r/dysthymia•
h2opete

Has to be dysthymia I guess?

So I've been down / depressed for at least like 10 years, can't remember the last time I was truly happy. My psychiatrist has diagnosed me with Social Anxiety Disorder and traits of Borderline Personality Disorder but I forgot to ask about any kind of depression diagnosis. All my doctors have ever said is "depression" and my CBT therapist referred to it as "mild / moderate depression". The CBT didn't really help. i'm guessing that seen as I've had it for like 10 years, it's therefore by definition, dysthymia? Sometimes I have periods where I feel a lot worse with crying, etc, but I guess that's normal too. One of the bad periods led me to getting help for the first time.

I've tried 2 different SSRIs which were no use, and am now on a mood stabiliser with no luck so far 2 weeks in. I've recently suspect I might have ADD and I'm going to talk about that with my doctor tomorrow. I'm also chronically fatigued... can't remember the last time I felt fully awake, or the last time I felt truly happy!

Going to go through these points as a bit of a test...

  • Loss of interest in daily activities - Most days I can't be bothered to do stuff.
  • Sadness, emptiness or feeling down - Feel down most of the time.
  • Hopelessness - Not really, I'd say only when I'm in a "bad" period.
  • Tiredness and lack of energy - All the time.
  • Low self-esteem, self-criticism or feeling incapable - A fair amount, depends on the situation and recent events I guess.
  • Trouble concentrating and trouble making decisions - Most of the time, always struggled to concentrate, in school I always got "he's quite smart but performs below his potential" and "he's easily distracted", always struggled to make decisions. I'm the guy in the shop he takes 5 minutes to pick a sandwich.
  • Irritability or excessive anger - Definitely have anger issues, can rage sometimes, quite irritable a lot of the time too.
  • Decreased activity, effectiveness and productivity - Can't be bothered to do stuff most of the time, sometimes I get stuff done though.
  • Feelings of guilt and worries over the past - Not really, I'd say only when I'm in a "bad" state.
  • Poor appetite or overeating - Get a bit of a poor appetite when I'm a "bad" state, definitely not all the time.
  • Sleep problems - Never really had any trouble getting to sleep, always sleep straight through, I'm just always tired when I wake up.

Posted Feb 25, 2016, 12:53 AM UTC · edited

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