hormones make you feel like mental case sometimes. I do have some words of wisdom other than the insightful evaluations others have provided in this thread. One, too many women are wino's. Drink wine all the time, have wine breath, alienate people with things they say and do. And feel like crap!! If they could try not to have a destructive crutch it would help. I had to give up not one but two crutches. Do I miss them? God yes. You will get you sanity and stability back after menopause. That's right. Phase 2 of your life. And, sorry if this sounds crude, but it really is true that if you keep on having lots and lots of sex during peri and meno and after, it really really helps greatly from a symptoms standpoint, and the blessed product, astroglide, cannot be lived without. There. I said it. Looking back in myself before my hormones changed, good grief I was not the nicest person (but I thought I was). Hormones run a person's life. If I could turn time back I would have picked men who did not reinforce my childhood lesson that I would never be anybody's numero uno. How sad. That is how we end up without a life partner, and it does come as a shock.