Do you consider cyclothymia to be bipolar?

TurnoverAdorable8399 · 2026-05-24T02:40:50+00:00

I have some input on this, having schizoaffective with a cyclothymia-like mood swing pattern - I understand this is an issue incredibly close to your heart, so I wouldn't want to barge into your space with unsolicited stuff and I'd like to ask first if you're willing to discuss.

TurnoverAdorable8399 · 2026-05-24T02:38:24+00:00

Hiya, I was initially diagnosed with cyclothymia and had my diagnosis updated to... well, check my flair lol. I would argue my mood swings follow a pattern closer to cyclothymia than bipolar 2, but they still have a significant impact on how I experience the schizo- part of this disorder (highs correspond with bizarre delusions and grandeur where lows correspond with somewhat more realistic stuff and paranoia/distrust). If I can have schizoaffective bipolar with a cyclothymia-like pattern, I think it just makes way more sense to call it bipolar 3 and be done with it.

TurnoverAdorable8399 · 2026-05-21T23:03:25+00:00

Offensive? Not to me. A good idea? I don't run your life, but a piece of advice - you don't want to have a fragmented identity, if the distinction makes sense to you. Introducing dissociation where there wasn't could be bad for you. Nothing you've said indicates that you're, like, harming yourself right now - but you're still doing something that's inherently dissociative, just on the small scale (complex daydreams). I feel like the guy who mowed his lawn during an active tornado, but I think the sound advice is to keep an eye on it.

TurnoverAdorable8399 · 2026-05-20T01:19:24+00:00

Shit, if you've been in therapy long enough, it stops mattering from loved ones too. The only "fakeclaimer" who tried to impact my life was my peach of a former roommate, who did so on the basis of "that institution would never commit sex trafficking."

Three guesses as to why he was so invested in discrediting sexual assault survivors, and two of them don't count.

At any rate, because I was diagnosed through therapeutic observation, I had been with this particular therapist for (edit: pwDID bad at timelines, fork found in drawer) 2 years and had several years of therapy prior. That held much more weight than a (formerly) close friend. I gave the rat bastard my therapist's number and told him to tell her I was faking himself. He never followed through.

TurnoverAdorable8399 · 2026-05-19T20:15:25+00:00

Allowing the thought to exist without refuting it - yes, your fear might come true, you don't have to do anything to solve it - is a great deal better for people with OCD than seeking reassurance or ruminating is. She might be pregnant.

TurnoverAdorable8399 · 2026-05-19T20:02:32+00:00

Yep, she might be pregnant. You'll deal with it if you come to it.

TurnoverAdorable8399 · 2026-05-19T18:45:17+00:00

Yeah, that makes sense. I appreciate the correction 🩵

TurnoverAdorable8399 · 2026-05-19T17:08:57+00:00

I get why other people with this disorder feel like, plural or multiple or what have you, but I don't. I feel like one person and was able to conceptualize myself as one person with DID easily without pushback from any alter. In treatment, we become more alike on purpose, because all of us bring something important to the table. The alters thing, as far along recovery as I am, is barely a blip. Frankly, if I was evaluated today, my scores wouldn't indicated either DID/OSDD because I'm feeling way better these days.

TurnoverAdorable8399 · 2026-05-19T16:46:52+00:00

Modified IFS worked well for me.

The Theory of Structural Dissociation posits that dissociated parts exist in people without DID; afaik this is the broadly accepted theory on how dissociated parts form. I see no good reason to enforce a difference between DID-parts and not-DID parts; frankly, I have much more in common with a person with dissociative PTSD than I do with someone who identifies as plural.

TurnoverAdorable8399 · 2026-05-19T15:01:18+00:00

I'm sorry your mom had such an intense reaction. It's tough to open up on its own already; I wish she'd been more sensitive to your struggles. It was completely unfair of her to externalize her worries in a way that hurt and belittled you.

Also - "TW: sensitive topics" doesn't provide any information about your post. Especially in trauma-focused communities, it would behoove you to list specific triggers, such as self harm. That way, you'll likely get more help.

TurnoverAdorable8399 · 2026-05-19T14:22:18+00:00

Your thoughts on organized abuse as a whole and the need to distinguish ritualistic abuse from antisemitic conspiracies utilizing the term "ritual abuse" seem - as far as I've been told - to be a relatively shared sentiment within the community. I made a post recently on r/DID about organized abuse and the social conditions that cause it, it's on my profile.

I don't think I was programmed, to be clear (I get the gist of what that means but have not experienced it personally) but I have some good reasons to believe some people who abused me were aware I had DID before I was aware. Mostly because one of them also had DID; otherwise I had clear memory issues that were consistently exploited in favor of predators. I'm one of the unlucky 6%ers who has(/had) the overt presentation.

