Does anyone here suffer from seasonal effective disorder?

[ceecee]

19 Fahrenheit or Celsius?

Fahrenheit

 

[jixmixfix]

Fahrenheit

Are you albino?

 

[ceecee]

Are you albino?

Not even close.

 

[Mal12345]

I don't know if this has been suggested yet, but you all who get the winter blues every year should look into taking some vitamin D supplements. Deficiencies have been linked to an overall depressed mood. It's a difficult nutrient to adequately incorporate into the diet for several reasons, and unless you're bathing in the sun every day you're most likely not getting enough.

Anecdotally, I've been taking about 10,000 IUs a day for a few months now and I feel great. There's a lot of competing research on how much should be taken, but it's pretty much common consensus that what's advocated as the current DRA is borderline deficient.

It's obviously not the cause of my problem, because my depression starts in the spring.

 

[Venom]

SAD could just be a signal that you're living in the wrong place for your body.

I hate to say it, but MOVE! I have had SAD all my life even living in California and all it took was one winter in Missouri to really kick into a deep deep bad place. Moved back to California and I still get it, but not nearly as bad. I've just kind of accepted that "I live for spring summer fall". As for winter, I just hunker down and "get through it...". Getting through it means don't lose your good habits from the other seasons: exercise, vitamins, social connections, no comfort carbs. However, at the end of the day nothing really ever helps except MOVING. Even temporarily: every year since I was a teen I've gone to Mexico or Hawaii or somewhere with sun in December for a week vacation and it was like a resurrection! Somehowe that would be enough to then carry me through to the spring (the reminder that it's just the stupid season and there is a cure that comes every year, the season will change.

 

[Mal12345]

I hate to say it, but MOVE! I have had SAD all my life even living in California and all it took was one winter in Missouri to really kick into a deep deep bad place. Moved back to California and I still get it, but not nearly as bad. I've just kind of accepted that "I live for spring summer fall". As for winter, I just hunker down and "get through it...". Getting through it means don't lose your good habits from the other seasons: exercise, vitamins, social connections, no comfort carbs. However, at the end of the day nothing really ever helps except MOVING. Even temporarily: every year since I was a teen I've gone to Mexico or Hawaii or somewhere with sun in December for a week vacation and it was like a resurrection! Somehowe that would be enough to then carry me through to the spring (the reminder that it's just the stupid season and there is a cure that comes every year, the season will change.

Sounds like you have "I hate winter" syndrome. But do you have any real depression symptoms?

 

[Venom]

Sounds like you have "I hate winter" syndrome. But do you have any real depression symptoms?

Look I'm not going to to try to "prove" that I have SAD, but I know the winter months for me have always been more challenging then I think they're supposed to be most people. It would interfere with my life like depression does in a clinical depression case. Was I ever on the doorstep of hurting myself? No never. Was I horribly numb and wanting to just sleep for 5 years and wake up when "things are all better" YES.

I think what clued me into all this is that a couple of times growing up I/we (family) thought I was depressed but then I would get better. We thought nothing of the season. Then, looking backwards, we all realized that without fail it had been the past 5 winters. Then I moved to Texas for school to a more southern latitude and I'd still get it but not as bad. I graduated and came back to California and I sure enough had it again. I remember my room mates in that February joking after I came to life, "man we weren't sure you were gonna make it! ... We're glad to have you back though!". The next fall I was in Missouri. When I got there I was for a new good job and pretty chipper and eager ENTP self. By winter I was almost legit clinical depression (it's really effing dark there!). basically had a breakdown and quit the job. I remember crying at night, planning to just go AWOL and get a plane somewhere and never show up to work. Then I realized I was have a breakdown and should just quit.

This year was my first winter working outside and my symptoms were much more manageable. Of course I'd still have winter blues, but nothing that made me want to hibernate for 5 years until "life is better".

 

[Mal12345]

Look I'm not going to to try to "prove" that I have SAD, but I know the winter months for me have always been more challenging then I think they're supposed to be most people. It would interfere with my life like depression does in a clinical depression case. Was I ever on the doorstep of hurting myself? No never. Was I horribly numb and wanting to just sleep for 5 years and wake up when "things are all better" YES.

I think what clued me into all this is that a couple of times growing up I/we (family) thought I was depressed but then I would get better. We thought nothing of the season. Then, looking backwards, we all realized that without fail it had been the past 5 winters. Then I moved to Texas for school to a more southern latitude and I'd still get it but not as bad. I graduated and came back to California and I sure enough had it again. I remember my room mates in that February joking after I came to life, "man we weren't sure you were gonna make it! ... We're glad to have you back though!". The next fall I was in Missouri. When I got there I was for a new good job and pretty chipper and eager ENTP self. By winter I was almost legit clinical depression (it's really effing dark there!). basically had a breakdown and quit the job. I remember crying at night, planning to just go AWOL and get a plane somewhere and never show up to work. Then I realized I was have a breakdown and should just quit.

This year was my first winter working outside and my symptoms were much more manageable. Of course I'd still have winter blues, but nothing that made me want to hibernate for 5 years until "life is better".

