Possible cyclothymia?

[creditslip]

He's just finished his first year at Uni - he's told me he's had times when he just didn't eat or wash and other times when he couldn't sleep for days - he just doesn't feel right, swings from depression to anxiety - describes anxiety as a relief because he is usually very active during anxiety episodes. He has been treated for anxiety before, he was convinced everyone could hear him swallow, he was treated with meds and that seemed to help.

He has lots of highs and lows (seems to be worse since he's left home - but not extreme and prolonged but it is affecting his daily activities and he's starting to feel really quite concerned about where his head is going.

He was diagnosed with mild/high functioning ASD when he was 8 but not really sure how robust that diagnosis was - he feels he has grown out of it - although during times of high stress that we can see the symptoms reoccur. He thinks he might be suffering from cyclothymia. He feels it also might be ADHD -as he can never finish tasks and he often feels detached from reality.

I see now as our chance to help him while he is at home from Uni, there has been something troubling him for so long now - a low rumbling of discomfort and I fear at Uni it's likely to get worse when I can't monitor him - where do I go next? Should I be looking for a psychiatrist or a psychologist and would it be adolescence or adult?
I know the NHS will not see this as a priority but it is one for us.

To get a diagnosis it would need to be a psychiatrist I think

Hi - I came on here to search Cyclothymia. What you describe in your son is very like out eldest daughter and she has now had a diagnosis of Cyclothymia with associated anxiety and OCD (characterised by rapid cycling of low mood and hypomania.) She still functions but every day of the weeks of low mood is a struggle for her. I am still worried that she doesn't have the right diagnosis as the always increasing doses of medication don't seem to be helping. She's now struggling in her final term of university to the point she is coming home for a bit and I'm not sure what that means for her final project. During the hypomanic times she loves university but she's had a four week low and it makes me start to wonder about depression, ASD, ADD, ADHD...have we got the right diagnosis? There is so little about Cyclothymia and so little support or info that we feel quite helpless. Also, now she's a grown up and living away, our options to help her navigate the systems of healthcare are limited although she leans on us emotionally during the low periods. Our youngest daughter has signs of cycling moods but at fourteen, I'm reluctant to think about any diagnosis - hoping it's teenage hormones and normal anxieties of that age. But this was what I said about our eldest until it became clear I was wrong.