Cyclothymia? Bipolar?

[Joe.]

Hey. Right now I feel like I have my anxiety under control, and that's great. Last panic attack was in December and I even tried to enjoy it.

But the challenge right now is my mood, it seems as my anxiety dissipated my mood became more and more erratic, before I'd just be in a constant state of fear and anxiety, now I'm either despondent and depressed finding it really hard to get out of bed, or blissfully happy which normally leads me to writing philosophy essays late at night.

The 'bad' moods are normally in the morning, and the great moods are almost always at night. As most of school is in the morning, I am late to school often just because of lack of motivation and while in class lose focus very easily, and that's extremely frustrating.

I was talking to my therapist and she suggested these symptoms could fit cyclothymia. Would you agree with this?

Any advise on controlling my mood?

[Im-Suffering]

Hey. Right now I feel like I have my anxiety under control, and that's great. Last panic attack was in December and I even tried to enjoy it.

But the challenge right now is my mood, it seems as my anxiety dissipated my mood became more and more erratic, before I'd just be in a constant state of fear and anxiety, now I'm either despondent and depressed finding it really hard to get out of bed, or blissfully happy which normally leads me to writing philosophy essays late at night.

The 'bad' moods are normally in the morning, and the great moods are almost always at night. As most of school is in the morning, I am late to school often just because of lack of motivation and while in class lose focus very easily, and that's extremely frustrating.

I was talking to my therapist and she suggested these symptoms could fit cyclothymia. Would you agree with this?

Any advise on controlling my mood?

Don't do this to yourself (Stop !). Look to no one else to categorize you. At night you have the creative spark, where energy peaks, use it to further your expressive achievements. And speaking of achievements....

Keep within you, (since you are so young), always, the burning desire for achievement. Do what you love, be you, express you, and burn for its release from the inside out. Continue to put it to paper.

In the mornings when energy is already at its lowest (creative energy, not physical) don't push mental performance, but do indeed seek to use the daily time to pursue goals. Set some goals.

See the (lack of) motivation in class, like you are giving a lecture and picturing the audience naked. Laugh at your seeming inability to focus. It is funny. You can focus on what you want to focus on, you have selective focus. If you were painting nudes, or having deep philosophical discussions youd be so focused as to lose 12 hours before you could blink an eye. Feel that.

Things will work out. Think ! Go into yourself and pull out that desire for achievement (the road to personal fulfillment), and go for it.

Belief > generates the feeling > put into words (feeling translated) > changes the mood accordingly (altering body chemistry) > experience the belief first hand (instead of just a concept, projecting it out onto the environment). So what are the beliefs? "I hate school?", "Im in the wrong classes", "Im wasting my time here", "Im not good enough", "Ill never finish anyway", "I was forced or Im just doing this because I was told not to waste my life". "I was told to be a good boy", etc. Figure it out, clearly.

Then begin an action plan that moves you closer to your passion. Get excited about life ! Rather than pretending ignorance and prescribed more drugs buy your friendly neighborhood psych.

[Joe.]

Don't do this to yourself (Stop !). Look to no one else to categorize you. At night you have the creative spark, where energy peaks, use it to further your expressive achievements. And speaking of achievements....

Keep within you, (since you are so young), always, the burning desire for achievement. Do what you love, be you, express you, and burn for its release from the inside out. Continue to put it to paper.

In the mornings when energy is already at its lowest (creative energy, not physical) don't push mental performance, but do indeed seek to use the daily time to pursue goals. Set some goals.

See the (lack of) motivation in class, like you are giving a lecture and picturing the audience naked. Laugh at your seeming inability to focus. It is funny. You can focus on what you want to focus on, you have selective focus. If you were painting nudes, or having deep philosophical discussions youd be so focused as to lose 12 hours before you could blink an eye. Feel that.

Things will work out. Think ! Go into yourself and pull out that desire for achievement (the road to personal fulfillment), and go for it.

Belief > generates the feeling > put into words > changes the mood accordingly > experience the belief first hand (instead of just a concept). So what are the beliefs? "I hate school?", "Im in the wrong classes", "Im wasting my time here", "Im not good enough", "Ill never finish anyway", "I was forced or Im just doing this because I was told not to waste my life". "I was told to be a good boy", etc. Figure it out, clearly.

Then begin an action plan that moves you closer to your passion. Get excited about life ! Rather than pretending ignorance and prescribed more drugs buy your friendly neighborhood psych.

Wow, thank you, that is great advise!

All of that makes complete sense and is very relevant to how I feel.

One problem I have is I think too much, getting caught up in beliefs and words in my head stops me from taking action. I do try meditation, to minimize thinking.

Oh yeah, that's a good technique haha. Focus is always about interest essentially, and I do have an interest in achievement as well.

I have to say, if all goes well in a few months, what an achievement It would be to pass Gcse's and to have improved as a person like this!

[Im-Suffering]

One problem I have is I think too much, getting caught up in beliefs and words in my head stops me from taking action. I do try meditation, to minimize thinking.