Thanks for going into more detail, but as for your solution to the problem, in my case I would have to move to Alaska to feel better. So regarding my situation, I feel better (stronger, more energetic) in the winter when it's cold and ugly outside, and feel worse (low dysthymic mood) during my favorite season of the year, summer.

 

[gromit]

Spring is starting to feel like it's here, and it sure is one of the best mood-enhancers.

 

[Mal12345]

Spring is starting to feel like it's here, and it sure is one of the best mood-enhancers.

Sure it is for some people.

 

[Blackmail!]

When I returned to Paris after having lived for two years as an expatriate in Africa, my first impression, even during summer, was that the sun had been "turned off". It was difficult to recognize my own city, all those familiar places suddenly looked grayish and surreal.

It still is, but fortunately spring is coming, at last!

 

[Mole]

When I returned to Paris after having lived for two years as an expatriate in Africa, my first impression, even during summer, was that the sun had been "turned off". It was difficult to recognize my own city, all those familiar places suddenly looked grayish and surreal.

It still is, but fortunately spring is coming, at last!

We have lots of sunshine in Canberra but occasionally we have a grey day and Canberra doesn't look the same. The colours in our eucalyptus trees disappear with the sunlight, our building look drab and ordinary, and all the brightness is taken out of the day.

There is, though, one consolation on a grey day - the trees appear a magic, almost hypnoidal green. I understand this is because the grey clouds block the red spectrum and let the green shine through.

 

[Coriolis]

I have a friend who has had seasonal affective disorder for years. She also is bipolar, with little luck finding a medication regime that helps, so the two conditions compound. For many years, she would land in the hospital in the fall, things got so bad. She got significant relief after a therapist suggested she get up early and go out to watch the sun rise each day. She lives in the Boston area, so has the same climate challenges others have mentioned. But she did it, and it helped.

 

[Thalassa]

I'm pretty sure I have SAD. I am cyclothymic and I ran screaming from West Virginia in the middle of March while there was at least two feet of snow on the ground, and it was because sometime in January I found myself not able to quit sobbing.

In California, they actually had to REDUCE my anti-depressant from 200 to 150 mg because of the sun. No joke. I noticed after about a month that everything was excessively BRIGHT.

I hate hellishly bright hotness, though. I would never live in the desert again, and I prefer the beach over the valley even here in L.A.

My mother also says things like "West Virginia is depressing." West Virginia is NOT depressing, it's actually extremely beautiful, and in many ways more conducive to peace and calm, it's a really beautiful place to live, but the long winters up in the mountains are too much for some people I think.

Depression runs in my family back to my maternal great-grandmother. My grandfather's sister attempted suicide three times (fortunately not dying). My grandfather was melancholy (but also an SJ) and my mother seems more up and down like me.

I would not discount the impact of long WV winters upon the depressive episodes in my family.

 

[Galena]

She got significant relief after a therapist suggested she get up early and go out to watch the sun rise each day.

That's a great idea, and I'm going to try it. Thanks for sharing.

 

[jixmixfix]

I have a friend who has had seasonal affective disorder for years. She also is bipolar, with little luck finding a medication regime that helps, so the two conditions compound. For many years, she would land in the hospital in the fall, things got so bad. She got significant relief after a therapist suggested she get up early and go out to watch the sun rise each day. She lives in the Boston area, so has the same climate challenges others have mentioned. But she did it, and it helped.

Tell her to get the lamp and take 2000 IU of vitamin D a day it's scientifically proven to work.

 

[jixmixfix]

I feel grateful after watching this.

 

[Fidelia]

I'm a mess in foggy/cloudy climates. Fortunately, even though I live on the Canadian Prairies, it is still pretty sunny. I don't spend a lot of time outside though, so usually have to remember to really up my dosages of Vitamin D in the winter. I never put much stock in it, but one winter when I was under a lot of stress and really feeling the effects of SAD, I started taking it regularly and couldn't believe how much better life got. I'd also agree that exercise, regular sleep, and stress reduction lesson the effects considerably. I feel so incredibly energetic in the spring and summer and I think it is almost 100% due to the amount of light. Much easier to get up, be productive etc. I lived in northern Alberta for a couple of years and in the summer it was dusky light until well past midnight and dawn was early in the morning hours. I have never felt so good!

 

[jixmixfix]

I'm a mess in foggy/cloudy climates. Fortunately, even though I live on the Canadian Prairies, it is still pretty sunny. I don't spend a lot of time outside though, so usually have to remember to really up my dosages of Vitamin D in the winter. I never put much stock in it, but one winter when I was under a lot of stress and really feeling the effects of SAD, I started taking it regularly and couldn't believe how much better life got. I'd also agree that exercise, regular sleep, and stress reduction lesson the effects considerably. I feel so incredibly energetic in the spring and summer and I think it is almost 100% due to the amount of light. Much easier to get up, be productive etc. I lived in northern Alberta for a couple of years and in the summer it was dusky light until well past midnight and dawn was early in the morning hours. I have never felt so good!

Vitamin D is underrated.

 

[garbage]

No, but the ol' bipolar gets worse during seasonal changes. I was once thought to have SAD, but patterns developed over years disproved that one.