Dr. Rachna Singh

Cyclothymia is a type of a mood disorder which is relatively light or mild in nature. If you are suffering from this condition, then you will experience extreme mood swings for very short periods of time. During these mood swings, you may experience a low period (depressed mood) or a high period when you are extremely happy.

Identification
There is no set or structured pattern for the highs and lows that you will experience during this condition. This feature of the disease makes it more difficult to detect and diagnose. The duration of your mood swings usually last just for a few days but can also be extended up to a few weeks. So, the only sign of identifying this medical condition is that if you are not having a normal mood for an extended period of time then you should consult a specialist doctor to enquire more about the condition.

Symptoms
Though there are no special symptoms of this disorder, the usual signs of mild depression and hypomania can be a possible symptom of Cyclothymia.

Some of them are:

1. Hypomanic symptoms
2. Racing thoughts
3. Minimal sleep
4. Excessive talking
5. Extreme optimism
6. Raised self-esteem
7. Being happy without any reason

Depressive symptoms

1. Hopelessness
2. Unnecessary fear
3. Restlessness
4. Fatigue
5. Concentration difficulties
6. Abnormal weight changes

Remedy
The mood swings that you experience during this situation do not get better with time or vanish automatically. So it is always desirable that you seek some medical assistance from a specialist doctor on seeing the symptoms of either hypomania or depression.

Complications
This does not always hold true but you might also start to experience suicidal thoughts if you also have a bipolar I or II disorder along with cyclothymia. So, if any such thoughts appear in your mind, then you should seek immediate medical assistance.

When you get a compliment, 'smart thinking or you are intelligent or that was intelligent of you', you definitely feel good. These comments fill us with confidence, admiration and pride and we want it to happen to us again and again. But owing to a busy schedule and long working hours it might not be possible. Having said this, it does not mean that a person cannot stay intelligent throughout. This can be easily achieved by regular meditation. Regular meditation and yoga helps the mind to be more reflective and efficient.

Here are reasons how yoga and meditation lead to an intellectual learning and growth:

1. Utilizes the brain: Almost everyone uses one half of their brain more and this leads to imbalance. Meditation is believed to sync the left and the right hemispheres, thereby allowing neural connection and great processing power. When logical left and creative right brains start working in harmony, then solving problems becomes easy; and it also increases creativity, deep thinking comes to be known of and concentration and focus magnifies. Highly successful people usually display whole brain synchronization.
2. Functional capabilities of brain enhance due to meditation: Research backs it that meditation increases the gray matter thickness of the brain regions, thus making the brain smarter, bigger and faster. This is very similar to doing physical exercise which makes the muscles denser and stronger. The increase in Functional Capabilities of brain is based on the concept of neuroplasticity, which states that our intelligence is not based on genetics and there are some things which can be done to improve the way our brain works. Meditation is a good brain enhancer with an ability to increase intelligence.
3. Beneficial brainwave patterns can be seen: Meditation can help to guide the brainwaves into beneficial frequencies. The frequencies: alpha, theta and delta when guided can show case a myriad of benefits including idea generation, creativity, cognitive functioning, and intellectual capacity. Meditation helps to transform these beneficial states of mind and help boost the IQ.
4. Develops intuition and insights: These are generally obtained through listening and developing to the inner voice. Thus meditation forms to be the basic key to tap these latent abilities. The intelligence can be mapped through tests and quizzes and is valuable at each level to stimulate insights and creativity. As per some people, inner intelligence, is considered to be the most important and best success in the world. Successful people including Steve Jobs have stated that their super revolutionary ideas and business acumen came through their intuition.
5. Meditation helps in improving both short and long term memory: The key memory areas hippocampus and frontal lobe show increase in activity during meditation. By stimulating these areas, the short and long term memories are improved.