Dysthymia

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Anyone else suffer from dysthymia? I have for quite awhile now, at least a few years, although it's hard to remember when it started. I also get seasonal depression during the winter that aggravates my anxiety and dysthymia symptoms and reverses my insomnia to hypersomnia. Not fun.

I was diagnosed with dysthymia last year, at the same time I was professionally diagnosed with AS. As with you, now that I look back, I can't think of when the dysthymia began, it seems to have been a constant in my life.

I have occasional bouts of clinical depression, where I get out of bed just long enough to go to work, then go back to bed as soon as I get home. I don't believe my depression is seasonal, there seems to be no specific reason for my going from dysthymia to clinical depression and then back...

I'm not sure I didn't emerge from my mother's womb with it. It has been so constant that when I was finally properly

diagnosed and treated at 35, I realized I had never felt normal before. I had been complaining about not having the will

to do any more than was basically required to get by (attributing it to executive dysfunction) and my psychiatric NP said

she thought I was still depressed. I didn't feel sad though so I was doubtful. She added very low dose Geodon and I

have been feeling much more capable.

in my mid-30s i had it, and sought pharmacological intervention. norpramin was the first but it made me hotter than a firecracker [in multiple senses] so i switched to concerta, which cleared the mental fog but i still struggled with my temper, so i went to strattera, which calmed me down but gave me a very bad case of GERD. so now i just try to practice mental hygiene.

In between major depression I'm dysthymic. I go high-low-dysthymic...then back around again. Since deciding to give meds a go I haven't been experiencing such highs and lows, but the chronic depression is still there like a rain cloud following me around.