Question by S: What should I know now that I am diagnosed with Dysthymia?
I am only 14 and I have been dealing with depression for nearly 4 years. I was just recently diagnosed with dysthymic disorder. I don’t know too much about it besides that all the symptoms point straight to my personality and I will most likely be on medication soon. Is anyone else dealing with it? Why do they call it mild depression? I don’t know whats so “mild” about it… Will I have it my whole life? Please help!

Best answer:

Answer by severus
It is good that you are getting treatment and that your condition is now diagnosed. It is mild depression, less severe than clinically severe depression. But to you, it is depression, and the concomitant symptoms, certainly not as good as having no condition.

Hopefully, the treatment plan will alleviate the sadness and allow you to lead a normal life. If the medication isn’t working, they would adjust it. They monitor it, probably every two months after you begin to take it. To answer your lest question, not the asking for help, but if you will have it your whole life, I want you to think about your earliest memories. If they were happy or sad or neutral. That might tell you if you have actually had this from several years of age or not.

As to your whole life, proceed to learn social skills, make friends, study hard, go to school, get a job, get married, have children, plan for the future and all the while get the support you might need. I cannot predict your future state of mind.

If I had to speculate, I would guess it would be an ongoing problem, and that I would hope you do not feel incumbent upon yourself to reveal your history to everyone you meet; and also, do not self medicate, nor get in with the wrong crowd.

When you next visit the psychiatrist, ask him/her these specific questions. Make sure your doctor addresses you by your given name and makes eye contact. You want answers and shouldn’t have to ask strangers, when the expert has done the intake and determined the diagnosis and treatment plan based on your affect and responses plus interviews with your parents. Speak up and talk about all of the above that you presented here. Depression can manifest itself in a variety of ways, even if it seems to subside with the RX. Follow the instructions for taking if you do get a prescription. If it is to be taken during the day, a container must be given to the school nurse. Only that person can administer the medication. Don’t take anything during school hours on your own. Your parents must notify the school of your state of mind, but all of that will be private and won’t change any classes or require being pulled out during the day. It is just that you cannot carry around meds in school by law.

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A Conversation with Aaron T. Beck – The Annual Review of Clinical Psychology presents Aaron T. Beck, President Emeritus of the Beck Institute for Cognitive Behavior Therapy and Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania and his daughter Judith S. Beck, President of the Beck Institute and Clinical Associate Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania. In this interview, they talk about his life and career, and how he went from having no interest in psychiatry to creating Cognitive Behavior Therapy. This method, initially developed for patients with depression and anxiety, challenges the subject to question his own negative beliefs, which act as prisms and cause distortions in the way events are perceived. Later, research showed that Cognitive Behavior Therapy was also effective in the treatment of schizophrenia. In the future, Aaron T. Beck says, psychotherapy must be firmly rooted in scientific evidence. The interview was conducted December 7, 2011. Read a transcript of this interview at Annual Reviews online: bit.ly A related review by Dr. Beck and Dr. Dozois is available from the Annual Review of Medicine. Read “Cognitive Therapy: Current Status and Future Directions” online: www.annualreviews.org