The cyclothymia collective

The modern concepts of mood disorders and a bipolar spectrum first emerged in France in the mid-nineteenth century. The term "dysthymia" (depressed temperament) appeared in the psychiatric literature as early as 1844, and "cyclothymia" (cycling temperament) in 1877. Scholarly debate focused on these two and a third, called hyperthymia (manic temperament).

In 1889, all known affective disorders were lumped into one category called "manic-depressive insanity." This practice of viewing the entire bipolar spectrum as one entity became so widely accepted that the term "dysthymia" was all but forgotten and "cyclothymia" came to be used to describe any bipolar case.

In the 1960s, research established that real differences exist between depression, mania, and their variations. In the early 1980s, "dysthymia" and "cyclothymia" were reintroduced, along with the concept of the bipolar spectrum. Perhaps because of its relation to major depressive disorder, dysthymia has received much more attention from researchers than cyclothymia, which remains poorly understood except as a precursor to Bipolar Disorder. Disagreement exists on what the term even means. Some use it as a description of temperament, others, as a synonym for Bipolar Disorder, and still others as the term for a subaffective disorder. This last meaning is the one used by the DSM-IV and the World Health Organization's ICD-10. Several of the abstracts on Cyclothymia available at Medline argue for the third usage only. So it is no wonder that there is no one understanding or one treatment for Cyclothymia.

Where to look for information

There are many sites on the web with the basic information, such as the official DSMV-IV classification and translations of that into everyday language. Perplexingly, most of the sites repeat other sites, almost word for word. I won't do that here. I'll just point you to what I think are the best of the Cyclothymia sites:

McMan's Depression and Bipolar Web .
He gives the DSMV-IV, plus a list of symptoms, plus a fictionalized passage with an account of life with Cyclothymia, and best of all, a discussion section where people have posted their experiences with the disorder.

Psycom.net,
presents a generous list of links to sites with information relating to Cyclothymia.

Who names these disorders anyway?

Maybe the name is part of the problem of our not being taken seriously, or our reluctance to tell anyone about it.

"Cyclothymia" sounds like a being from Greek mythology with one eye who rides a unicycle. I know, I know, in Greek it means "cyclo"= cycle and "thym"=emotion...but still, in English it lacks substantiality. When you say the word to people, they say, "What?" and then you have to go into an explanation that it is part of Bipolar Disorder.

"I have Cyclothymia," you say. "Well," your roommate comments, "you have to be careful about STDs these days."

So you take another tack: "I have a mild form of Bipolar Disorder."
Sounds like a bear with housekeeping issues who goes both ways.

"I have BP3."
"Cool, but I thought that Star Wars character's name was "C3PO"."

How about: "I have a mild form of manic-depression," which brings to mind the stereotypical images of full blown manic episodes or suicidal depression-- scary.

One of the forum members used "BP/C" the other day. I like that.

I think maybe we could rename it "Mood Regulator Disorder"--MRD for short, or "merde" (French for "sh*t").
Then you could say, "Sometimes I just feel sh*tty."
"Man, you got that sh*t, too? That's harsh."

All joking aside, what is Cyclothymia?

This is what I understand:

Cyclothymia it is part of the Bipolar spectrum. People often come into the forum and say, "I don't know if I am Cyclothymic or Bipolar." Cyclothymia is a version of Bipolar Disorder.

It's called Bipolar III in the classification books. It is treated sometimes with talk therapy, but it is more commonly treated with serious psychotropic, mood stabilizing drugs like Lithium and Topamax. To respond to those who say that Cyclothymia is not really an illness, I say that it seems a sure indication that Cyclothymia is an illness if it requires these kinds of medications to treat it.

It might be that its symptoms are not as full blown as in BPI and BPII as to require hospitalization, for example, but it certainly disrupts our lives and causes us enough pain that we feel compelled to seek professional help and support on the Internet.

My psychiatrist says Cyclothymia is part of the BP spectrum and that a specific label for it is meaningless as everyone experiences it differently, many people go on to develop BPI or BPII later on in life, and the treatment is nearly identical to that for BPI or BPII. What is
important is to establish whether you are on the spectrum at all, not
where you are on it.

More important than if other people take you seriously is whether you take yourself seriously.