SAD

[rodeosweetheart]

Has anyone had good luck dealing with Seasonal Affective Disorder? What have you found helpful?

[bae]

Exercise, good nutrition, jovial company, more exercise.

[Teacher Terry]

Special lights have been effective for some people I know.

[CathyA]

A good Vitamin D supplement.

[Simplemind]

I have a horrible problem with this every year. I try to get as much time outside as I can. I walk every day, rain or shine. I took the back wall off the house and had floor to ceiling windows put in. Not a cheap problem solver but it made a huge difference. The holiday carb overloads make the problem worse. I really feel it sinking in during the holidays but holiday activity holds it at bay. By January I am pushing myself to exercise on a schedule and take Vitamin D. Thank God I have a high energy dog who would walk from sunrise to sunset.
Exercise, not too much sleep or horizontal time, as much natural light as possible, go light on the carbs, exercise.... good luck.

[Tiam]

I've upped my vitamin D. I'd like to hear more about what makes a "good" vitamin D supplement. I confess, that the northwestern winters make me lethargic and not wanting to go out and exercise. Quite the hurdle. I'm trying to talk myself into riding to work again on my bike.

[CathyA]

Tiam........I just go with a very reputable brand. I usually buy Solgar.....but there are several other reputable brands. Health stores usually carry the best stuff.

[CathyA]

I have a bright light that I haven't used in years. It really didn't help me much. But I have talked to people who were very much helped by using it.
If we went to bed when the sun went down, got up when the sun came up, and didn't use artificial lights and cut back alot on our winter activities, I don't think SAD would be a condition anymore. But.....you know how it goes in modern society.

My SAD would manifest mostly in physical ailments. It would start in late July/August, and go away in January. After raising chickens, I realized I was responding to the dates of the summer and winter solstices. Interesting!

[oldhat]

I've suffered from mild to moderate depression my whole life, and winter is an especially trying time. The thing that helps my mood most is moderate exercise--I do thirty minutes of cardio (i.e., treadmill walking fast enough to elevate the heart rate to about 80% of maximum) most days before work, and I also try to walk a mile or so at lunch, especially on sunny days.

I have used a light box for the past two winters. I can't say it's made a dramatic difference, but enough that I've kept it up. I sit in front of it for about a half hour each morning. You can read or do other activities at the same time--I usually practice my guitar scales. The boxes aren't too expensive--I paid about $120 for mine on Amazon.

[rodeosweetheart]

Thank you for these suggestions. Tiam, I am going to up the vitamin D, I think that is probably a great idea. And exercise, exercise--just go my old treadmill out of the shed and am trying to get DH to build a desk so I can work on computer at same time. CathyA, you are so right about going to bed when sun goes down--it goes down here at around :5:50 pm and comes up around 8 am. I will look into a light box.

[Sad Eyed Lady]

I too am affected by this to a degree. Nothing dramatic to point to, just a vague general blah feeling, but I do find myself anxiously looking at sunset times and anticipating when the days get noticeably longer. More hours of sunshine does boost my emotional well-being greatly! Here's to longer days soon! Till then we do what we can to make it better. Rodeosweetheart, hope you Vit. D and exercise does the trick for you.

[CathyA]

I often wonder what the world (at least the U.S.) would be like, if everyone went to bed when the sun went down. I'll bet it would take a LONG time to get used to!

[larknm]

I got a small Phillips blu-light box (can see advertised on Amazon) and use it for 30 minutes every morning--it makes all the difference.

[milli]

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[ApatheticNoMore]

A fresh new years: :spam:

(milli)

[RosieTR]

It's very important that any light box be used in the morning, otherwise you will be screwing up your melatonin cycle which will interfere with your sleep. Exercise has been shown to help mild to moderate depression as well as SSRIs and if possible, the very best setup would be moderate exercise in the morning along with a light box. You might also try tuning down any lights (computers/phones/TV in particular) and red-shifting others as much as you can about an hour before bedtime. There may be apps for phones/computers to help with this; dimming is potentially helpful but it's the wavelength that really messes with your light cycle. Reading a book (not a backlit phone/tablet) with a dim-ish reddish light may be OK, or doing some calm stretching type exercise in dim, as red as possible light 30-60 before bed is good. One of the theories with depression is that your sleep cycle gets messed up which helps trigger the depression. It's a chicken/egg thing though since depression also often results in difficulty sleeping. Our society is horrible with sleep scheduling and all the light pollution that people subject themselves worsens the problem. It sounds counter-intuitive to worry about getting too much light this time of year, but if your sleep-wake cycle gets off then it can lead to other issues.

[Elishi]

I had no problem with this before but now I always feel it abound winter time, I just don't want to do anything or go anywhere. I feel tired all the time and it is so much effort to get out of bed. I saw my doctor and explained the problem. She straight away linked the lack of sunlight to my mood and told me to take Vitamin D every day during all the months. And I've been doing that, but the thing is, I feel no different. I don't know if it's helping me or not and how much help it can actually be. Urghh...I wish there was more sunlight during winter.