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Mental Health Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) Support and Advice

aq. said:
My psychiatrist swears by them but warned that it may induce hypomamia. Anyone experience that?
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sounds true, i've also heard this but never heard of anyone becoming hypo because of it. ehh sometimes hypomania sounds better than depression. not gonna lie!
 
What's hypomania then? is it similar to how bipolar sufferers get?
 
Philips light box. 20-30 minutes a day. its so nice. i hide in a basement and often wont go outside at all or only for short walks at night. this has been great, coupled with vitamin D on a daily basis.

I don't do it daily because I forget, but probably 5 days a week for sure.
 
How can something so simple work so well? I know everyone says this but i really do wish I knew about this earlier.

I woke up today a little earlier than normal and feeling groggy, eyes dry and
gritty so switched the light box on and held it right up to my face for about half hour. within ten minutes I felt better, and after half hour I was up full of energy.

I've had it on in the background since I got up, I'm trying to get as much exposure to it as I can for the first few weeks then I'll probably start using it less.

I didn't have the best sleep today tho, was probably because the postman came with my wake up light which I'll test out tomorrow (I work nights so don't go to sleep until about half 8 in the morning). but considering I didn't have the best sleep I feel pretty good, part of me is wondering if over exposure to the light had an effect on my sleep, I'll see how I go over the next few days.
 
The circadian rhythms we have are thought to be genetic. The brain bases them off when the blue spectrum hits a nerve in the eye. My sleep doctor said no light after 3pm and I shoot for a 10 pm bedtime... i never go to be at ten and usually its like twelve when I go to bed. So you may want to cut off your use of the light some hours before you need to sleep.
 
3pm sounds a bit early considering at the hight of the summer in the UK the sun doesn't set until 21:30. I didn't have any trouble sleeping today in fact I over slept.
 
That was just the recommendation the dr made for me.. I would just cut the light off some hours before you want to sleep. It takes a little while for the light to shift the circadian rhythm.
 
I live in the scandinavia so it gets pretty dark in the winter, most people seem to have some symptoms of SAD here, its kind of normal business.

I did try light therapy in the morning couple years ago, but it did nothing for me. It was bright as hell but still just a little bit of sunshine on some days did lot more. I since stopped believing in those boxes, there is just something in sunlight that these things cant replicate.
 
neversickanymore said:
That was just the recommendation the dr made for me.. I would just cut the light off some hours before you want to sleep. It takes a little while for the light to shift the circadian rhythm.
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try taking melatonin before you sleep I find it helps me get to sleep quicker and I don't seem affected using the light later.

The one good thing about the daylight hours in this part of the world is they are extra long in the middle of the summer with the sun rising around 4:30am and setting around 9:30pm. The only downside is its extra short
in the winter and gets dark at 4pm but that's partly thanks to daylight saving hours.
 
deano88 said:
try taking melatonin before you sleep I find it helps me get to sleep quicker and I don't seem affected using the light later.
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I take it about six hours before i want to sleep. This works out great for me and i wake up really refreshed. When i was taking it closer to sleep time it worked but not as well and i would wake up feeling medicated.

I really don't even need to use the box in the dead of summer.
 
Ok it's clear I have SAD, But what the heck do I do when I am use to living in a country that usually has more than 6 months of heat and light. It's the middle of summer and it's 15 and over cast so many days now, I just don't feel like I'm getting over it. It's a messed up state of mind. Plus no professional gets the point and thinks I am just a bit weak, My actual doctors don't know whats wrong eg, Bipolar, Depression, So I at least have them letting me know I'm not bad. I got in afight a week ago Some local kid started shit so I hit him bad I mean he was going to do it to me, So I threw a hard one n walked away. I felt pissed off because it was cold I don't think I woulda pushed it that far if I felt settled. KW.
 
knightworrier said:
Ok it's clear I have SAD, But what the heck do I do when I am use to living in a country that usually has more than 6 months of heat and light. It's the middle of summer and it's 15 and over cast so many days now, I just don't feel like I'm getting over it. It's a messed up state of mind. Plus no professional gets the point and thinks I am just a bit weak, My actual doctors don't know whats wrong eg, Bipolar, Depression, So I at least have them letting me know I'm not bad. I got in afight a week ago Some local kid started shit so I hit him bad I mean he was going to do it to me, So I threw a hard one n walked away. I felt pissed off because it was cold I don't think I woulda pushed it that far if I felt settled. KW.
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where do you live?
 
