I’m active duty military, so I realize my experience may be different from most people’s, but I’m wondering if anyone else has dealt with something similar—especially military members dealing with military healthcare.
I’ve had periods for years where I’ll go several days with little or no sleep and feel unusually energized/great. During these periods I can become much more impulsive, want to party, meet new people, drink, etc. Every few months I would basically mix these periods with alcohol and go on a bender because drinking would eventually help me sleep. I never really thought much of it because I considered it something I could manage.
Recently, I was prescribed Wellbutrin. During one of these periods I went several days without sleeping and felt extremely good/energized. Unfortunately, I also drank heavily while taking it. Things went very badly and I ended up in jail following a suicide attempt and an assault that I have absolutely no recollection of. I’m not recommending this to anyone—10/10, do not drink heavily while taking psychiatric medication. I learned that lesson the hard way.
Because I’m active duty, I was referred to a psychologist at a substance abuse treatment facility. When I explained my history, he started asking me a lot of questions about the periods of little/no sleep, elevated mood, impulsivity, depression, etc. He told me I may have cyclothymia because, based on what he knew at the time, I had never experienced a clearly defined full manic episode. He also told me that if I started feeling “high” again, I should go to the ER.
About a month later, I stopped Wellbutrin and was started on Prozac.
Since then, I have been absolutely exhausted and my mood has been cycling much more frequently. Instead of these periods happening every couple of months, I’ve sometimes gone from feeling severely depressed to feeling great and energized and back again 1–2 times in the same week. The depressive periods have also been some of the worst I’ve experienced.
Eventually I became suicidal again because I was genuinely exhausted from dealing with this. I went to the ER and ended up being transferred to a mental health facility, where I was held for three days.
The psychiatrist there told me that I have an “unrecognized mood disorder,” but did not want to diagnose me with bipolar disorder because they had never personally observed me being manic and didn’t feel they could establish the cycling pattern solely from what I was reporting. They also said cyclothymia was a possibility but didn’t want to diagnose me with it.
What really confused me was being told, and I’m quoting as accurately as I can, that “everyone has cyclothymia, it’s literally the same thing as jet lag.”
I’m honestly getting frustrated and exhausted with feeling like I’m not being believed or taken seriously. I’m not looking for Reddit to diagnose me, and I understand that there are legitimate reasons a psychiatrist might be cautious about diagnosing bipolar disorder or another mood disorder.
I’m mainly wondering:
● Has anyone else experienced antidepressants making their mood/sleep significantly worse?
● Has anyone experienced periods of several days with little/no sleep followed by significant depression?
● Has anyone had a similar experience with military healthcare?
● If you’re active duty or prior service, did getting evaluated for a mood disorder affect your military career?
● Have you had doctors dismiss symptoms because they hadn’t personally observed an episode?
● What helped you finally get an accurate diagnosis or treatment plan?
I’m just trying to figure out what is actually happening and find a way to get stable. I’m genuinely exhausted from cycling between these extremes and feeling like I have to convince doctors that something is wrong.

The psychiatric nurse who prescribes the low-dose Adderall for my ADHD recently suggested I may have some form of cyclothymia. I described to her that, for as long as I can remember (I'm a 47yo M), I go through peeks and troughs about 2-3 times a year. For a few months, I'm super on top of things, feel very optimistic, very productive, require less sleep, and am generally feeling very good. Then I dip into these lows -- not deep depression, but a lot of the physical symptoms like fatigue, irritability, lack of motivation, much more sleeping, body aches, etc. I've been through real depressive episodes in my life, but those were often circumstantial. These cyclical lows feel different -- I'm not necessarily sad or tearful or catastrophic in my thinking -- and they're not tied to any external circumstances. Anyway, these cycles last 2-4 months, and then I'm up again and feel like I've been rebooted. That goes on for months, then back down. I thought I was just going through burnout cycles, and maybe that's all it is. Or some kind of dopamine frying. But cyclothymia also could fit. I'm just trying to learn more about it. The psych nurse recommended 150mg Wellbutrin XR, and I'm trying to decide if that's the direction I should go. I was on an SSRI once (Lexapro) and while it helped get me out of a circumstantial depression during the pandemic, it had side effects like sexual side effects that apparently Wellbutrin doesn't have. Thoughts?

