[tipper1492]

CYCLOTHYMIC DISORDER - Is this me.
Anyone have this? Now I'm thinking I am not BP because my mood swings just aren't that wide up or down. Maybe it's medication, so I may be BP. Where is the line between the two. Most times I am fine and in a mellow state. Are you cyclothymic and if so, how do you feel?

[kaliope]

I think it would be the mania that would be the thing to separate the two

[BipolaRNurse]

I can't speak to cyclothymia personally because I'm bipolar 1, but I have a good friend who has it. She describes it as periods of mild depression and mild mood elevations that don't quite rise to the level of hypomania---she has extra energy and she is more talkative and easily amused than usual. But she doesn't spend money irresponsibly, nor does she do things like rearrange the sock drawer at 2 in the morning or pressure-wash the porch for 4 hours straight. (Yes, I've done those things.)

It's all in the degree of the "high" mood as to whether one gets diagnosed with BP and what specifier is used (BP 1, 2, or NOS).

[tipper1492]

Thanks for all your insights because it helped me some. 2nd thought, I believe I am BP II because before medications, for many years, there was something going on in me indicating and matching the definition of some sort of BP. What has my psychiatrist said? Think only asked the first day with my wife beside me. She said so right away before I spoke out three words, in an aspirated way, out loud, off the subject way. Right away I was talking about (stupidly) me and another off the subject matter. Wife totally agree with her. Then I was issued
instructions, and told to go to the hospital just 20 miles north. Told to be there (wife took me thank God) 7 or 8 am. I was there 14 days when, or before, they released me. I did not cry until I got there and I felt I must me mentally ill.