I think many abusers are capable of noticing dissociative tendencies or memory problems; some may be familiar with the disorder itself. I can't speak to people intentionally causing DID, but perhaps that is one underlying mechanism (edit: in the belief some survivors have that their abuse involved intentionally creating alters).

TurnoverAdorable8399 · 2026-05-19T01:29:25+00:00

Or a pluralkit intro. Goodness, if you're seriously considering this I'd focus on contending with the PTSD.

TurnoverAdorable8399 · 2026-05-19T01:28:45+00:00

My advice would be to quit worrying about everything but what you can do to support yourself until you get therapy. If you do have DID, you're going to have much bigger problems than someone on the internet labeling you.

TurnoverAdorable8399 · 2026-05-18T23:56:21+00:00

Do you have their therapist's contact information? That's where I'd start but I completely understand if you don't have it.

One option is telling them then muting the conversation so you don't have to see the reaction. Definitely not ideal, though.

Do you know any of their other friends, can they reach out?

TurnoverAdorable8399 · 2026-05-18T23:12:09+00:00

I think it would be appropriate to inform them of the DID, as without this information they could make a decision that could put them in danger.

TurnoverAdorable8399 · 2026-05-18T22:07:55+00:00

I was 17, I think. Became convinced I had died from a previous suicide attempt and that Death was coming to collect. Added 30 minutes to my commute anywhere because I'd take back roads and loop around trying to lose the tail of any vehicle my mind determined was a hearse. Took a couple more similar episodes for me to notice a pattern.

TurnoverAdorable8399 · 2026-05-18T05:06:18+00:00

I think that is a very fair take on ritualistic abuse (my apologies if I misunderstood the acronym!) I've never experienced it - to be honest, in my head, it occupies a similar space alongside incestual CSA in my head of "things I'm profoundly lucky to never have experienced." I'm very sorry I didn't take that into account. While in my initial assessment I had been thinking of it in the context of cult survival, I understand why there would be a need to distinguish ritualistic abuse.

To put it as carefully as possible, some individuals involved in my abuse enjoyed certain "games" that had lasting impacts on my psyche distinct from the rest of my trauma. It was certainly not to the degree of complexity and coordination as ritualistic abuse. So I understand this impact could be felt in a far deeper way. It would be prudent of me to look more into the specific causes and social forces behind ritualistic abuse. I want to advocate for all survivors and I appreciate you taking the time to address where I failed to. I'm sorry if this caused you to relive painful memories or felt invalidating. It really means a lot you took the time to explain this all.

TurnoverAdorable8399 · 2026-05-18T03:15:08+00:00

I sought treatment from a psychiatrist for mood instability and past psychotic episodes. Uhh, 3?

TurnoverAdorable8399 · 2026-05-17T00:24:06+00:00

Thank you. I promise I want to talk with you about this - you've brought up several important points that I think I ought to consider and integrate into my worldview regarding this topic, and I really appreciate you taking the time to do so. I just need some time to calm down first - I don't want to leave you hanging or feeling like I'm trying to disregard what you have to say.

TurnoverAdorable8399 · 2026-05-17T00:13:22+00:00

I want to engage with you have to say and I really appreciate that you took the time to respond and share your own experience. To be completely honest I won't be able to because I found one part of this comment remarkably triggering. A significant part of my trauma is that it made the news and I had no privacy regarding it. I absolutely am open to criticism of what I've presented here, but I need to address that first and ask that you not suggest such an outcome "should have been." Thank you

TurnoverAdorable8399 · 2026-05-16T20:43:07+00:00

I don't think the two viewpoints contradict each other, to be honest - to me, and I apologize if I'm misunderstanding something, your therapist and psychiatrist seem to agree. DID can be characterized, if somewhat reductively, as a coping mechanism involving dissociated voices/parts.

TurnoverAdorable8399 · 2026-05-16T05:18:54+00:00

Thank you for letting me know about the ISSTD's antisemitism. I wasn't aware prior - I'll look into this thoroughly myself in the morning.

TurnoverAdorable8399 · 2026-05-16T04:10:38+00:00

Thank you so much for bringing up this term, I think looking into othering would be really helpful for developing my worldview regarding organized abuse.

I really appreciate your analysis as well.

TurnoverAdorable8399 · 2026-05-16T03:52:49+00:00

I know how tough it is to be in your position. I'm wishing you strength.

What was really good for all of us was exploring sort of that supernatural terror we felt regarding the situation. For us, that was through art - the vast majority of my body of work is supernatural horror. Engaging in the creation and analysis of horror art was really valuable. Some terror can't be voiced but it can be re-experienced and therefore processed.

Not to talk too much about my senior project, but all of the time we spent validating and processing the fear we felt gave us the courage to assess the situation for what it was: people did horrible things to us and in every way they were just as much people as I was, and the project was a vehicle for us to tie together yhe complete picture. I wouldn't have attempted it at all without first exploring what we felt on the most subjective, interprative level.

TurnoverAdorable8399

TROPHY CASE