Please chat to me about Seasonal Affective Disorder - sunbeds? Need drastic help!

[aspies]

I suffer from severe S.A.D and at this point I'm struggling to help myself. I know eating protein and soup and healthy stews would help. I know getting out for long walks in nature would help. I'm struggling to do anything that helps and sinking further and further downhill. This morning I woke up and ate 5 of the kids' Kit Kats for breakfast!

I don't seem to tolerate anti depressants anymore. The last few times I've tried the interference with my sleep just made everything even worse. So I'm not going to try again.

I can't afford an abroad holiday.

Can sunbeds help if used safely? What easy steps can I take this week to get me out of this hell?

Thanks to anyone who chimes in!

Don't sunbeds cause cancer?

@WandaWonder regularly eating 5 kitkat a in a sitting isn’t the pinnacle of health either really.

OP there are red light therapy beds people use for arthritis - they might offer some relief without the cancer aspects of the sun beds?

To be honest, I'm having very dark thoughts, about leaving my family. A session of 10 sunbeds isn't negative in the grand scheme of everything else going on. I am a different person in the summer/autumn. I descend like this every year. At this point I am willing to try anything and need quick, practical ideas.

As the other poster said re: Kit Kats - my diet is shocking as I've spiralled so much. Everything else in my life is likely to cause cancer more than sunbeds.

I'll look into that thank you. These were the kind of ideas I was hoping for :)

These are slow fix ideas and require being brave to lean into what’s going on for you, but worth exploring alongside eating better/exercise/light etc and might set you up for a better winter by next year….

What’s the change in season triggering for you? The dark thoughts/depression might always be there, it might just be easier to mask/ignore it in summer.

Have you ever done any work on emotional flashbacks/triggers, and bringing awareness to where your thoughts are going and what they’re saying? Journalling is good to explore that. Nicole Sachs has good guidance on journalling - it helps to be completely, painfully honest when you journal and to do it in private so you can really let rip - www.thecureforchronicpain.com/journalspeak

You said you’re having dark thoughts about leaving your family - perhaps try having a journal about that? Why do you want to leave? What’s annoying about staying? What do you wish was different? What needs are you not getting met at the moment? If you could have anything, what would you want? Can you try to give yourself a little bit of it? Eg if you wish you could just have no responsibilities and a huge long rest on a desert island, that might not be possible today, but give yourself a long afternoon nap or a few super early nights to begin to address that need and see how you feel a few days later. Did it help you feel better or worse?

If it’s dark thoughts about dying - What do you hope that dying would give you that you’re not getting at the moment? Is it perhaps actually a need for rest/recuperation/to be free of painful feelings, rather than a desire for death?

Pete Walker’s book Complex CPTSD might be useful and he has stuff on emotional flashbacks here - www.pete-walker.com/13StepsManageFlashbacks.htm

Sheryl Paul on the anxiety/depression that transitions/seasons can throw up might be useful too - conscious-transitions.com/winter-the-season-of-depression/

Do you have a sad light? I have a two, a standard one that i sit infront of and a pair of the ones you wear like glasses, they help me massively, I still struggle with sad but they make me come up to just a bit meh/depressed vs the darkest depression with lots of dark thoughts without them.

Are you taking vitamin D supplements? We all need them, from around October to February. Those and SAD light and some daylight bulbs can help a lot. If you haven't had your vit D levels checked it would be worth doing.,

Just wanted to say hi op and sorry your struggling im similar I felt so low yesterday and have missed both baby groups I normally go to this week, just so disorganized because my brain literally feels like I’ve had some sort of brain injury or something added to that I have low thyroid levels and a 7 month old baby, literally cried on the phone to my mum that I feel as if I can hardly function! My partner is sick of the silly blunders too like leaving lights on all day or going out and leaving the back door open he just doesn’t get why I can’t manage the simplest thing.
does anyone here take any supplements ? I take iron as anemic and obviously thyroxine

As long as you are responsible about it, a couple sun beds aren't going to harm you more than sunbathing in the summer.

By that I mean, a short session once every 2/3 weeks wearing a good SPF all over and ensuring you don't burn.

