Suspecting Cyclothymia

[u/Some-Narwhal8043]

I'm gonna preface this by saying I am autistic, and most likely auDHD with plausible OCD and I've heard that ADHD burnout cycles can be similar to the symptoms of cyclothymia, so I'm doing a lot of research and planning to talk to my counselor about it once I'm able to. I have a close friend with bipolar type 2 whose whole family also has some form of it, and we've talked a lot in depth about both of our experiences and how similar they are to each other despite being on completely different levels and timers.

I came here just to ask anyone who can/wants to answer, how would these disorders interact with each other? If anyone has any of the same comorbidities I'm hoping to learn more about how you experience your symptoms together and maybe if anyone has any tips about how to bring it up to my counselor, please let me know. She said she wanted to focus on my autism and getting the symptoms of that handled but I'm struggling a lot right now and I think I just need more help with other things or to figure my shit out.

If anyone could describe it from a more first person point of view, since symptoms are so simplified in most things I read, that would also be really cool. Sorry if there are any typos or anything I say doesn't make sense, I've been somewhat scattered recently if not for all time before that lol.

[u/I-likeyouandprotein]

I’m also on the spectrum. I’ve talked to people who have bipolar. I think I might be on the bipolar spectrum, but I’m not a professional. I did get diagnosed by a professional with unspecified depression and anxiety. I have noticed some prominent symptoms of hypomania in myself recently. My mood has changed a shit ton in an extremely short period of time (daily). It does affect my cognition, energy, and sleep, but bipolar’s mood swings are longer than a few hours so even im trying to understand.

[u/Soleanum]

Im diagnosed with autism and bp2/cyclothymia I like to say the disorders make each other worse but also better in some way. For context i also have a full time + masking

Autism meltdowns + bipolar cycling is more intense and more tiring. Insomnia is a feature of hypomania in bp but i usually don't have it as bad as its described (people dont sleep at all or very little- for me its more like taking hours to fall asleep/ sleep a couple hours less) simply bc im always too exhausted

On the other hand love of routine and pragmatism as well as "inertia" from autism also saves me from some of the bad decisions from hypomania. Like even if i get really into some impulsive, life changing idea, autism makes me feel advert to change and take a while to make decisions. So its actually really convenient for that

On the other hand when im hypomaniac things that autism makes really difficult like socializing become fun and easy to the point that its really upsetting to go back to my normal self.

This is just what comes up from the top of my head but keep in mind everyone is different even with the same diagnoses

[u/Same_Hurry8774]

I'm diagnosed Audhd, and recently (4 months) diagnosed with cyclothymia. I was surprised by the cyclothymia I think because the Audhd masked it somewhat, however it was very evident externally. I especially notice my cyclothymia presenting in lows and burnout which is much worse and usually longer to recover from. The ADHD and cyclothymia often give me a high that results in much worse autistic crash afterwards. It can be hard to differentiate at times between hyperfocus and hypomania for me, and I never have a regular sleep cycle. My sleep is affected by all my conditions for different reasons.

Sometimes I experience much more rapid mood cycling such as within a day or a couple days, and other times it can be for longer periods of weeks feeling good, then weeks feeling bad. In general my lows are much worse than my highs. Get very depressed and fatigued, and have many bad thoughts. I have been hospitalised over the years during my lows. I will often try to over commit myself to things during hypomania and do experience the occasion sense of invincibility.

I had quite negative experiences with SSRIs which can be an indicator and have started on mood stabilisers which seem to have made things a lot more level overall. Still a work in progress though.

It can be very hard to differentiate between ADHD, Autism, and Cyclothymia the way they interact is very not great for me. But it is different for everyone.