dysthymia

[darkoshi]

I'm not sure I even meet the diagnosis criteria for dysthymia. The only condition I seem to strongly meet is the "hopeless" one. I don't usually have problems with sleeping or eating. I don't think I have a problem with self-esteem. Sometimes I feel fatigued or lacking energy, but not all the time. I don't have a problem concentrating, if I'm motivated to do so. Decision-making can be difficult, but I'm still able to do so; it just takes longer some times.

Another consideration is that the antidepressants I tried did not seem to have any positive effect on me.

There's one state of being, where one is very much lacking in the mental energy/motivation to do anything. Perhaps that is the symptom of depression and dysthymia, which the anti-depressant drugs help to fix.

There's another state of being, where one has mental energy and motivation to do some things, but one feels no joy in doing them. That's what I have. Perhaps the drugs don't help with that. Perhaps this state is a very common one; after all, I read about people searching for joy, happiness, purpose, and the meaning of life, all the time. Is my state the same as all those people? Or do those people already enjoy life, and they're looking for even more?

Anyway, I was discussing my state of being, in these videos.

If the videos seem a bit choppy, it's because I edited out a lot of pauses between words and sentences, to make the videos shorter.

Comments

[darkoshi]

Hi there, pleased to be friends with you. My mental state is pretty much the same. I haven't sought more therapy - perhaps if I saw reports of of therapy and/or drugs working well for dysthymic individuals, I'd be more inclined to seek it. But I didn't find much info on treatment of dysthymia and success rates. Sometimes I think that a cure for myself would need to come from within myself. Other times, I think there is no cure. Most of the time I try not to think about it much.

[passionrlsusall.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know what you mean. I've gone for so long trying to deal with it, trying to forget about it, thinking it's me causing it, thinking it's something physical or psychological about me... ugh. I have been seeing a therapist recently but didn't think it was helping so have pretty much given up on going to her. I want to do something though, but it'll be more discouraging if nothing helps.