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Mental Health Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) Support and Advice

^That sucks that you had such a bad experience with Remeron. It's been a wonder drug for me - it's been the only thing that's successfully controlled my sleep disturbances from fibromyalgia, and by extension, has really helped with my daytime fatigue.

Speaking of fibro, wintertime really aggravates my chronic pain, and there's nothing I can do about it. I'm already on a max dose of Cymbalta, and I'm severely allergic to Neurontin/Lyrica, so the only option left is more pain pills (Percocet). I do acupuncture about 3 times a month, and I get trigger point injections as often as I can. In the warmer months, if the treatments hit me right, I can go a week or two without needing to take any pain medicine. Hell, this past June I had three consecutive weeks like that, which is unheard of for me. In the wintertime, that never happens - I'm lucky to get even two or three days like that, and it's a constant struggle just to keep the bottom from dropping out. Thankfully, it doesn't depress the hell out of me anymore - the fibro has been this bad for a few years now, and I've just come to accept that this is the norm for the foreseeable future. I've got a lawyer to help with my disability case, and I've found a good med combo that stabilizes my bipolar, so I've done better at adapting to this new normal. When I was still trying to work or trying to take care of my infant daughter while my wife worked, it was hell, and any sudden downturn would send me into deep depression - I'd get a good week or two and would start thinking that I had turned a corner, or maybe this new treatment or med would be "the answer," that the worst was in the past, but nothing ever materialized like that. Eventually I just had to accept where I was, and it took a long time to do that. My med combo (Cymbalta/Remeron/Seroquel XR) has kept my bipolar in check, and Percocet controls my pain well enough to improve my quality of life, so I'm not walking through utter hell on a regular basis, and right now, that's good enough.
 
I live in interior Alaska where in the peak of winter it's essentially dark 24 hours a day (the lightest it gets outside is an orange dawn haze on the horizon, the sun never truly rises), so I think I'm qualified to speak on this. I don't really take any drug specifically for "SAD", no anti-depressants or anything of that nature, most of the time I just tough it out I guess. I actually don't really notice that I'm more depressed than usual over the winter months, eventually you just kind of get used to the constant darkness. A lot of people go completely nuts up here though. I do notice that I sleep a lot more during the winter. Yesterday I woke up at about 4 PM and went to sleep at about 10 PM, so I tend to hibernate which I think is linked to depression.

When the summer months roll around and it's light outside 24/7 it also fucks with my mood, but in a different kind of way. I get restless and anxious and always feel like there's something I have to do & something that needs to be accomplished, just because there's so much daylight. This is not a place for the mentally fragile unless you're truly ready to embrace insanity.

My drug regiment lately is a mix of heroin, marijuana and Ambien, so that's my pharmacological remedy for such matters lol :)
 
As soon as daylight savings time kicked in this year, my sleep got messed up. Health is pristine in every other way right now, so my SAD has to be daylight related. I've considered going to a tanning salon but that's not really a long term solution. They have those light boxes too. I dunno what to do. I'm tired of feeling like crap in the winter time.
 
I've experienced SAD in several locales. When I was an undergrad in Illinois it was so depressing to come out of a class at 5pm and have it already be night. When I was a grad student in Iowa, one January there was 28 days without sun. The constant cloud cover and early dark were also issues when I was living in Ohio. Ironically, you wouldn't think of Alabama as a place where people would have SAD, but when I lived in northeast Alabama, at the very edge of the Central Time Zone, it would get dark around 4-4:30, while just a few miles away in Georgia, it would be 5-5:30, which would have been more tolerable. I dealt with it by drinking heavily, which I don't recommend.
 
I don't have SAD but I do have depression. I've been so anxious and depressed all year this winter is really taking it's toll and I can't even imagine the hell that's going to be Christmas.
I'd rather just stay in bed than celebrate with family when I'm socially anxious and I have absolutely nothing to celebrate.
 
I'm pretty sure that someone is going to have to create a SAD diagnosis in feline veterinary medicine now that we have coyotes in most of our urban areas. I have to keep my cats in at night now and since night starts so early....they are miserable and PISSED OFF!;)

But on a more serious note, I am feeling melancholy for sure. I find myself lighting candles a lot because at least they make the dark hours beautiful. I also hung some solar string lights right outside my kitchen window. They have a timer so they collect energy all day and then glow most of the night.
 
Burnt Offerings said:
I live in interior Alaska where in the peak of winter it's essentially dark 24 hours a day (the lightest it gets outside is an orange dawn haze on the horizon, the sun never truly rises), so I think I'm qualified to speak on this. I don't really take any drug specifically for "SAD", no anti-depressants or anything of that nature, most of the time I just tough it out I guess. I actually don't really notice that I'm more depressed than usual over the winter months, eventually you just kind of get used to the constant darkness. A lot of people go completely nuts up here though. I do notice that I sleep a lot more during the winter. Yesterday I woke up at about 4 PM and went to sleep at about 10 PM, so I tend to hibernate which I think is linked to depression.

When the summer months roll around and it's light outside 24/7 it also fucks with my mood, but in a different kind of way. I get restless and anxious and always feel like there's something I have to do & something that needs to be accomplished, just because there's so much daylight. This is not a place for the mentally fragile unless you're truly ready to embrace insanity.
Tom
My drug regiment lately is a mix of heroin, marijuana and Ambien, so that's my pharmacological remedy for such matters lol :)
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^^This x1000. I lived in the PNW many years ago before anything called SAD. Was depressing but just dealt with it. I didn't like the weather, so I moved to a more sunny warmer climate.
 
I actually live in the PNW. Right now my schedule is jacked to shit. I pretty much will stay up til late afternoon from the previous night and wake up at 10pm or so. The ironic thing is that I'm seeing more daylight than if I was on my normal schedule of waking up at 2 or 3pm. The bad thing is my sleep has been pretty interrupted tho.
 
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1) Have your doctor test your vitamin D levels. You would be surprised how low they can be even if you get enough sun. My friend who suffers severely from SAD tested something like 1% of normal level. I was shocked how much better he did after taking vit. D supplements...it was far more effective than his wellbutrin or zoloft, but everyone's different obviously.

2) Look into buying a medically approved blue spectrum light. I bought one by Phillips and used it for 10-15 mins in the morning. It made a significant difference. I would still use it if I still lived up north.
 
Is there any danger in simply Starting up some Vitamin D, to supplement diet, without having doc test the level? I suppose I could Google that question.
I know some forms of Vit B can cw very dangerous if over-used..... I will Google. I want to learn about magnesium anyway
 
It's safe if you only take the smallest recommended dose until tested. If your levels are low at the levels that correlate with depression and require supplementation, your doctor will advise you to take a much higher dose than typical supplement levels. DON'T take prescription level amounts of vitamin D or any other vitamin as you can suffer from acute toxicity.
 
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