If the depression is noticeable—enough so that you find yourself weeping softly into handkerchiefs, or have headaches and severe cramps, ask your doctor to help you out of your blue funk. There are many ways your doctor can be of help under these circumstances and only your doctor should decide which is best for you. Ask him to help you.

One of the best ways to deal with the tension you feel before your period is to be active and to plan something you really enjoy. If your skin has a tendency to be oilier and breaks out during this period, why not schedule a glamor session with some of your girl friends? As you experiment with some inexpensive make-up, you'll either lift your spirits with your beauty, or give yourself a good laugh when you see the results of green eyeshadow on one eye and blue eyeshadow on the other. Or, plan to see a movie or a concert you've looked forward to. No sense sitting at home, moping. It will only make you feel even sorrier for yourself.

It's important to remember that along with a rush of physical changes, you are experiencing a bushel of feelings and impulses. You have thoughts and emotions which are new to you, sparked by your womanhood. These thoughts and feelings set up strains and conflicts in you; there are fears and worries and doubts that are inarticulate, but nevertheless they are there—you may feel their results in "unexplainable" fits of deep depression.

Some of these fears are caused by lack of knowledge. If you find yourself worried about your scanty knowledge of sex, if you feel sensations in your body which make you feel an urgent need for physical release, if you have a feeling of being overwhelmed by your body's desire for femininity, there are ways to find help. If you have an easy, let's-talk relationship with your mother, you might deposit the problem in her lap, and find she has a way of straightening you out that's far more satisfactory than your own guessing. There are books, good books, to read. Your doctor, your minister or a school adviser can recommend one.

But get your information from a source you can respect. You wouldn't expect your girl friends to know all about politics—or expect to piece together the history of the world by looking up words in the dictionary. You can't get your knowledge of sex and womanhood in these ways either.

The point is—you may have blue moods. They do come from something, either physical or mental. Dispel the physical cause, banish the mental worry, and you're well on your way to controlling and changing the mood to a more pleasant one.

And oh, yes. There's the girl who enjoys her blue mood, and trades on her menstrual period to play the delicate flower. She's a pest, and we're sure you wouldn't be guilty of any such thing. Because you might miss a lot of fun, if you spent too much time sulking in your room.