This shit is hitting my hard right now at the same time I'm trying to get sober. I have a doctor's appointment coming up but I really don't want to get on an SSRI. I might have to tho for at least a while. Either that or maybe I'll beg him to try modafinil on me. I mentioned it to him before but he wanted me to try some other stuff like a light box first. I don't think he really understands exactly how hard the seasonal shit hits me on top of my normal depression.
 
Seasonal Affective Disorder

Okay just about every year i get Seasonal Affective Disorder and inevitably end on on either Bupropion or a Tricyclic like Trimipramine as those are 2 of the very few anti-depressant drugs that help at all and don't drive me psycho. I also take Vitamin D supplements and occasionally give myself a IM injection of B-12 for good measure. The vials are actually cheaper then many of then many of the tablets plus it absorbs much better. In the past when i have gotten really bad i have self medicated from everything from the otc supplement L-Tyrosine (which when mixed with Bupropion does seem to boost energy levels but ended up triggering a long and severe manic episode on one occasion so i would not recommend it personally) to Crack/IV cocaine and Dexedrine which of course only end up making things much worse in the long run.

This year i have been trying not to let it get the better of me but last week i could barely get out of bed for a good 5 days. It actually didn't hit me this year until later then normal which is good but at the same time i often deny i am depressed at all even to myself. I have Bipolar disorder and have always even since i have been a little kid been very sensitive to things like changes in seasons and the weather. If i don't start to come out of this within a week i am going to see my doctor and getting a script for either Wellbutrin or a TCA like Trimipramine or amitriptyline most likely. To top it all off due to having Trigeminal Neuralgia i have to avoid cold wind like the black fucking plague which means I'm almost housebound many winters which gives me really bad cabin fever. I really hate winter because of this and the nerve pain has only made me dread it even more. Every year it's the same fucking thing really. Get super depressed and fatigued and also get cabin fever which causes extra depression and anxiety and as a result my use of drugs goes way up to deal with that. Every winter feels like a endurance test to get through for me now and i literally count the weeks until spring.

I guess i would just like to hear how other people who get SAD and possibly have physical illness that make winter more miserable for them get through it year after fucking year. It certainly doesn't seem to get any easier and except for a few close friends i am lucky enough to have i think there are years when i may not have made it.
 
Yup, I made this post in the other SAD thread...

http://www.bluelight.org/vb/threads...ctive-disorder-(SAD)-Support-and-Advice/page6

I'm not nearly as depressed as I was when I posted that since I stopped drinking and started eating healthy again, but my schedule is totally out of wack. The thing that really annoys me is when it starts getting darker earlier and the days get shorter I actually become MORE nocturnal. In the summertime I would usually be up between 2 and 3pm but now on some days I'll be awake til damn near noon the next day and then sleep until 7pm or so. At least I'm getting some daylight before I go to bed I guess. I can't really win either way in regards to that tho when the sunset is at like 4:30pm.
 
