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Mental health

Anyone have personal experience of cyclothymia?

4 replies

Summerfalls · 20/05/2018 09:54

As the title says, does anyone have personal experience of living with cyclothymia?
I have been suffering with ups and down ‘moods’ for years. Cyclothymia has been questioned, but than so was borderline personality disorder at one point although that has now been ruled out, I didn’t think myself I had bpd as I couldn’t relate to most of the core symptoms, and my mood episodes tend to last weeks/months rather then hours and days.
The only thing with cyclothymia is when you look it up it says you have ‘mild’ depressions where as Iv always suffered quite severe non functioning depressions, I have just come out of a 6 month long depressive episode. I was wondering if anyone lives with cyclothymia themselves can tell me if they also suffer with severe depressive episodes too.

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SpecialStacey · 21/05/2018 21:58

Not me but my DH has something approaching cyclothymia / bipolar 2. He has 6 month periods of depression which at their worst means he hardly gets out of bed for weeks and is utterly unable to function. The highs are less frequent and usually last a couple of months at most. Are you on medication? Escitalopram has had a miraculous effect on DH, it takes a long time to kick in (7-8 weeks) but has completely changed him so he can function again.

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Summerfalls · 21/05/2018 22:38

Thank you for sharing that, sounds just like my depressions, highs are nice but don’t last as long as the depressions. And the depressions are totally deliberating. Does he suffer irritable moods too? Yes I am currently on duloextine. I have been on a fair few antidepressants over the years. This is the 3rd one I have tried since January this year when switching from my previous medication which was no longer working. This one seems to be working well thank god.

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Summerfalls · 21/05/2018 22:40

Also do you notice a seasonal pattern at all? My severest and longest lasting depressions typically fall within winter months. As a teen I always thought it was just seasonal affective disorder I had, but over the years it has gotten more severe. Which frightens me.

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SpecialStacey · 22/05/2018 10:11

I haven't noticed a specific seasonal pattern, they last so many months it's hard to pin down to seasons. It starts with major bad moods and irritability and spirals down into major depression and then only lifts with medication. After the last episode I think he's realised he needs to be on meds for life as he can't function without them. From the outside the highs are difficult to deal with but he seems unaware that there is a difference between high and normal. I'm glad you've found meds that work, no amount of talking therapy has made a difference to DH apart from perhaps recognising the symptoms earlier and accepting that outside people see what is happening quicker than he is able to.

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