Dysthymic Disorder

Post Reply New Topic

I just got my report (well the summary) of my evaluation today. I was diagnosed with AS, Dysthymic Disorder, and Generalized Anxiety Disorder. I'm kinda feeling blindsided. I wasn't expecting to be diagnosed with anything else other than AS. I'm still not sure what to think. I guess the symptoms fit.

Anyone else diagnosed with dysthymic disorder?

Dysthymic disorder just means you're somewhat depressed but not enough for a Dx of depression. I don't think it's a worrisome diagnosis. And if the As is causing you any kind of problems, then it follows that you would be feeling anxious.

Dysthymic disorder isn't necessarily mild. It simply means the depression is steady and long term (several years or more). Being diagnosed with dysthymic disorder without a concurrent diagnosis of major depression probably means you have long-term mild depression. People with long term moderate/severe depression tend to get diagnosed with both dysthymic disorder and major depression, i.e. "double depression". That's what I'm diagnosed with.

The psychiatrists might disagree with me but I don't even think there's a distinction between "double depression" and long-term major depression. It all feels like the same damn thing to me. Their classification scheme is kind of stupid IMO. Depression is just depression.

My depression is mild in terms of what depression can be ie; not caring about anything, not getting out of bed, not bathing ect... I've never ever been that depressed. It's more a low grade, dull negativity that hangs over my head more often that not, making me into a self loathing, anxious, annoying person to be around quite a lot of the time.

I never have responded well to meds. She gave me a name of a workbook that I can get that uses a behavior therapy. I'm going to give it a try.

about 14 years ago, i was considered to have dysthymia. i was very irritable, apathetic, slept 12-14 hours a day when i could, overweight, passively suicidal- in short, a mess. medication works.

I was diagnosed with depression in 6th grade, never with Dysthymic disorder. Then when I was 16, my shrink said I had moderate depression. Now I have none. Sometimes I wonder if I never had it and it was just a misdiagnoses because I was down in the dumps a lot is all because of people and my life and it didn't stop me from going to work, it didn't make me over eat or stop me from doing things. I never liked letting things stop me and I sure wasn't going to let stress or depression or a bad day stop me from going to work, especially when my dog ran in front of me and I accidentally hit her. Maybe I had it then and then it went away.

I think what i have is sort of like dysthymia... But i'm diagnosed with "Depressive Disorder NOS." I also got diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder.

I also have both, "double depression."
Most people report an episode of depression lasting from a few weeks, to a couple months, and then they sort of go back to normal. Normal depression.
dysthymia means your depression does not follow this pattern, meaning it can last for years without lifting.
So you may have years of mild depression, and then a month of a really deep depression.

I think major depression CAN last for years. There are ups and downs buy my depression has never truly "lifted".

I'm surprised that I didn't get more replies. Dysthymia must not be as common as I thought that it might be among those with AS.
In case it might be helpful for anyone that's struggling with anxiety, and or depression, the book the therapist recommended to me is http://www.amazon.com/Get-Your-Mind-Into-Life/dp/1572244259/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top I think it's largely based on Buddhism, and Mindfulness, which I've been studying anyway for the last couple weeks, so I think I'm going to hold off on buying the book for now. I just figured that I'd share in case anyone else might be helped by it.

The problem with replies is that so many posts are created on this site of varying nature. I think you are better off going to a proper dysthymia/DD online forum.

I feel that I have dysthymia, social phobia, anxiety, coupled with a potential diagnosis of ASD with side effects of ADD.

It's really hard sometimes to know where one label stops and another starts.

Certainly, apathy, avolition, procrastination, affective disorder mood swings are just an ongoing grind.
I even bore myself with it.

The latest definition of DD/Dysthymia according to the soon to be -DSM-5


http://www.dsm5.org/ProposedRevisions/P ... spx?rid=46

Also Dysthymia is very tricky because a lot of children grow up into dysthymic adults not really knowing that they have this low mood + affective disorder + extras and it can take an average of 30 years before the circumstances dictate the need for diagnosis. I don't know during which year the "30 years" was deduced, so hopefully Dysthymia will be caught quicker and treated quicker if the particular case is treatable.

