Cyclothymia is a serious depressive condition which may vary from mild to moderate. A person afflicted with the condition suffers from hypomania, which gets alternated with bouts of depression. Though a patient of cyclothymia displays a mild form of the symptoms of Bipolar Disorder, his condition is at a much lower level to be characterized as BD.

Patients of cyclothymia have a good risk of later developing Bipolar Disorder, between 15% and 50% to be exact. But the truth is that in spite of the medical advancements being made in the psychological field, the mechanism involved in making cyclothymia patients develop Bipolar Disorder is not known yet.

The causes of patients getting afflicted with cyclothymia are usually genetic and hereditary. A huge percentage of people with cyclothymia have a family history of alcohol and drug abuse, suicide and major depression. A lot of cyclothymia patients find it quite difficult to handle their personal, social and professional lives properly because the unpredictability of their moods and the resultant irritation makes them feel anxious and stressful most of the time.

This mental condition does not have any exact line of treatment, though a lot of anti depressants and psychotic drugs are used to relieve the symptoms. Psychiatrists are known to use their intelligence and experience in prescribing medicines to such patients.

Usually adolescent people are known to get affected by the disorder. Statistics prove that more women than men get afflicted by it. Patients of cyclothymia should have the sympathy of family and caregivers to recover completely.

They can strike any moment at any time. Some people think that it has to be a stressful situation and while stress can contribute you and I know better than to think of it as the only way for a panic attack to occur.
When I think of panic attacks I think of it more along the lines of asthma. Just by being alive you run the distinct risk of having one hit you. And when they hit it’s like a Mack truck. Better yet, it’s like a donkey planted his hooves in your chest and then did a little skip on your chest while you lay flat on your back gasping for air.
Panic attacks have many triggers and it would seem that it doesn’t have enough “fixes.” When you enter your doctors’ office and speak of panic attacks you may end up with dozens of pill bottles that do little more than turn you into a walking zombie. If you have a really good doctor you may even find yourself with a steady therapist, trying to get to the root of the problem.
Even so, there may not be any underlying problem to fix. You may not have any hidden trauma causing your throat to tighten up randomly. You may just be anxious for no reason. It may leave you feeling foolish or weak, after all, who does that? Who just gets to overwhelmed they feel like fainting?
Don’t feel so out of the loop. You’re not alone. In fact, panic attacks are one of the most common physical ailments. The good thing is that it’s manageable. You don’t have to suffer your attacks in silence. There are options!
There are a great deal of programs and tapes out there that can help you with your panic attacks. Breathing exercises, changes in diet, and a little light labor can do you worlds of good by way or lessening the amount of anxiety you have to deal with.
Let’s face it. There’s nothing fun about panic attacks. During the onslaught of a panic attack it’s always important to try to keep a level head. Even though it may feel like you’re going to hit the ground if you remember to breathe consistently you’re more likely to recover quickly and with a hundred percent.
That’s why it’s best to get all options and ensure that you will conquer the issues caused by everyday life. With help from the programs you may be able to stay free of what ailed you before. It doesn’t take very long to figure out what is causing you unbalance and as long as I work hard it will started working after a few practice sessions.
Above all the most important thing to remember when attempting the different panic attack treatments is that everyone is different and it may take time for you to find something that works for you!