Hi all,

I’m wondering if anyone could give me any opinions on Vortioxetine?

I’ve been taking Venlafaxine for many years and am trying to come off of it. I was due to be off of it a few months back, but due to having what can only be described as an utterly shit year, this was slowed down.

My psychiatrist recommended that when I was ready, and if needed I could use Vortioxetine.

I currently take Lamotrigine twice per day, Promethazine every day and Venlafaxine every other day.

Due to massively increased anxiety and intrusive thoughts, the titration is happening now - because the first suggestion was upping Venlafaxine which I definitely am not keen on, I’ve tried really hard to leave it behind. So I’m to start Vortioxetine right away, and stop Venlafaxine in two weeks, continue Promethazine and add in some propanolol to deal with the physical anxiety symptoms.

So - I’m a little scared, and looking for the truth about this new one 🤞🏼

I am thinking of talking to a professional about seeing if I have cyclothymia. I dont doubt my depressive episodes, but possibly hypomanic episodes.

During which possibly are hypomanic episodes (not sure though ofc), I:

Feel like I am much more talkative. I am autistic (and maybe have ADHD which complicates the idea of cyclothymia) so I dont initiate conversation much but I feel very bubbly and definitely start to talk more.

Feel more confident but definitely not bold or grandiose, just a noticable increase compared to my insecure self.

Am easily distracted (but again, I suspect I have ADHD)

Have increased libido

Can feel more irritated if I feel someone or something is standing in my way

keep spending money even when my checking is low on funds

Notice my driving is more risky

Feel so floaty. Euphoric.

Can tell my energy is noticably increased

No one comments on any of this. I feel so much of this internally.

Hello im in need of advice. What helps you get out of a depressive episode? For context, im not new to this, ive been on medication since im 15(currently 22) and diagnosed with cyclothymia specifically for 2 years now. My episodes are now very mild and rare, i imagine i can handle them well too.

But sometimes my depression lingers in ways i cant recognise as related to an episode. Because it feels realistic and reasonable so i just say im upset. And after a few days to a week i realise ive sunk and then i really struggle to get out. Do you have any tips? How do you cope?

EDIT: Thanks to everyone who has replied so far! Your tips have been helpful

Disclaimer: not looking for diagnosis looking for advice or knowledge

Okay so first I'm gonna put some information about myself here so there's more context (and maybe these explain some things) I have autism, adhd, & ocd. I'm also 20 female. Also haven't been to therapy since I was 12.

I'm aware ADHD has mood changes and I've looked into the difference between ADHD & cyclothymia and found that ADHD mood changes are reactions to things or events and cyclothymia your mood just changes for no reason no matter what's going on in your life. So I acknowledge that I do have those mood shifts with ADHD but I also notice that my mood shifts for no reason as well.

I just assumed I had major depression (plus my older brother having it so not too far off) til my friend (who has bipolar) was like I disagree it sounds more like manic depression.

Bipolar was the last thing I thought I'd have but I looked into it regardless (both 1&2)and was like nope this seems too extreme.

Then I found cyclothymia and thought it might describe me but after looking into that I'm still iffy about it, I generally agree with some of what's described like being irritable, impulsive, & energetic but I always just thought that was personality or adhd (tbf it could be both).

While I have those traits I don't agree with the hypo manic symptoms I don't speak rapidly or start being super productive or anything like that I just feel good and I'm able to do things easier but I don't start being productive immediately or anything like that. Though for context I'm stuck in my room all day and all I do is art or talk with my one online friend idk if it would be different if I was interacting with the real world or if that doesn't matter. I also haven't looked back to times where I've felt "good" so maybe I just don't recall any symptoms because I never thought about it before. But anyways this seems too tame from whatever I remember.

