Dysthymia: this type of depression that is so difficult to diagnose.

Anna Bekovos had symptoms of dysthymia at an early age. At the age of 13, he started having problems in financial relationships, feeling of his worthlessness and life seemed completely dark.

I used to think of myself as a realistic person but disappointed. People suffer from a condition in which it seems quite normal.

I suddenly felt extremely happy. Then it would suddenly disappear and a feeling of sadness would take its place.

Despite these symptoms, he was diagnosed when his depression had advanced. After medical examination it was found that he has dysthymia.

Many patients like Anna spend years with symptoms before the disease is diagnosed. It is often assumed that such a patient's behavior is part of their personality. And because of this, the diagnosis of the disease is delayed.

Dysthymia

Marcelo Hyde is a psychologist. He says that such patients usually go to the doctor only when their symptoms worsen and then they know they have a disease.

What is Dysthymia?

Dysthymia is a recurrent depressive disorder that can occur from childhood to age 21. According to the World Health Organization, six percent of the world's population is suffering from this disease.

The difference between dysthymia and the normal type of depression is that the affected person may appear normal in normal life but find it difficult to work, study and do some of the normal activities of daily life.

Marcia Hague is a psychologist at the University of Curitiba. According such people can work but they have to do a lot of hard work.

According to experts contacted by the BBC, there is still no consensus on the causes of the disease. It is generally believed that exposure to severe stress in childhood, genetics, an accident or social factors can lead to the disease.

Bianca Breda is a psychologist at the University of São Paulo. She says that when such a patient is investigated, it is found that he was very quiet as a child and had difficulty working.

Anna was helped to learn about her illness because of her work at a center providing support for sexually abused children.

How is dysthymia diagnosed?

Compared to other types of depression, the symptoms of dysthymia tend to be more subtle.

In general depression, the patient has severe feelings of sadness, loss of interest in work, loss of appetite and other symptoms that the patient can identify.

Breda says that in depression there is an intensification of symptoms that are linked to some event.

It is not part of personality

Dysthymia is a type of depression that is difficult to diagnose and often patients' symptoms are mistaken for a part of their personality.

Depression

This mistake leads to delay in diagnosis and patients delay in getting proper treatment.

it is wrong to say that person is bored, or that he has been this way all his life, he cannot change.

According to Marcelo Hyde, 'Dysthymia comes on slowly. However, with time its effect increases. The patient is given various names like Moody or something else. Culturally acknowledging this does not lead to a diagnosis and on the other hand reinforces a personality in which sufferers view everything negatively.'

Anna had problems in school but she didn't know why.

I believed that these feelings were part of their behavior and would go away with time. At some point you get angry with yourself.

Dysthymia

How to treat it?

A visit to a psychiatrist is often avoided and in case of an illness another diagnosis is made by the general practitioner which leads to harm.

According to Marcia Hague, 50 percent of depression cases go undiagnosed because general practitioners don't recognize it.

Then think what will happen to dysthymia patients. It is common to associate its symptoms with another psychiatric illness or with drug use.

They say that dysthymia and depression affect the body and can aggravate many common diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, which may lead to the patient needing more medication.

The disease can be further complicated by social behavior associated with reproductive problems. Therefore, experts suggest to contact a psychiatrist so that after the examination they can prescribe the correct treatment which is possible only with drugs or psychotherapy.

When Anna was diagnosed with the disease, she opted for psychotherapy because her doctor advised her not to use medication due to her age.

For a few years he was unable to attend these sessions due to his work, but during the Corona epidemic, he regularly underwent psychotherapy and saw a lot of improvement.

Experts say that the treatment of this disease should not be interrupted until a specialist recommends it so that the patient can be monitored regularly.