I have dysthymia. AMA
Can you explain what dysthymia is "clinically" as well as in your own words? How does this affect you?
Clinically it is chronic depression where reported mood is always low and it lasts for longer than two years.
In my own words it means that it's really hard to get happy by things that normally make people happy no matter how hard I tryand it never ends sometimes. i've had it for most of my life.
To what degree has this affected your life? Do you find it manageable or is it severe?
Do you have any coping mechanisms that have helped you?
Do you find it hard to relate to other people if you don't experience happiness as easily as they do?
It has affected it a lot as I find it hard to maintain hobbies and interests in things. In school it is especially difficult cause I can't really pick a major to commit to! Sometimes it's more manageable than other times. Sometimes it is really bad that I just end up lying down staring at the ceiling for hours because I can't decide what to do or anything that will be at least remotely interesting.
So far the only thing that really helps is going to sleep which is terrible to say cause I'm not supposed to do thator being around friends a lot (it's hard to keep friends though when I'm pretty down for long periods of times) and yeah it's hard to relate to people sometimes cause they usually get frustrated and say JUST BE HAPPY ALREADY or YOU CAN BE HAPPY IF YOU WANT TO. Once they stop saying that it's not so bad. Or I pick little things to help me relate to them, like we both love the colour green or silly things like that.
really great questions thanks!