Dec 15 2008
Cyclothymia
With this disorder you get irritable a lot. You get depressed but not depressed-depressed, not clinically depressed. Still you know something’s wrong. It’s been years since you really felt yourself, like your old self, for more than a few days at a time. Cyclothymia is the mildest form of the bipolar disorders, but it’s also the most persistent. If you’re cyclothymic, you experience episodes of mild depression as well as episodes of hypomania that look a lot like depression; anger, irritability, and sadness. These moods can hang around for years, never really quite letting go. In fact, Cyclothymia is defined as two years of usually irritable hypomania, with less than two months between each episode. This form can have a real impact on your life and often takes a toll on your career, your relationships, and your self-esteem. And as many as one in three cases, the mood swings will get wider and you’ll wind up with a bipolar 1 or 2 diagnosis. In fact, some clinicians think of cyclothymia as a precursor to bipolar disorder rather than one of its forms. Others think it’s basically indistinguishable from bipolar 2. And still others wonder whether it’s a disorder at all.
