Psycho-Babble Medication Thread 2616

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Question for TOBY

Posted by Jeremy on January 23, 1999, at 9:16:51

Dear Toby
I am a 23 year old postgraduate student who suffers from ocd,dysthymia and very ocassionally episodes of major depression.

In the past few months I have been under a great deal of pressure and then about a month ago I lapsed into an episode of major depression which eventually subsided. This was followed by 2 weeks of agitation and restlessness. In the past few weeks however, two symptoms have been particularly troublesome.
Firstly my mood is much more reactive than normal in other words I am frequently and easily lapsing into depressive epsiodes.
The second symptom is that small inconsequential things are provoking intense episodes of anxiety.

I think I have probably just 'cracked' under the strain of certain difficulties which confronted me last year.
Do you think these symptoms will eventually subside?
Do patients eventually recover from these episodes?
What diagnostic term would most accurately encompass the symptoms in question.

Thank you for looking at my question.
The energy, enthusiasm and concern you put into this discussion panel are much appreciated!

Re: Question

Posted by Toby on January 28, 1999, at 14:25:47

In reply to Question for TOBY, posted by Jeremy on January 23, 1999, at 9:16:51

Often a person will have residual depressive symptoms that fluctuate for long periods of time after a major depressive episode. Since you have dysthymia, which is a low level of longstanding depression (which of course does not make it any less life-changing than a big episode), it might be expected that these symptoms would be worse for you. It is also impossible to predict when or if these lingering episodes will occur in a particular person or if they will happen once or many times. Since OCD is an anxiety disorder, these flashes of anxiety you have may be occurring as a result of other imbalances related to the OCD. I hope you are getting both psychotherapy and medications for these disorders. It used to be thought that dysthymia was a personality disorder but we know now that it is true depression and can respond to proper doses of antidepressants. The key there being "proper" as in "enough for a long enough period of time."

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