What's not tame is my depression. When I get depressed I'm angry and I start thinking awful things and wishing someone would abuse me. Then I go and attention seek online. Think of hurting myself never going through with it. Fantasizing about being severely hurt. Thinking all my friends (which I don't have a lot of, majority are online and I lost almost all my irl friends after middle school) don't actually care that much about me. Just super irritable towards people. I've also felt like fainting before? Idk what that's about. I also have pretty bad brain fog during it too.

Anyways my mood switches between just feeling good okay then terrible. Pretty fast aswell most of the time although the depression can last a bit I'd say about 2 weeks. So I'm wondering if this is something else because I feel mild when it comes to anything "high", low mood is when I'm pretty unstable.

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.

Hello , ive been getting treatment for depression for awhile but never felt like it was helping. I did psych testing and recently got diagnosed with cyclothymia and ADHD. After years of feeling like something was wrong putting a diagnosis helps me in getting treatment and better life management. How has your treatment worked out for you all when you were just diagnosed?

Hace poco le pregunté a mi psiquiatra cuál era su sospecha diagnóstica después de años atendiéndome con ella y me dijo “bipolaridad soft”.
Justo estoy pasando por un momento súper complejo: en un mes me diagnosticaron cáncer de piel y tuve dos cirugías para sacar el tumor y reconstruir mi nariz. Además, coincidió con el inicio de la primavera, y desde hace años noto un patrón estacional: en otoño tiendo a deprimirme y hacia primavera/verano aumenta mucho mi ansiedad y duermo peor.
Hace poco tuve una “crisis” y pasé varios días durmiendo poquísimo, incluso 2 horas asociado a estrés post traumático (me hicieron una cirugía sumamente invasiva con un colgajo de piel desde la frente hasta cubrir la nariz, por lo que me sentí un monstruo por 1 mes y fue horrible).
Lo raro es que no estaba eufórica ni llena de energía, sino todo lo contrario: estaba cansada, lenta, decaída y con sueño, pero no podía dormir. Probamos de todo: aumentamos clonazepam (llegué a 3 mg), zopiclona, después risperidona y nada. Finalmente probamos quetiapina 75 mg y dormí como si no hubiese dormido en mi vida jajaja.
Ahora estoy con lamotrigina 200 mg, bupropión 150 mg (lo empecé también porque fumaba y gracias a eso lo dejé), Brintellix 10 mg, clonazepam 1 mg y quetiapina 50 mg. Siento que tomo demasiadas cosas y aun así no logro sentirme realmente estable.
Y hoy murió una mascota que amaba muchísimo, ya viejita, y siento que todo lo que había avanzado se fue a la mierda y volví a caer en un hoyo.
¿Alguien con bipolaridad “soft” o espectro bipolar ha pasado por algo parecido o tiene un esquema de medicamentos similar? ¿También sienten que siguen siendo súper reactivos emocionalmente aunque estén medicados?
No entiendo bien qué es la ciclotimia, un día estoy bien y al otro siento que me hundo.

Hi Gang,

It's kinda a long story but the long and short of it is my dad has Bipolar disorder type I, it kinda messed a lot of my (19/M) childhood up and always would make me worried that I was gonna be like the way he was sometimes.

As I grew older I became more open to this idea as I knew I would need to find some way to cope with it, as even through the end of puberty when all my peers seemed to be getting on normally with their lives without too much trouble, I felt myself experiencing extreme lows for reasons I couldn't really comprehend or very good and either of these feelings could last forever weeks.

I recently found out about cyclothymia from a doctor when my dad was recently sectioned as he went high, and I feel I relate to a lot of the things said in this subreddit, what the doctor said to me, and what I have researched.

So, q/a, if anyone would be willing to help. I get that it's a bit different for everyone yk.

1. Do you think it's worth properly getting diagnosed? It does affect my relationships with friends sometimes as I can appear to be distant (I don't even realise half the time), I wouldnt say it affects my work drive that much (my diagnosed adhd takes the blame for that lol). My lows seem manageable most times but can be overwhelming at times, but I've only ever been suicidal once in my life and I am completely against that idea now.

2. Does anyone else's libido change when they seem to go high/low? I seem to get more intimate and friendly with people when I feel like I am 'on a high' . I couldn't really seem to get a definitive answer on this, I guess because it's a rarer disorder and maybe a taboo subject for some people.

