Posted by MrWhirly on October 11, 2002, at 12:00:06
In reply to Just Diagnosed, posted by Alylene on October 10, 2002, at 9:18:57
Hello Everyone. I have been recently given a preliminary diagnosis of Cyclothymia by a psychologist. She only met and talked with me briefly - she mostly just does referrals. I stumbled upon this site while doing some research. I am not sure if I have the same types of symptoms as many of you describe.
My main problems are mood swings, anger and irritability.
I don't reall have a "manic" up phase, I go from being fairly "normal" (I guess I mean stable when I say that) to having sudden and very rapid depressions that may last anywhere from a few minutes to a day or two. Most often they are triggered by something normal - hearing a song, seeing a dead animal by the road, watching a movie, etc. I feel restless and anxious at times, I also have a temper and get angry at the smallest things.
When I am in my "down" phase, I tend to withdraw and become detached from my feelings. I have brief but intense feelings of lonliness, or not really fitting in. I have also noticed I tend to be more tired and sleep more than normal sometimes. One day I slept for about 16 hours and still woke up feeling drained and tired. But I don't really have the lack of sleep or the mania on the other side.Sometimes I feel like Holden Caufield from The Catcher in the Rye. It's like Salinger wrote it about me.
I have found that while music can sometimes be the trigger, it also helps me get through my depressions a lot. It's strange to think that listening to depressing music can help with depression, but it helps me feel less isolated to know others have gone through this before. I think that sometimes it helps to let it "run it's course" and get it all out so I can start feeling better again.
I have been going through this since I was in my late teens, (I am 31 now) but when I was younger I had always just chalked it up to "emotional growing pains", but now I know that is not the case. I had talked to psychologist a few times over the years, but didn't have "classic depression" symptoms that lasted long enough, or severe enough ups and downs to be considered bipolar. So they usually ended up telling me everyone goes through these things at times, blah blah blah...(Damn HMOs!)
I have an appointment to go get a full evaluation soon, and am curious to see if the preliminary diagnosis changes. Does anyone else have experiences with mood swings like I describe and if so what meds worked to help this? The psych I saw recommended drugs and anger management therapy, at this point I am willing to try anything to be more "even-keeled". Anybody else suffering from these same types of symptoms I am?
poster:MrWhirly
thread:9730
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20021006/msgs/123234.html