does anyone know what cyclothymic temperament is? my pdoc seems to think that this is the part of the bp spectrum that i have, due to the fact that i've never had a manic stage. the little bit of information he gave me does sound alot like me, but i'm confused by it all. he talks alot about the bipolar spectrum which i can't seem to understand. why does everything have to be so confusing, why can't it be black or white. either i have bp or i don't. what is so hard about that? now he is throwing this cyclothymic temperament thing at me. at least i'm feeling better and am more able to deal with it. i just want to understand what exactly is going on with me. i can look it up myself on line but i don't understand all the mumbo jumbo. if anyone knows anything about this then please get back to me in a language i may be able to understand and not in medical terms.
Think of it as bipolar "light." It is a type of depression that includes mood swings, or changes in mood, from feelings of depression to feelings or symptoms of hypomania. The individual who has it never goes beyond hypomania into a true mania. S/he may feel some of the same symptoms but never loses control of his/her behavior. The severity of the mood swings is not nearly as extreme as in BP 1.
It is treated with medication and also sometimes with therapy. Does this help??
I just reread your post and see that I didn't address all your questions. It is so confusing because mental health professionals all use a "ratings" scale and book of definitions that they update about every ten years. It is called the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) which was published in 1994 and is being updated currently. There are charts and lists of symptoms and behaviors that a mental health professional can refer to during an evaluation to come up with a diagnosis that will be understand by anyone within the field.
If an individual had breast cancer and was told it was Stage IV, she could go anywhere in the country and tell a doctor that she has Stage IV breast cancer and s/he would have a general idea of where to start treatment. The DSM-IV is the "book" that serves to function as a guide so that a pdoc can begin to figure out what is going on with a patient and how to begin treatment.
Think of the bipolar spectrum as an old-fashioned ladies hairpin -- the kind that is a thin horseshoe shape -- on one end is major depression and on the other end is classic mania and the whole continuum ranging from depression through stability on through varying degrees of mania lies in between those two poles. Sometimes you feel more on one side and other times you feel more on the opposite side; sometimes you feel a little bit of each or you jump quickly from one to the other. Does that make sense??
Regarding whether you are BP2, BP-NOS or cyclothymic doesn't really matter too much to you -- you feel the same types of things and have the same kinds of symptoms --you just do not experience them as intensely --
tsohl, thank you for clearing that up for me. doctors can be so confusing sometimes and i don't always ask the right questions, or usually i think of the questions after leaving the docs office. anyway you made it so much easier to understand.
hope you never decide to leave this board, and i think that i'm speaking for most of us when i say we'd be lost without you.
Thank you for the compliment. I guess that means you understood my very unscientific explanation?? That how I understand cyclothymia -- I have no medical background so I could be wrong...but I think what I said is fairly accurate.
does anyone know what cyclothymic temperament is? my pdoc seems to think that this is the part of the bp spectrum that i have, due to the fact that i've never had a manic stage. the little bit of information he gave me does sound alot like me, but i'm confused by it all. he talks alot about the bipolar spectrum which i can't seem to understand. why does everything have to be so confusing, why can't it be black or white. either i have bp or i don't. what is so hard about that? now he is throwing this cyclothymic temperament thing at me. at least i'm feeling better and am more able to deal with it. i just want to understand what exactly is going on with me. i can look it up myself on line but i don't understand all the mumbo jumbo. if anyone knows anything about this then please get back to me in a language i may be able to understand and not in medical terms.
tsohl, thank you for clearing that up for me. doctors can be so confusing sometimes and i don't always ask the right questions, or usually i think of the questions after leaving the docs office. anyway you made it so much easier to understand.
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