Originally Posted by
thumbelina
^a wee bug bear of mine, the term is hypomania (the prefix refers to mania rather than the normal state), sorry for nitpicking
I (most probably) have bipolar II in that my elevated moods are not as extreme as mania. The most notable difference is the lack of psychotic features and less impact on your ability to function. The difference between bipolar II and cyclothymia is the intensity of the depressions with the depressions associated with cyclothymia being less severe than bipolar II.
One thing I would say is not to put too much emphasis on the terms, especially terms like "soft" and "light". The impact these varying illnesses have on your day to day life doesn't necessarily correlate with where you are on the scale of cycling moods. There are some people with cyclothymia that have little time when they are not in one mood state or another and others with bipolar I that spend much longer times "well" just when things go wrong they implications are greater. The more important thing for me is to have it recognised that my moods cycle between extremes, with my team we are working on getting my moods stable then we work out what to call it, hence the most probably.