WI, that sounds so familiar to me. Dysthymia has been one of my diagnoses too, and it fits. I have had depression for most of my life, but only sometimes as severe as major depression. And it doesn't mean that your previous diagnosis was wrong - major depressive episodes often come and go, especially for people with dysthymia. Sleep problems go along with it for me too. I haven't been on prescription meds, but St. John's Wort helped a lot for me - with the depression and the insomnia too, especially when I also took valerian and/or chamomile at bedtime.

I can see Ben's point about dysthymic disorder belonging with the personality disorders. As I am sure Ben is aware, it is classified with the mood disorders, and I think it has aspects of both. Mood is definitely involved, and there are longstanding patterns that can seem like it is part of the personality. Part of what separates personality disorders from clinical disorders is that personality disorders tend to be based on traits that seem like they are consistent with the person's nature (ego-syntonic), while Axis I (clinical) disorders feel more foreign to your nature (ego-dystonic). Some people with dysthymia might feel like they have been depressed so much that it is part of who they are. I have felt that way. But I don't feel that way about depression/dysthymia to the extent that I do my personality disorders. I feel that dysthymia is most appropriately grouped as it is with the mood disorders. But the classification of mental disorders is more fluid than it may appear sometimes. The DSM isn't so much like a bible as it is sometimes treated. In fact, it gets revised regularly as the general consensus of the field changes.

Dysthymic disorder seems to me to often go along with certain personality disorders. It also seems to have a lot in common with seasonal affective disorder, and sleep problems, and major depression can often come into the picture too. I think that we tend to try to pin things down more precisely than it is really accurate to do sometimes. It would be more realistic to look at people all as individuals who have various symptoms that sometimes have something in common.

Rap