“Why Am I Suddenly So Irritated by things I use to tolerate?”
Dr. Cherise returns enthusiastically, introduces herself as a licensed clinical mental health therapist, and welcomes viewers. She invites people to engage by sharing where they are.
She frames the session around the 'menopause mind'—including perimenopause, menopause, and postmenopause—asks viewers to rate their week and the emotional-physical connection, and invites others to join while noting a women’s health focus.
The central question—'why do I feel irritated by everything?'—is raised and viewers are guided to notice their current emotional state and irritation level. Dr. Cherise shares a personal example to normalize shifting tolerance.
She outlines contributors to emotion regulation changes in midlife, including hormones, stress tolerance, sleep, and sensitivity to stimulation, and describes how increased daily demands amplify those effects. A brief recap ties these factors to the topic.
Dr. Cherise cautions against attributing every irritation to hormones, noting that midlife often reveals long-standing patterns of overfunctioning and thin tolerance. She encourages reflection on whether irritations indicate needed change rather than just biological causes.
Viewers are asked to pick one irritation and decide if it needs regulation or real change, typing 'regulate' or 'change' as a prompt. She explains repeated irritations may signal dynamics that require shifting and reminds listeners they don’t have to carry all adjustments alone.
She empowers viewers to become less tolerant of what costs them too much, acknowledges that others may need to adjust, and reassures them they'll be fine. The session ends with thanks, scheduling details, and a warm signoff.
I'm so excited I could scream. I know that's not like ideal to do, but I haven't been here with you in so long, like way too long. I am Dr. Cherise Johnson. I come into this space as a human. I come into this space as truly an individual who is a lover of all souls. And I come into this space as someone who believes that there are many ways to be well. In my day job, I am a licensed clinical mental health therapist and This is one of my favorite places to be. Many of you are coming in. Welcome back.
One of the ways, thank you for the hearts, that we come in is I always love for you to let us know where you are. So hello, Statesboro, Georgia. And we just got to rate your week. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would like for you to just consider one being like, it's rough 10, meaning you're doing phenomenal. Here's a little twist. I want you to rate how you're doing with the connection between your emotional and physical, right? at that integration. Hello, Apex, North Carolina. So this focus, because I did want to come back and just center things a little bit more, is going to be circled or centered around the menopause mind.
And so I want you to think about like, How is your menopause mine? And when I say menopause, I mean everything perimenopause, menopause, postmenopause, and everything in between. If you're a guy, you're more than welcome to stay. You might learn some things, but I will say that a big part of our conversation will be centered around women's health. So invite someone into this space who might need it. The question that I want us to focus on tonight is why do I feel irritated by everything. And of course, it's a little bit of an exaggeration, but one of the things that we often experience is just sometimes our ability to regulate our emotions or handle things that we used to handle well, it's like our tolerance starts to disappear.
And so the first thing that I want you to consider is where are you today? And no matter who you are, you can answer that question. When you think about where you are right now in this moment from an emotional standpoint, what do you notice? And specifically, what's your irritation level been like? I would say for myself, I was super irritated last week. Everything got on my nerves because it was just a really emotional week and I just wanted it to end. time moves on and you get to a new week or things shift.
I had to really focus in and take care of myself and this is a little bit different. But I will say my irritation is lower this week because I've been more guarded. I have been more protective of my time and my energy and the people that I engage with. And I think that's important for us to keep in mind is there are some people in our lives that we don't have choice around or limited choice around. So where you can and when you can make sure that you give yourself an opportunity to really gauge when you need to pull back a little bit or be around different people.
All right. So where are you today? One thing that's worth knowing is that this season around menopause absolutely is a season where our emotional regulation is impacted. So our emotion regulation is going to be impacted not only by hormones, but by our stress tolerance, by our sleep, by our sensitivity to stimulation. That's one that I feel like can be not subtle, but sometimes we forget about that. We forget that when we have a lot of things coming at us, even emails and demands and texts and phone calls and responsibilities and lists and kids go back to school or people come through, all of those things are stimulation and our daily demands change.
