Hi jensue,
I'll try to give you the skinny on cyclothymia,
But if you google it, you'll learn in greater detail all about it... Especially if you think you might have it. Cyclothymia is a mood/personality disorder. Cyclothymics are manic depressive... Bipolar... But it's on the mild side of the spectrum. Closer to characteristics of bipolar II just milder, but still can be quite debilitating, ruin relationships, and put you through the ringer!! We cycle between periods of hypomania, normal moods, and depression. In the hypomanic state, (not as severe as manic but very similar) we are full of energy and enthusiasm. Our brains are working at warp speed and our mouths can't keep up. Many of us like our hypomanic times because we are at our most creative, whatever art we are gifted in just seems
to pour out of us. Since the mind is zoomin, we can operate on very little sleep and our appetite disappears. We get especially irritable, even outbursts of anger and rage. We could call it artistic temperament until diagnosed and realize we were in this state. That's one thing about cyclothymia, because the symptoms are not pronounced, many of us don't even know we have it. It ravaged my life but I didn't know I had cyclothymia til i was 43. On the down side of depression, we lose all enthusiasm for former pasttime activities, we just want to stay at home, no social interaction, sleep a lot, carb out beyond normal, weepy like hormonal weepiness,
The clouds seem gray with no hope of sunshine. If we aren't diagnosed or on medication, many of us tend to self medicate with alcohol and marijuana... This is a biochemical condition. Our bodies don't retain or produce enough lithium which effects our seratonin levels in the neuro transmitters in the brain. I'm no scientist, lots of reading and talking to my psych doc to learn all I can... And I'm still learning! Hope this helps.
The most powerful weapon on this earth is the human soul on fire - Ferdinand Foch
Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass,
but learning to dance in the rain - Anonymous
Joined: 04-20-2011