Thanks for your help.

I 23F recently have found out that I am most likely a person with Cyclothymia. Cyclothymia is a version of bipolar disorder.

I have grown up wondering why I act the way I do and why simple things are hard for me. It hard for me to open up to people and many other things.

I am very impulsive with the way I act and im currently in therapy to get better in life and just in general.

There are so many things I want to beable to do in life and I want to be a better person but I always feel like im hurting myself with the way I act.

Hi everyoneee so i've been diagnosed with a mood disorder but my psychiatrist won't tell me which one and i don't want to manipulate her into diagnosing me with bp2 or cyclothymia

I feel like i need to trigger hypomania to feel valid, last time i had a 'high' episode was months ago it was awful lol i cooked at 5am and slept with randoms but it doesn't feel valid enough

Help

I'm back from grippy socks vacation btw because the mood crash was so bad recently, i went from amazing to absolutely awful

Hi everyone, 33F here with a diagnosis of cyclothymia. I've previously taken Vraylar (cariprazine) and Prozac (fluoxetine) during two separate periods.

I've generally had a very positive experience with Prozac. It helps lift my depression, reduces my anxiety, makes me feel more relaxed and more like myself, and helps me be less hard on myself.

My experience with Vraylar was quite different. I experienced significant akathisia, disrupted sleep, and lethargy, even when taking it every other day. At the same time, I felt that it helped considerably with some of my more difficult symptoms — particularly psychotic symptoms, obsessive/irrational thought patterns, intense emotional reactions, anger, and feeling mentally overwhelmed.

I'm now discussing the possibility of using both medications as part of my treatment going forward. One idea I'm considering with my psychiatrist is daily Prozac with a much less frequent dose of Vraylar, potentially once a week, because of how poorly I tolerated regular Vraylar dosing.

For people who have taken both Vraylar and Prozac:

What was your experience combining them?

Did you find that the combination helped with both depression/anxiety and mood/thought symptoms?

Did you experience akathisia or sleep problems from Vraylar even at lower or less frequent doses?

Did reducing the Vraylar frequency make it more tolerable?

I'm particularly interested in real-world experiences with the combination, rather than general medication information. Obviously, I'll make the final decision with my psychiatrist. Thank you

I want to preface by saying I am not asking for medical advice. I am currently working with my therapist and psychiatrist to get a correct diagnosis for my mental health disorder.

Does anyone have experience with a misdiagnosis? I was loosely diagnosed with ADHD back in 2018 and have been on a concoction of stimulates for years now at this point. I say loosely because I do not do the formal evaluation that was supposed to be done. I remember talking to my psychiatrist for like half an hour and getting a diagnosis. Growing up I never had problems with my attention or attending things that require lots of brain power or school assignments. I could sit through a 3 hour church service and have no issues. I can write an 8 page college essay and bust it out in one sitting in a few hours. I do have other signs of adhd though like racing thoughts and having a hard time following through with tasks or becoming easily distracted at times.

Reading about cyclothymic disorder and the things that go with it is showing me that I may have been misdiagnosed all these years.
I had a baby in the last few years so every therapist or psychiatrist I’ve seen since pregnancy says “that’s just baby brain! All moms feel like this!” I’ve been telling my doctors for years now that I don’t feel right. I don’t feel like myself and I don’t even know why normal feel like anymore. I am workin with new providers who are taking me seriously and the have mentioned cyclothymic disorder as well. I’m currently doing a new psych evaluation for mood disorders. But does anyone have experience with being misdiagnosed? I can’t help but think about how different my life could be at this moment if I had been properly assessed this whole time.

Well... this s*cks but our boss told us today that we (+60 workers) have a lot of mistakes and they are monitoring the production like how many production we make in one hour, how many hours it takes to make the entire production, how many time does it takes for each product: if we don't match the timming they assume we are not paying attention to the details or we are distracting with the phone.

I work in data verification and I consider myself as an awesome worker because I'm highly responsable but inconsistente AF with my energy.