At work, your boss is on your case about late paperwork; never minding the fact your work-load was so ridiculous, that if you turned all your assignments into feathers, you could crush a small person by dumping them onto an unsuspecting head. Your desk looks like the line at the only fast food restaurant near your office around noon: hopelessly crowded with angry people sticking their heads out of windows to yell at other angry people, making obscene gestures with whichever body part was most readily available, and blowing their horns like it was new years.
You haven’t had a day off since the chickenpox in the third day. You’re pretty sure the receptionist wasn’t being sincere when she gave you that wide eyed stare and told you that she “lost” your vacation request. No wonder you’re having panic attacks.
Panic attacks are caused for the most part by stress and anxiety. They are the manifestation of the invisible weight you carry around on your back, hoping no one sees it. Anything that is disturbing enough to upset your daily life can cause a panic attack.
Not only can stress cause you anxiety attacks but it doesn’t have to be something that happens immediately. You can have a fight with your sister and not get hit with the pure weight of the anxiety until days later when you see an episode of Charmed where Prue has recently died. It doesn’t’ matter how often you’ve seen that episode either. You can easily find yourself panting on the couch, unable to breathe, just because it reminds you of how close you and yours are when you are not fighting.
There are also a number of kinds of panic attacks that originate with a fear of something else. It is not uncommon for an individual to be in a crowd of people and become extremely anxious because of the claustrophobia or lack of air before the onslaught of a panic attack. Panic attacks with fear as its original “trigger” should be addressed in a different way than straight anxiety panic attacks.
When a panic attack is brought on by the fear of something else happening your main priority on the other side of the attack is to find out if there is a way to deal with the initial problem. Antisocialism is one such cause. If you are so uncomfortable around new people that you are having a panic attack ever other week you should look into what about them is making you such a wreck.
Ultimately the causes of panic attacks are as variant and many as personality traits. The best way to figure out what causes your own personal attacks is to simply list the things that make you uncomfortable. You may even try keeping a journal on when your attacks hit and under what circumstances. With this you will figure out what is causing your little breakdowns in no time. Once you know what’s causing it you will be better equipped to stop them.

Mood Swings or mood disorders like cyclothymia is already a prelude to a higher and severe mood disorder which left untreated could lead to it.

Cyclothymia is one of the mood disorders mostly contacted by people who are experiencing quite similar moods to bipolar symptoms. That is, euphoria or mania and depression sensations. These sensations or symptoms arise suddenly in an individual without any warning or they are random sensations which an inflicted individual experienced. Thus, one who suffers cyclothymia will find it hard to manage or choose his or her moods on certain events or situations, wherein some individuals who does not know an inflicted individual well, will misinterpret his random mood attacks, negatively. This is the hard part of having this form of sickness because people who are not inform and oriented about this kind of sickness will see your mood as a weird thing and will suspect your own sanity. Moreover, some who does not understand will lose trust in you, if you are inflicted by this sickness or any mild disorder or bipolar sickness, and will even cast discrimination toward you.

But how can one get and be inflicted by cyclothymic disorder?

Recurrent episodes of Hypomanic sensations or hypomania as well as dysthymic sensations will result into a cyclothymic disorder or can already be diagnosed as a cyclothymia as some experts says. Hypomania is the state of less severe mania in contrast to hypermania, and Dysthymia is the state of less severe depression. But how can one distinguish they have one?

There are two major phase of the symptoms of cyclothemia, of course, you already knew it, the hypomania or euphoria and dysthymia. In euphoria, one experiences good mood of course, however, this good mood condition underlines abnormal cheerful sensations like you wanted to go beyond the extremes sensations, excessive spending like excessive shopping of anything; have aggressive, intolerant, hostile, and inconsiderate toward others, like too very judgmental to others or got easily upset and agitated like always hot-tempered, workaholic sensations or you want always to move and work and felt you don’t need much sleep, and sometimes you felt very horny that you wanted to fuck or be fuck all night long, and you speak uncontrollably.

While the dysthymic sensations could be a signs of mild depression like you self-pity yourself or criticize your own self because you felt your self-confidence is below sea-level, and because of this you felt pessimistic, sad, lonely, hopeless, helpless, etc. As if you want to drown yourself with your sorrows and hurts in life with river of tears keep streaming from your eyes which then you can’t find your way to sleep or having insomnia. You felt heavy and very tired but can’t sleep, always crying and very sad and lonely. Oh what bull sheet life! You exclaimed.

Sometimes, you neglect yourself by not taking a bath or cleaning and arranging yourself and you are already looking a witchy look and won’t go out for social but keep on withdrawing.

If you have experiences both the euphoric and dysthymic sensations which I mention above, simultaneously, chances are you have already a cyclothymic disorder or cyclothymia which could lead to the highest form ofBipolar disorder, because cyclothymia is a type of mild bipolar disorder.

Cyclothymia in medical terms is defined as a Bipolar Mood Disorder leading to mixed and multiple mood swings of extreme kinds. The word Cyclothymia is taken from the Greek language which means ‘Mind’. This chronic disorder is an acute combination of hypomania and dysthymic. Patients suffering from this disorder undergo a symptomatic change for at-least two years and remain in both bipolar disorder states for not less than two months at a time before they come to the normal state. Way back in the 1980 this disorder was considered as a personality disorder but later the name was changed to ‘Mood Disorder‘.

