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"   Question After several suicide attempts I was diagnosed as suffering from depression some months ago. I then started suffering severe mood swings and suspected I was suffering from bipolar disorder type II. My GP was adamant that I just had a cyclothymic personality and was not suffering from bipolar disorder. Finally he agreed to refer me to a psychiatrist who diagnosed Cyclothymia and wants me to take lithium for two years. My worry is that because I haven&amp;#039;t been diagnosed as bipolar, everyone will think I&amp;#039;ve been over-reacting and that things haven&amp;#039;t been as bad as they have. Although I seem to have mostly got over the depression and it&amp;#039;s the \u2018high\u2019 periods that are causing problems now, when I was depressed I felt as if it was the end of the world and I just wanted to die. I&amp;#039;m not looking forward to going back to my GP because I&amp;#039;ve got it into my head that he thinks I&amp;#039;ve over-reacted and should be able to cope with this &amp;quot;mild&amp;quot; disorder. I can&amp;#039;t find much information about cyclothymia (I&amp;#039;d never even heard of it) so could you give me any info about it and is it normal for sufferers to feel suicidal when depressed and even attempt suicide?   Answer David replies: I&amp;#039;m very sorry to hear about the very bad time you&amp;#039;ve had. I hope life will go better for you from now on. I think that you&amp;#039;ve got much too &amp;#039;bogged down&amp;#039; in psychological terminology. Look: there isn&amp;#039;t a disease called &amp;#039;cyclothymia&amp;#039;. The word &amp;#039;cyclothymia&amp;#039; just means &amp;#039;up and down in mood&amp;#039; - which isn&amp;#039;t very different from what \u2018bipolar&amp;#039; means. Your psychiatrist&amp;#039;s suggestion that you should take lithium for a while seems reasonable. Lithium tends to &amp;#039;calm down&amp;#039; bipolar/cyclothymic people and makes them more &amp;#039;even&amp;#039; in temperament. I\u2019m not saying that lithium is definitely the best course for you, but it may well be worth trying.  Christine replies: I agree. I know several people on lithium for whom it&amp;#039;s worked extraordinarily well. And once you can rely on your moods a bit more, I believe you&amp;#039;ll feel more in control - and you will enjoy that. It doesn&amp;#039;t matter what various medics have been calling your problem. Your problem has been real and difficult and no one will believe otherwise. When you feel stronger you may well be interested in having some counselling to see if you can work out whether your depression is linked to things in your past or present. Finally, you might like to buy - or borrow from a library - an excellent book called &amp;#039;Coping With Depression and Elation&amp;#039; by Dr Patrick McKeon. It\u2019s published by Sheldon and priced at \u00A36.99. You could think about contacting MIND, they could well help you, so why not get in touch? Good luck. Yours sincerely The NetDoctor Medical Team Last updated 24.09.2001 "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/ask-the-expert/a4380/im-unsure-of-all-these-psychiatric-terms/>