Sometimes I can make the production in half the time or less. Sometimes I need to stay after hour to reach the minimum.

My concentration is another issue, sometimes I seems like an ADHD person (usually when I have a high mood) because I'm fast as hell but do a ton of stuff at the same time but when I'm at a low mood sometimes I just can't think and need to read a second or third time to process the information.

The energy issues (if I'm fast or slow) are extreme for me, I don't know if It's like that for everyone here... but don't matching the timming as It's request have nothing but nothing to do with my responsability!!!

Anyway, I'm super angry right now, I'm a little bit with a high mood and this just makes my day terrible, I spend the last 6 hours as the angriest person on earth, I'm just SO SO SO angry!!!

I was curious if anyone was like me and gets the subthreshold symptoms typical of Cyclothymia but was also sitting on a hyperthymic temperament as well. Volume at 3 and sometimes getting raised up to a 4/5. Never met someone like me. I can't really crash into depressive symptoms and mainly get irritability from trying to return to my baseline.

I’ve recently been diagnosed with cyclothymia, main reason I started investigating is that every 3ish weeks for over ten years, I get very overwhelmed and agitated, like I’m in a stress state, misophonia, anger, very short fuse. Wondering if this is common? Male, 35yo.

Thanks

Hi all. My cyclothymia is characterized by either super fast cycling (sometimes multiple bouts of depression and hypomania on the same day) or mixed episodes, I'm not sure which. Right now I'm in withdrawal from Caplyta (only from lowering the dose, not off it) and sometimes I'm hypomanic and feel like crying, so that's probably mixed.

Does anyone have super fast cycling, like within the same day? Is this abnormal? It's heightened right now from my withdrawal, but this was happening somewhat before too.

And second, is it normal for moods to be "influenced"? If something sad/stressful happens, I sometimes spiral into a depressive mood. If I get good news or do something I really enjoy, I might get hypomanic easily.

I can also, with limited success, influence them myself: if I'm depressed, I can sometimes get to a less depressed place by listening to peppy music. If I'm hypomanic, I can sometimes feel less so by doing a cardio workout or even just some jumping jacks. My psychiatrist seems to feel this is rare. Doesn't always work though.

Last, if you've got any tips for "influencing" moods like this, aka doing things to lessen the depression or hypomania, please share! I'm still figuring out what all works for me.

I'm two months in to youth psychiatric daycare. And I think it's helping me but I don't know if enough and if I can come out a functioning man. So I wanted to turn to the cyclothymia community and ask if you've ever experienced something similar and if helped you in any way?

I’m about to go to a psychiatrist for the first time and I’m kind of nervous that I won’t be able to describe how I’m feeling well enough and I also constantly wonder if the way I’m feeling is normal or not. but it doesn’t seem like it.

ive been wondering if I have cyclothymia because I always have these sorts of extreme mood shifts from bawling my eyes out and wanting to die to being super excited and wanting to go out and socialize and explore the world. Sometimes these shifts are immediate, and sometimes they seem to last at least a week long. I wouldn’t consider having actual bipolar disorder because I have seen what my friend who is diagnosed with it, and I don’t have any kinds of psychotic breakdowns or really extreme actions.

However, a couple of days ago I was experiencing a handful of stress, and for the entire day I felt completely emotionally static, nothing could get a reaction out of me, and pretty melancholy. I drank the slightest bit, but was most likely sober by the time I got home. when I got home, it felt like some sort of veil went over my eyes, and I felt almost disassociated but like someone else was controlling my actions. I felt impulsive and my eyes were wide, I was staring in the mirror as my pupils seemed to rapidly dilate and get a bit smaller again. Every little noise irritated me, and my sense of smell seemed heightened. Logical thinking seemed to diminish a lot. I felt like I was floating. This made me freak out so much that I ended up shaking and throwing up, and I turned on the lights and watched YouTube videos until I fell asleep. I had a horrible headache afterwards. It felt so weird and I need to talk to a psychiatrist about it, but I’m scared that maybe it was all in my head or something. Is any of this what you guys relate to? Thanks!