Does anyone know what this disorder is called?

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My emotions cycle from happiness to anger to sadness and then back to happiness again. This has been my emotional pattern for years. Is this bipolar disorder or something else? I just switched from the sadness phase to the happiness phase today so I probably have a few days before the anger phase starts. Is there any way that I can hold on to the happiness phase? I usually try to hold on to the anger phase for as long as possible to delay the sadness phase. I really don't want this cycle to continue. Please help me.

It sounds like it might possibly be Ultra-Rapid Cycling Bipolar:

Rapid cycling
Most people who meet criteria for bipolar disorder experience a number of episodes, on average 0.4 to 0.7 per year, lasting three to six months. Rapid cycling, however, is a course specifier that may be applied to any of the above subtypes. It is defined as having four or more episodes per year and is found in a significant fraction of individuals with bipolar disorder. The definition of rapid cycling most frequently cited in the literature (including the DSM) is that of Dunner and Fieve: at least four major depressive, manic, hypomanic or mixed episodes are required to have occurred during a 12-month period. Ultra-rapid (days) or ultra-ultra rapid or ultradian (within a day) cycling have also been described.

That sounds like it is describing my problem. Is there anything that I can do to fix it? This has been going on for like 3 years, maybe longer.

I'm sorry but I don't know the answer. Since you have internet, could you research it yourself online? I believe there is a great deal of information about this online, now that you know what to call it. I believe that both medication and counseling is prescribed.

From what I've found on the internet all of the medications have really bad side affects and none of them are likely to work. Even if one of them was likely to work I probably still wouldn't try to get help. I haven't even told my family about my phsychological problems, my facial expression stays the same no matter what I'm feeling, and I never openly express my emotions. A couple of years ago I felt a pain in my chest every once in a while like I was going to have a heart attack and I never told anyone. It eventually went away. Maybe eventually my ultra-rapid cycling bipolar disorder and my other psychological problems will go away on their own.

If it's bipolar, I doubt it's going to go away on its own.

Medications can help bipolar. I don't know what you're reading, but I was institutionalized for 6 months when I was first diagnosed bipolar, and medication and therapy helped give me back a normal life. Don't believe that everything you read on the internet is true, if this is really interrupting your life enough for you to want to seek information about it, then go to a doctor and get their opinion. They can help you. People on the internet won't know your life and what to do with it.

It's probably bipolar and I strongly suggest you see a doctor to find out for sure and get treatment for whatever you get diagnosed with. If it is bipolar, your life can spin out of control pretty fast without treatment.

It's also possible it's cyclothymia which is a milder form of bipolar. But yeah... talk to your doctor about it.

I think that I have cyclothymia because the symptoms are similar to mine. I don't think I really want to go see my doctor about it because I dread going to the doctor and if my parents found out about my psychological problems their perspective of me would change for the worse. I've been able to contain my psychological problems on my own for the past three years so there's no reason to quit now. My parents don't know that I'm even slightly depressed sometimes. They'll never be able to institutionalize me because they'll never find out. Besides I'm happy right now. As long as I keep the adrenaline flowing I'll stay that way. I love being euphoric. I can't recall ever being this happy before I had cyclothymia. I've been able to stay euphoric for a very long time before. I only become dysthymic when I forget that I have to stay euphoric. When the transition between euphoric and dysthymic is about to happen I can usually force myself to stay euphoric if I remember to.

I know this is an old post, but I hope you have seen someone about it. I'm going through similar experiences, and I'm learning that they've been going on for at least a decade. The problem is that they are getting worse and worse and are seriously affecting my life. I'm now seeing a psychiatrist and this is a good idea. It can get really, really bad.

If you are still around, I'm interested in how you have been getting on.

It depends on the perspective of the person posting the information on the internet, what they say about the medications. You're unlikely to get a rounded viewpoint off the internet for a number of reasons. One of those reasons is that people who are doing fine on their meds generally don't bother to write blogs or post comments about medication - they are too busy getting on with their lives. Whereas people who have had bad side effects will generally make it known so that other people are duly warned and so they can vent.
The other thing is that everybody who provides 'health information' has an agenda. Find out it that agenda is in your interests or not. For example, right now you're facing a situation of either putting up with this debiltiating condition or trying out scary medications. There are well meaning people who will advise you with all sincerity one way or the other, and there are those who will try to get either more customers or more converts.

At the end of the day treatment seems to be a lot about blind faith, or trial and error. In such an instance, whoever has got you has you where they want you, because your ambivalence, ignorance, and desperation make you a victim. It really sucks.

What you're doing here, to seek out information from a number of sources, is the beginning of getting mastery over your condition. You need to be your own case manager, the leader in charge of making you well again. You need a team of people - experts of different kinds, family and friends, and the wider community - all working to get you better. You need them, and you need to trust them. Trust doesn't mean that you trust them to give you a cure, that you trust that there'll never be bad moments, side effects, or mistakes. You need to understand your team to work with them.

I'm sorry but there is no cure. Take your head out of the sand - recovery is a difficult journey, but one well worth making. I'm a little stuck here at the moment, but i've been better before and I'll be better again.

I think that this is best described as 'bipolar disorder with rapid cycling' - the latter being a course modifier.

Mike1 wrote:

On the contrary, most drugs used to treat bipolar disorder have about the same amount of adverse effects as other type of medications and are very effective. Thing is, you may need to try more than one to find what is right for you.

With regard to side effects, some bipolar treatment drugs are similar to antidepressants. See if anyone in your family has ever taken an antidepressant, or anything at all for a mental issue. Side effect presentation tends to be shared among close family, so this could help your doctor choose a drug with minimal to no side effects.

I used to have cyclical moods, not as well-defined as your own, but anger, happiness, and meh (not so much sad) were intermixed with tiredness. I'd be relatively happy and have energy, and then I'd get somewhat jittery which led to irritability until an outburst or some sort of release, and then I'd get tired and be in a much lower mood. This would happen within the course of a day before I'd going back to 'meh' for, oh maybe a week or so.
Since being diagnosed with celiac disease and being gluten free, this cycle has not happened nearly as often. My body is going to likely be a few more years before healing from eating gluten and being a celiac though, so I wouldn't expect all my symptoms to go away immediately.

I also have a cousin who is bipolar and has been for, oh, probably 15 years, trying everything under the sun, and I found out that she had been experimenting with a gluten free and dairy free diet when I told her about my celiac diagnosis. Being gluten free and dairy free helped her mood alot, although I believe she only started it because she's had such bad stomach issues. She keeps going off and on her diet since it's hard to be on, and of course she's never been officially diagnosed, so I can't blame her, but as far as I'm concerned, if she's not a celiac, then she's gluten intolerant. Both are medical diagnoses. It has a necessary genetic component. Her dad, my non-blood relative uncle has been bipolar for 20+ years, and now when I think about it his colon cancer and bowel issues (didn't know about those until just recently actually) and bipolar disorder all tie into untreated celiac disease.

I strongly recommend to anyone who's experienced mental health issues to get tested for celiac disease. They can be the only symptom of it, you don't need stomach problems, and if you find you have it, you have as close as you can get to a cure, just stop eating gluten, not some half-baked treatment designed to make money.