Some of the common symptoms with the bipolar states are:

Hypomania: is the first polar state which is characterized by a lot of recurrent irritable mood, lack of sleep and patients developing extremely daring and outgoing capabilities. In this state of mind the patients overdo on all fronts with big ego states, aggression all over and all the time, extremely high rate of speech with poorly developed judgment capabilities, high sexual desire and portray very risky behaviors all the time.

Dysthymic: the other polar state is considered to be just the opposite of hypomania and falls under the depression zone and can lead to long term illness. Patients suffering form this disorder find it extremely difficult to take decisions,they indulge a lot into self criticism, remain demotivated, loose appetite for food, develop a low urge for sex and the last stage that they can enter into are the suicidal modes or tendencies.

In stages where the hypothermia disorder in a patient goes to the peak to meet requirements of Mania episodes, the disorder would change to Bipolar I disorder. If the dysthymic disorder becomes acute and falls under Major depression zone then the disorder gets converted to Bipolar II disorder. This disorder has an equal chance of occurrence in both male and female & the chances of the population being affected by this are between .4 to 1%. Most of the times it has been observed that this stress has its roots imbibed in childhood problems that children face. When the mind is young and fertile and is faced with situations where the child is thrown in extreme conditions and their is no synchronization between the mind and the heart’s decision.

Treatment Of Cyclothymia :

- Psychotherapy : Educating the patient as well as his family about the disorder, the symptoms, and treatment methods adds a lot to the improvement of this disorder.
Helping the patients maintain their social, personal & work-balance also are a part of it.
- Anti depression pills and mood stabilizer: are given to the patients as a normal course of medicine to neutralize as well as stabilize mood swings.
But in most cases it is not a preferred therapy as it can take the person into a Mania state which at any time is not very desirable.
- Anti-epileptics medicines : to help the patient from any sort of epileptic attack.
- Stoppage of all kinds of liquor and drugs permanently.
- All medication used for Bipolar I treatment is also replicated for Cyclothymia

It is common to an individual to have cheerful moments and crying moments but what if these frequencies or moods in a certain individual go out of sync or goes out instantly without one’s liking and warning? Is this an ordinary mood swing or already a cyclothymia or a cyclothymic disorder?

Cyclothymia is a progressive hypomania and depressive disposition that last within months or years which is really quite exhausting to the sufferers.

Cyclothymia is said to be a mild mood disorder or a slight to mild bipolar disorder that springs out from biological, psychological or social factor. These factors contribute to some sudden mood swings; one moment you are cheerful then suddenly you break into tears and sorrowful mood. However, if this sudden shift of moods happens continuously within a months or years without let up, this could be already a cyclothymic disorder.

Biologically, this sudden shift from one emotion into another is said to be either on your genes that has history of depression and anxiety disorder, or it can be a hormonal imbalance like low on serotonin and high in cortisol.

Low on serotonin hormones could bring irritable mood, impulsive mood or depressive disposition and, dysthymia this is due because as we all know serotonin is a relaxing hormones; while high in cortisol hormones or stress hormones would also result into a depressive mood and other mood swings or mood disorders for during when we are so very stress these moody disposition appears on the surface of our moods, and sometimes cause euphoria.

Psychologically, cyclothymia can also be triggered by very stressful activities or events, if you have this cyclothymic disorder, for some are not quite affected by a certain stressful events. Thus, if you react moody in a stressful event, you should check your doctor about it in case you have already this kind of mood disorder. However, in a social factor more or less it is the environment a child or an individual has been grown up.

If you are inflicted by these disturbing bipolar Cyclothymia symptoms and have no treatment regimen yet or have now known it, you better see a doctor right away before this debilitating bipolar cyclothymia symptoms get worse and ruin your daily life.

Some treatments are similar to treating an Anxiety Disorder that is taking an antidepressant drug, attending a cognitive behavior therapy, interpersonal therapy, and other therapies.

The treatment could be dependent to the sufferer if this kind of therapy is applicable to him or her or not.

This Cyclothymia Article was submitted by A. Davis, if you would like to submit your own cyclothymia articles please contact us.