Beliefs generate feelings, the appropriate feeling to accompany the belief. (not words, words are not your most trusted form of inner communication). The feeling then is translated into words that hopefully best describe the feeling. Then through your senses can you live the belief.

Trust your feelings (gut). If you think something is great, but feel badly, its not great.

Lets examine this Belief "I am bad" :

Always underlying tone of unhappiness, and you don't know why. This colors all experience. Now, when you get a good grade, or a compliment, or a girlfriend who actually likes you, you cant accept any of it, and wind up feeling worse (self-sabotage). You may have moments of joy, and then straight back to despair, saying the joy is always fleeting. "I am bad' sets the mood, the feeling-tone, and frames your thoughts.

The words cannot escape the boundaries of the feeling tone, and so if you are bad, you cant feel good, it is not within the accepted boundaries of the belief. The only way to feel good is to change the belief.

I am telling you this, because you said -

" One problem I have is I think too much, getting caught up in beliefs and words in my head stops me from taking action"

So you can work backwards to find the beliefs.

Words "Ill never finish school, school sucks, its so boring, I can motivate myself to do it, I cant even get there on time"

Feeling "My stomach hurts, I have gas, my anxiety is at an all time high, Im nervous, I feel unsure, out of balance" Translated feelings.

Belief "I am going to die at 40" (My mom died at 40, and so its inevitable, whats the sense of anything, or truly living, or being happy) For example only. Whatever you come up with as the belief is valid if it generates emotions. If it is neutral and you feel nothing, you must keep digging.

Instead of a death in the family to trigger the belief, it may have been "Nothing I do is good enough for approval" (I am bad, worthless, from abandonment).

[Joe.]

Beliefs generate feelings, the appropriate feeling to accompany the belief. (not words, words are not your most trusted form of inner communication). The feeling then is translated into words that hopefully best describe the feeling. Then through your senses can you live the belief.

Trust your feelings (gut). If you think something is great, but feel badly, its not great.

Lets examine this Belief "I am bad" :

Always underlying tone of unhappiness, and you don't know why. This colors all experience. Now, when you get a good grade, or a compliment, or a girlfriend who actually likes you, you cant accept any of it, and wind up feeling worse (self-sabotage). You may have moments of joy, and then straight back to despair, saying the joy is always fleeting. "I am bad' sets the mood, the feeling-tone, and frames your thoughts.

The words cannot escape the boundaries of the feeling tone, and so if you are bad, you cant feel good, it is not within the accepted boundaries of the belief. The only way to feel good is to change the belief.

I am telling you this, because you said -

" One problem I have is I think too much, getting caught up in beliefs and words in my head stops me from taking action"

So you can work backwards to find the beliefs.

Words "Ill never finish school, school sucks, its so boring, I can motivate myself to do it, I cant even get there on time"

Feeling "My stomach hurts, I have gas, my anxiety is at an all time high, Im nervous, I feel unsure, out of balance" Translated feelings.

Belief "I am going to die at 40" (My mom died at 40, and so its inevitable, whats the sense of anything, or truly living, or being happy) For example only. Whatever you come up with as the belief is valid if it generates emotions. If it is neutral and you feel nothing, you must keep digging.

Instead of a death in the family to trigger the belief, it may have been "Nothing I do is good enough for approval" (I am bad, worthless, from abandonment).
Ah yes, thanks. Very good, intuitive information.

I suppose one of my core bad beliefs is that I am doing bad, that I am failing life, and from this I fear criticism, generating a fear in itself, maybe even anxiety and lack of motivation. Or that's at least a piece of the jigsaw

[Im-Suffering]

Ah yes, thanks. Very good, intuitive information.

I suppose one of my core bad beliefs is that I am doing bad, that I am failing life, and from this I fear criticism, generating a fear in itself, maybe even anxiety and lack of motivation. Or that's at least a piece of the jigsaw

Yes, you can continue to dilute the belief as well, until you really feel it, with the above example, possibly you wind up with "I am a failure" as the core. "I am doing badly" seems like a 'bridged belief' attached to the core "I am a failure", period. Which would cause you to 'do badly' and 'fail at life'. If you are a failure, period, you must fail at everything.

Now, inherently that is false as you can imagine.

I just wanted you to attach your lack of motivation, and mood 'swings' to beliefs rather than a disease, as you suggested in the OP.

If I got that point across than we have a success today. Continue to work at your passion when creativity is flowing, whatever time of day, let the magic happen. And if you are unhappy at times, edify yourself so you at least know why, if you manage to make changes to some beliefs, the life changes and moods will change accordingly, no reason for any force.

[Joe.]

Yes, you can continue to dilute the belief as well, until you really feel it, with the above example, possibly you wind up with "I am a failure" as the core. "I am doing badly" seems like a 'bridged belief' attached to the core "I am a failure", period. Which if acted out can be far reaching.

Now, inherently that is false as you can imagine.

I just wanted you to attach your lack of motivation, and mood 'swings' to beliefs rather than a disease, as you suggested in the OP.

