Not depressed...but,

[BRGB12X]

I'm new to the forum so forgive me if I posted in the wrong place.
I'm a psych student and a long time client. Agitation can be a symptom of depression, that's what my shrink and many journals mention."I don't feel depressed, but I sure am agitated all the time". I'm not walking around kicking dogs "agitation", but I feel it's all way there under the friendly and helpful surface of my personality. Like a weight of stress or anger strapped to my back.Little things bug the hell out of me and that builds into definite angry mood. Could my shrink be wrong in the depression Dysthimia category and instead be dealing with Generalized Anxiety Disorder?

[voodoo scientist]

Your shrink could be wrong, and it could be GAD, but it's really not possible for us to tell any meaningful difference, especially with a long history of treatment. It might be a good idea to let your 'shrink' handle the top-down abnormal psychology and diagnosis and not second guess them too much directly (because it requires a lot of practical training to not only do right, but even not do wrong), and instead trying to analyze your situation from a bottom-up perspective.

What might the cognitive processes that create your conscious experiences on a day to day basis work like, mechanically speaking? What kind of tools and models have previously proven (un)successful in affecting desirable change in them, and what are the limits to them? What kind of internal cues do you yourself use to measure your condition?

Developing solid mental models is not only helpful in controlling and improving cognition and affect, but also in providing your therapist with more meaningful and accurate information.

[RWPossum]

I'll mention some do-no-harm treatments.  It sounds like you can use some stress reduction.  In the Neuropsychology forum, I wrote about the lifestyle program for mood disorders developed at the Univ. of Kansas, explained in Steve Ilardi's book The Depression Cure.  There have been very good results with programs that use methods based on traditional meditation.  Google "MBSR" and "MBCT" (books:  Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat-Zinn and The Mindful Way Through Depression by the MBCT researchers).   In California, schools report significantly reduced behavior problems with a mindfulness program.  Students are taught to react to stressful moments with at least two slow, deep breaths and, when calm, thinking carefully about their next actions.