Gypsy Keerati opens up in full on the Prime Cast program hosted by Punpun Sutatta, revealing her life story of being someone who was very strict with herself about taking care of her figure to always be beautiful and perfect. This resulted in abnormal hormones in her body, missing her period for 1 year, and severe PMDD to the point of hurting herself and her foreign husband.
When thinking about health, beauty, and sexiness, it must be P’YipSo?
Gypsy: If there was a happy time in my life when I was in the gym too much, there was a time when I was crazy about going to the gym. At that time, all I posted on IG were pictures of me in the gym, so people misunderstood that I spent 7 days in the gym, 24 hours a day. In fact, I was in the gym for an hour a day, not all day like they think.
Besides exercise, what else can you do to take care of yourself?
Gypsy: I eat mostly. It’s okay food. I tend to choose healthy food, but I don’t eat clean food. I choose food that I think is good for me. I don’t eat processed food that much. But I’m not too strict. I can eat anything from any restaurant. But if I can choose, I’ll choose something better. I eat just enough to feel like I’ve eaten and don’t have to go on a diet later.
Before reaching this point, you must have passed through an unbalanced point, right?
Gypsy: Yes, I’ve been through a lot, made mistakes all the time, until I found a way of life that I’m happy and can do all the time. When I was a kid, I stopped eating carbohydrates completely. When I was filming a lakorn, people said that I was getting fatter. There was pressure from work, I stopped eating carbohydrates, didn’t eat rice, ate only side dishes, boiled eggs, fruit. In the end, I fainted and it was a yo-yo effect because I couldn’t stand it, I was hungry. In my later years, I really ate clean food. I tried to cook clean food myself or buy clean food to eat. I didn’t eat regular food at all. When I went to the set, I brought my own clean lunch box. And when I met friends, I didn’t eat rice with them. I ate from home. I only ordered water. I just sat and talked. So I felt that life like that was too stressful to do. I wasn’t happy. It made my friends or people around me, whether it was my boyfriend or family, unhappy too. So I adjusted.
People see us as idols in terms of our figure and health. If one day we eat too much or gain weight, will people look at us?
Gypsy: It is a part of it, but we feel that it is our own challenge, how much do we let the word that was created as a fitness idol tie us down? If we can accept that our body shape will change or our eating habits will change, if that day we feel that I don’t want to be like this anymore, I just want to be a human being who enjoys life, then we can do that. We don’t have to care about what other people think.
During this time, how did the people around you cope with it? And did your period come normally?
Gypsy: During the time I ate strange foods, my period disappeared for over a year. At the time I was on a very cleanse, very strict with my food, and exercised heavily, both weight training and cardio, boxing, I did everything. At that time, I just thought that eating less, less calories, and exercising a lot equaled being thin. I don’t know if I was thin or not, but I knew that my health was not good, and my skin was dry, like it was going to sag. In reality, our bodies need to have some fat.
So how do you get your period back?
Gypsy : I came back to eating balanced, calorie-rich, and nutritious food. It took me about 3 months to get back to normal. Normally, my periods are fairly regular, but when I turned 25, I felt that I had PMS (Premenstrual Syndrome) quite severely, more than the average person. But at that time, it wasn’t severe. It really got really severe when I was 30. My life changed. I later found out that it wasn’t PMS anymore. It was advanced and called PMDD (Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder, a group of severe mood disorders before menstruation). I was suffering from hormones and mental illness. The symptoms got worse and became more severe because every month before I got my period, I felt like I didn’t want to be on this earth anymore.
But never do anything?
Gypsy: Yes, I used to. In the past, I lived in a condo. During the time when I felt very emotional, sometimes I was very angry and very sad. And within an hour, my emotions would fluctuate like a storm of chemical hormones. I couldn’t control it. I felt like I was going crazy. And it was so painful that I couldn’t find the cause. When my friends asked my boyfriend, what caused it, I didn’t have an answer for him. I felt that it wasn’t normal. This boyfriend saw everything. When I was in the condo, I was very dramatic. I once ran into the condo and cried, screamed, and ran down the fire escape. I was quite insane. I remember that I was driving and this happened. I couldn’t control my emotions and crashed into the train in front of me. At that time, I felt that it was dangerous and I had to do something about myself. It had a negative effect on me, hurting myself and hurting others. When I recovered, I felt very guilty.
How did you get through that period?
Gypsy: I went to the doctor, and luckily my boyfriend let me keep a diary to see what symptoms I had. When I looked at it, I noticed something. Every month, around this time before my period, it happened again. I was going crazy again. So I realized that it was a pattern. So I made an appointment with the doctor and went to talk to the gynecologist. I took the diary to show the doctor. The doctor said that you have PMDD, which is caused by a woman’s hormones fluctuating a lot. Sometimes you may take medicine at an abnormal level. The doctor said that I need to use birth control pills to control my estrogen levels. On the other hand, psychiatrics requires treatment on both sides because I have a history of depression, but I’ve never received proper treatment.
When did you become depressed?
Gypsy: About 19-20 years old, it was from my mental fabrication. I had family issues since I was a child. I used to be jealous of my younger sister, and I didn’t communicate with my family. It was a problem that was never solved, and dragged on for almost 30 years. It was only solved about 2 years ago.
The person around you who can handle everything is your boyfriend, right?
Gypsy: It’s the main thing. There was a time when I got away from hurting myself and started hurting others. One time, it was like we had a fight. At that time, life was quite tense. That day, we had a violent fight. We pushed each other. I felt like I had grabbed his face until my nails bled. And when I did it, I didn’t realize it, but I couldn’t control it. I couldn’t stop it. I was filled with more anger than a normal person. When I recovered, I apologized to him because I felt very guilty. It was dangerous, so I got serious treatment. My boyfriend forgave me, held my hand, and we got through this together. Now I’m healed, but not completely healed. It’s gotten better and I can live with it.