I've been diagnosed with Dysthymia myself, until the docs realized years ago that I was actually suffering from chronic major depression, so I don't understand the objections to what I wrote. The definition of Dysthimia (at least until now, though I see it's planned to be changed in the DSM V) is that it's a lower grade of depression that does not meet the criteria for major depression. The criteria for diagnosing Dysthimia is not just that it's chronic, since major depression can be chronic too.

This is the current portion of the definition in the DSM IV that distinguishes Dysthymia from chronic major depression. It specifically says that it cannot be diagnosed if someone is suffering from major depression:

D. No Major Depressive Episode has been present during the first 2 years of the disturbance (1 year for children and adolescents); i.e., the disturbance is not better accounted for by chronic Major Depressive Disorder, or Major Depressive Disorder, In Partial Remission.

My comment did not imply that it was somehow good, but it's a less severe Dx than major depression.

An extract from Harvard.

http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsweek/Dysthymia.htm

Dysthymia

Psychotherapists and patients confront the high cost of “low-grade” depression.

(This article was first printed in the February 2005 issue of the Harvard Mental Health Letter. For more information or to order, please go to http://www.health.harvard.edu/mental.)

Depression is a word with many meanings — anything from a passing mood of sadness or discouragement to a condition of inconsolable misery, suicidal thoughts, and even delusions as well as severe physical symptoms. It’s regarded as a clinical disorder when depressed mood and related symptoms are serious enough or last long enough to interfere with work, social life, family life, or physical health.

The Greek word dysthymia means “bad state of mind” or “ill humor.” As one of the two chief forms of clinical depression, it usually has fewer or less serious symptoms than major depression but lasts longer. The American Psychiatric Association defines dysthymia as depressed mood most of the time for at least two years, along with at least two of the following symptoms: poor appetite or overeating; insomnia or excessive sleep; low energy or fatigue; low self-esteem; poor concentration or indecisiveness; and hopelessness.

Dysthymia and major depression naturally have many symptoms in common, including depressed mood, disturbed sleep, low energy, and poor concentration. There are also parallel symptoms: poor appetite, low self-esteem, and hopelessness in dysthymia, corresponding to the more severe symptoms of weight change, excessive guilt, and thoughts of death or suicide in major depression. Major depression may also include two symptoms not found in the standard definition of dysthymia: anhedonia (inability to feel pleasure) and psychomotor symptoms (chiefly lethargy or agitation). An episode of major depression requires at least five symptoms instead of three, but it need last only two weeks rather than two years.

Dysthymia is a serious disorder. It is not “minor” depression, and it is not a condition intermediate between severe clinical depression and depression in the casual colloquial sense. In some cases it is more disabling than major depression. Still, dysthymia is so similar to major depression that the American Psychiatric Association’s diagnostic manual also suggests, as a possibility for further investigation, an alternative definition with symptoms including anhedonia, social withdrawal, guilt, and irritability but not appetite or sleep disturbance. The purpose is to distinguish dysthymia more clearly from major depression by emphasizing mood and personal relations over physical symptoms.

Dysthymia is about as common as major depression. Given its chronic nature, that makes it one of the disorders most often seen by psychotherapists. About 6% of the population of the United States has had an episode of dysthymia at some time, 3% in the last year. As many as a third of patients in psychotherapy may be suffering from dysthymia. Like major depression, it is more common in women than in men, but it tends to arise earlier in life. The American Psychiatric Association distinguishes between this early-onset form and a form that occurs later in life and often comes on less gradually.

More than half of people with dysthymia eventually have an episode of major depression, and about half of patients treated for major depression are suffering from this double depression. Many patients who recover partially from major depression also have milder symptoms that persist for years. This type of chronic depression is difficult to distinguish from dysthymia.