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nuttynutskin said:
Yup, I made this post in the other SAD thread...

http://www.bluelight.org/vb/threads...ctive-disorder-(SAD)-Support-and-Advice/page6

I'm not nearly as depressed as I was when I posted that since I stopped drinking and started eating healthy again, but my schedule is totally out of wack. The thing that really annoys me is when it starts getting darker earlier and the days get shorter I actually become MORE nocturnal. In the summertime I would usually be up between 2 and 3pm but now on some days I'll be awake til damn near noon the next day and then sleep until 7pm or so. At least I'm getting some daylight before I go to bed I guess. I can't really win either way in regards to that tho when the sunset is at like 4:30pm.
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My sleeping patterns get fucked in winter as well. In the summertime i actually like getting up early in the morning usually around 7am or even earlier because after dawn tends to be the nicest time of the day here in the summer. Once it starts getting dark early in the fall though i can sleep all fucking day until the sun goes down.I literally couldn't get out of bed for 5 fucking days the week except for a few hours late at night which is kinda boring not to mention depressing when your up by yourself. I felt like i had Lyme disease or something i was so fucking fatigued. I wouldn't have gotten out of bed before 4 in the afternoon unless the house was on fire and then flames where getting close. I still feel slightly fatigued but not too bad.

Due to having Bipolar disorder this occurs naturally sometimes to me anyway but when it's caused by that it tends to last a good bit longer. My doctor favours Wellbutrin as the anti-depressant of choice in treating Bipolar patients (though since i react well with a few Tricyclics he will give me those just with closer supervision) and as it's the only anti-depressant proven to work for SAD that is most likely what he will try first. Since i have loads of Wellbutrin left anyway i might just start taking it next week anyway.

Maybe I'll get lucky and someone will buy me a ticket to Australia for the winter so i can avoid it altogether :p . How the hell people live up north where it's always dark in the winter time without going insane is beyond me.
 
I couldn't live in Alaska or anywhere up there, although I wouldn't mind 24hrs of daylight right now. I tried Wellbutrin years ago but it made me really irritable. I'm surprised your doctor would make it first choice for bipolar patients because irritability is a known contraindication for it. That's good it works for you tho. All it really did for me was increase my focus a bit, but it wasn't worth the irritability. That's something no one wants to be around.
 
nuttynutskin said:
I couldn't live in Alaska or anywhere up there, although I wouldn't mind 24hrs of daylight right now. I tried Wellbutrin years ago but it made me really irritable. I'm surprised your doctor would make it first choice for bipolar patients because irritability is a known contraindication for it. That's good it works for you tho. All it really did for me was increase my focus a bit, but it wasn't worth the irritability. That's something no one wants to be around.
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24 hours of daylight would be worse i think. I can only imagine the insomnia from that id go completely nuts. Actually i think i remember reading a study on people living in northern places where it's either always dark or always sunny and they found that the rate of Sleeping pill use, Anti-depressant use and alcoholism was higher then average which does make sense. Wellbutrin is a Norepinephrine Dopamine reuptake inhibitor and thus the least likely one to cause mania as it doesn't act on Serotonin. Every GP or shrink I've had has always tried Wellbutrin as the first anti-depressant of choice for me because that's about the only one they trust at all in Bipolar patients. Some doctors however won't even prescribe any anti-depressant to someone with Bipolar. I am diagnosed Bipolar 1 which i guess makes it risky for me but out of Effexor, Amitriptyline, Bupropion, Mirtazapine and Trimipramine the only 2 i have had problems with are Effexor and Remeron. Effexor made me manic as fuck and made my sometimes short fuse non existent not to mention the god awful sexual side effects and the fact that it turned me into a anorexic. The withdrawal symptoms where also the worst wd symptoms i have ever had besides alcohol withdrawal and that includes coming off 6mg's of Clonazepam cold turkey more or less. Remeron made me suicidal to the point where i had a noose hung up and was ready to hang myself until i came back to my senses after thinking about that would do to my family and friends. I was not on a mood stabilizer before while on Remeron though and was only taking Risperidone which i don't find great for Bipolar disorder.

I found that Tricyclics especially Amitriptyline also helped my focus as some of them increase your quality of sleep and many act as Norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors as well. Hence why they are sometimes used as stop smoking aids and also for ADHD off label.
 
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