Hi FF44, welcome to Beyond Blue forums.
Sorry about your cycle. You havent mentioned medication, diagnosis, age, sex, lifestyle etc so I will be broad here.
There are many threads on here for your reading that will help. "Back to basics" is one I wrote a little time ago for example.
Everyone is different but in my case correct diagnosis was critical- instead of an incorrect diagnosis in 2003 if bipolar 1 and ADHD and subsequent medication for that, in 2009 was correctly diagnosed with bipolar 2, dysthymia, anxiety and depression. Hence correct medication for those illnesses and then fine tuning of those gave me a massive improvement. For 6 years I toiled with the wrong meds with terrible results.
Then my "cycle" of 10 days straight every 2 months became a few hours every 3 weeks, now even less so with that fine tuning.
We also know recent studies have found that if you try too hard during your cycle to be positive and cannot reach your positive goals it can be counter productive. Be realistic during your cycle, set small goals, allow your cycle to run its course, be patient.
Understanding the process, the illness and managing it to the best of your ability in a realistic and logical manner will give you the best results.
Hope this helps.