If I got that point across than we have a success today. Continue to work at your passion when creativity is flowing, whatever time of day, let the magic happen. And if you are unhappy at times, edify yourself so you at least know why, if you manage to make changes to some beliefs, the life changes and moods will change accordingly, no reason for any force.

As you've said before, a disease/condition/illness is comprised of beliefs and this is an explicit example, I see.
Oh yes I will continue in my philosophical ways.
Thank you

[JustaGal]

Hey. Right now I feel like I have my anxiety under control, and that's great. Last panic attack was in December and I even tried to enjoy it.

But the challenge right now is my mood, it seems as my anxiety dissipated my mood became more and more erratic, before I'd just be in a constant state of fear and anxiety, now I'm either despondent and depressed finding it really hard to get out of bed, or blissfully happy which normally leads me to writing philosophy essays late at night.

The 'bad' moods are normally in the morning, and the great moods are almost always at night. As most of school is in the morning, I am late to school often just because of lack of motivation and while in class lose focus very easily, and that's extremely frustrating.

I was talking to my therapist and she suggested these symptoms could fit cyclothymia. Would you agree with this?

Any advise on controlling my mood?

I went through the same thing after my anxiety season, depression came after, then mood swings. I would say Lexapro has been instrumental in balancing it. From what I have read depression comes after anxiety....for different reasons. I guess one is the brain/body shutting down to recover from the effects of the anxiety. I also take high quality Krill oil to help moods. It is allegedly better than fish oil.

[Joe.]

I'll look into kril oil!

I'll always refuse to take medication for me, medication in general is a trigger for my anxiety.

Thanks

[JustaGal]

I'll look into kril oil!

I'll always refuse to take medication for me, medication in general is a trigger for my anxiety.

Thanks

This is what I get - it is the DHA that is good for the brain. Dont buy cheap, you get what you pay for : D

http://www.amazon.com/Mercola-Krill-1000mg-serving-caps/dp/B001GF9BIU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1421447619&sr=8-2&keywords=mercola+krill&pebp=1421447625384&peasin=B001GF9BIU

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/08/04/this-fat-helps-reduces-anxiety-and-inflammation.aspx

http://draxe.com/depression-hurts-can-fish-oil-help/

[Joe.]

This is what I get - it is the DHA that is good for the brain. Dont buy cheap, you get what you pay for : D

http://www.amazon.com/Mercola-Krill-1000mg-serving-caps/dp/B001GF9BIU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1421447619&sr=8-2&keywords=mercola+krill&pebp=1421447625384&peasin=B001GF9BIU

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/08/04/this-fat-helps-reduces-anxiety-and-inflammation.aspx

http://draxe.com/depression-hurts-can-fish-oil-help/

Pretty expensive for me to be honest.
I might have a look for some cheaper supplements or something

[JustaGal]

Pretty expensive for me to be honest.
I might have a look for some cheaper supplements or something

http://www.amazon.com/Schiff-MegaRed-Extra-Strength-Softgel/dp/B007N01PM2/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1421449627&sr=8-14&keywords=krill+oil&pebp=1421449661974&peasin=B007N01PM2

Mega Red

Good luck in your search. Hope you find something that helps. : D

[Joe.]

http://www.amazon.com/Schiff-MegaRed-Extra-Strength-Softgel/dp/B007N01PM2/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1421449627&sr=8-14&keywords=krill+oil&pebp=1421449661974&peasin=B007N01PM2

Mega Red

Good luck in your search. Hope you find something that helps. : D

Thankyou.
What are the actual affects of these supplements? :)

[JustaGal]

Thankyou.
What are the actual affects of these supplements? :)

"Omega-3 May Decrease Anxiety, Improve Mood

The omega-3 fats EPA and DHA also play a role in your emotional well-being. The Brain Behavior and Immunity study showed a dramatic 20 percent reduction in anxiety among med students taking omega-3, while past research has shown omega-3 fats such as those found in krill oil work just as well as antidepressants in preventing the signs of depression, but without any of the side effects. Low plasma concentrations of DHA is associated with low concentrations of brain serotonin, which may be associated with depression and suicide.

In fact, inadequate intake of omega-3 fats is known to change the levels and functioning of both serotonin and dopamine (which plays a role in feelings of pleasure), as well as compromise the blood-brain barrier, which normally protects your brain from unwanted matter gaining access. Omega-3 deficiency can also decrease normal blood flow to your brain, an interesting finding given that studies show people with depression have compromised blood flow to a number of brain regions.

Finally, omega-3 deficiency also causes a 35 percent reduction in brain phosphatidylserine (PS) levels, which is relevant considering that PS has documented antidepressant activity in humans. Interestingly, omega-3 fats have even been known to help reduce violent behavior and aggression, and even improve the ability to concentrate in people with ADHD, so the impact on your brain health is quite significant." Dr. Joseph Mercola
************************************************** ************************************************** ******************
A multi published psychiatrist recommended it to me for mood swings. It seems to provide fats that are lacking in the brain. It has other benefits as well. It is not the all in all, but what is? It is one element that contributes to some relief. : D

[Joe.]

that would really help! As I've got exams at school and stuff, focus also is needed.

:D