And that is going to have an impact on how we are. Hello, people and Derek, great to see you. So for those of you just joining, quick recap, we're talking about why do we feel irritated by everything when we're in that season of perimenopause, menopause and postmenopause. And just really looking at where we are and recognizing that there are a lot of factors that really impact our stress regulation. So here's the part that we don't offer talk about, we might keep this to ourselves. Every irritation doesn't need to be dismissed as hormones, right?
Everything is not your hormone. So it's important for you not to point that finger at yourself. And it's important to not allow the people in your life to excuse everything into that bucket because here's the reality. Menopause and midlife, right, is a season where it's like our tolerance has grown thin over time and we can no longer, we can no longer and we don't want to endure some of the same things that we have. So a lot of times this season is challenging because we're at the point that we've recognized We have been over functioning.
We have been over accommodating. We have been overdoing it in multiple areas of our life. And we don't have the capacity to do that anymore because our body is like in our mind, in our spirit is like, we need all of this energy to get through this transition. So it is quite possible that your irritation can be some things need to change and have needed to change for a while. And yeah, it can feel like injury by 1000 paper cuts. And so we have to remember to like mend ourselves and to give ourselves just using that analogy permission not to allow those cuts anymore.
I want you to think about that. Like there are some things, I can say this for myself, you can reflect on it for you, that I would have allowed even five years ago that I just wouldn't allow now in terms of multiple things on a personal and a professional level. So it's important for you to also recognize that even though this is the season where you're starting to potentially communicate, you recognize this doesn't feel as good as I thought it would, everything is not hormones. So here's a question for you to sit with.
You can put your thoughts about this in the chat. You can reflect on this later. I don't want it to feel like homework, but I think it's something tangible to consider. What is irritating you right now? And is it something that you need to regulate around or actually change? So that's one thing that I feel like we could safely answer if you don't want to tell too much. I want you to write the word regulate or change based on what you're thinking of, right? What is irritating you right now might be a lot of things.
I want you to think of one thing for our time. And is it something that you need to regulate around or change? I think that's a really powerful question, especially if you see I'm getting irritated by this repeatedly. Maybe it's not just something I need to manage better. Maybe it's something I need to change or do differently or something about this dynamic has to change. And that's hard because sometimes we have been led to believe that we're the ones that have to do all the changing and that if we, hello Maria, if we are the people who make all the accommodations that it will work out, right?
So I want to ask that question one more time. What is irritating you right now? And is it something that you need to regulate around or something that actually needs to change? And then I invited you to put in the chat, regulate or change based on what is true. And it doesn't mean that you have to leave this moment and go do it. Now you know I'm okay if you decide that that's what you want to do. But I do think it's important for you to consider where are all the areas as well that you are putting in all of this work to regulate and to alter and to do things differently.
and maybe the people around you aren't doing their work as well. So I just want you to consider that. I'm going to leave you with this thought. You are allowed to become less tolerant of what cost too much. You're allowed to decide, I don't want this for myself anymore. I don't like being treated this way. I want to show up differently. I'm not the same person that I once was and I want to move through life accordingly. Like you're allowed to become less tolerant of what cost you too much. I'll say this as well.
That might not make everybody happy. There are some people in your life that will have to adjust as you evolve and communicate for yourself. And guess what? They will all be just fine. Okay? I'm so glad that you came into this space. Take whatever you need from this moment and, you know, just reflect on it and then go from there. And then I will be back on Tuesday just from some general mental fitness at 1pm EST. And so Sorry, Mondays. I had to switch it because somebody else had a lot. I gotta get that.
Mondays and Thursdays. So I had to find times that would work with me no matter what time zone that I'm in so that I can be consistent that I'm here, I'm back. And oh my goodness, Maria, no worries. Whenever you're here, you're here. And I'll see you all in a few days. Have a great weekend.