A light box. Provided you have no contra indications.

I would sink without daylight bulbs, they boost me enough to do the other self care things like 5k fast walk with Nordic poles.

Blueeyedgirl21 and aspies I so feel for you. I have had SAD for years and have coping mechanisms (Xmas in the sun, a SAD lamp, vit D tablets, walking a few miles in daylight, trying to eat fairly healthily) which can usually just about keep me on an even keel but this has been the worst year ever. The relentless gray is draining of mind and spirit. Some days I go to bed at 2/3pm because I can't stand it. Even people who say that they do not suffer from 'Winter Blues' say that this has been the worst and they can't wait for it to end. You are not alone and I am also tempted to try the odd sunbed session - anything to get out of this deep, dark feeling.

I feel for you @aspies, @Blueeyedgirl21 and @lyingonthebeach (apologies if I've missed anyone out!) as I also suffer with SAD and have felt particularly awful this winter.

Currently, most days I don't bother getting up/dressed till just before my DH gets home. Although I will make the effort to go downstairs to let the dogs into the garden, grab some food and empty the dishwasher. Anything else I just can't be bothered with.

Where we live is especially gloomy and our very old house is dark on the brightest of days. This year winter has seemed never-ending - the worst one I can recall and I'm forever having morbid thoughts. Last year we opened up the front of our extension with huge windows and I thought this would help and it does bring extra light into out living room. Despite this I still feel too down to sit in there...plus it's too expensive to heat the room just for me.

I'm definitely going to try some of the suggestions recommended here - hopefully something will work!

If you're already using a sad light, then tanning salon is a good idea.

some spas have UV rooms but that's expensive.

I find it better to have as much bright light as possible so as well as the Sad lamp, I have bright lights on a lot.

Vitamin D supplements and SAD light make a massive difference . And please confide in your gp x

Something else that used to help me and which I will try again is a full body massage and/or reflexology and/ or facial treatment. I know they can be very expensive but I used to live near a FE College and for a few years I was a regular at the training salon where treatments were £5-£10. I'm going to find a training salon near where I am now because it really did make a difference. I wish I hadn't let that slide

Just wondering if the lighter mornings/afternoons are making a difference? For me, a little bit. And the bit of blue sky and sun today helped but overall, the grey still makes me head to bed at 4pm. Hopefully real spring will kick in soon

I’m sorry to hear you feel so down.

I didn’t think that sunbeds used the same ‘light’ as the SAD light boxes and I thought you had to stare at the box to get the light into your eyes to effectively treat SAD? I might be wrong, or out of date, but I’d check before you spend money on a sunbed. You might be better to invest in a light box.

Good luck.

@BreakfastClub80 Thank you:) I am honesty seeing the light (literally) and i hope my fellow SAD sufferers feel the same. Small steps!

It really is a grim and debilitating thing but sharing and knowing it will soon be over (for a while) is empowering. Warm, sunny wishes to you all :)🌻

Can’t believe the ignorance around sunbeds

it takes one time to burn
that’s all
i have melanoma-my prognosis isn’t good
consider an actual S.A.D lamp and press your gp for more help.My DD and DS both have various diagnosis and are definitely worse in the autumn/winter.My Dd is on about her fifth different medication over the years.She finally is turning a corner

Hello, long term SAD sufferer here so I hear you. This winter has been exceptionally hard. I tend to feel a lot better once the clocks change, which is only 2 weeks away so hang on there and just make these last few weeks of the darkness as pleasant as possible. Maybe treat yourself to something you usually enjoy, I know it’s difficult to enjoy anything when feeling low. I’ve taken up hot yoga, it makes me so happy just to be warm, I know it’s not the light but for some reason it’s helping me. I also go for lunchtime walks everyday regardless of the weather. Daily exercise can really help too but I appreciate how hard it can be to motivate yourself when in a funk.

Lots of my other tricks to management SAD are more long term strategies which include vitamin d supplement, SAD lamp, Lumie light alarm clock (this really helped with my mornings). Years ago I moved to south uk to an area with more than average sunshine, this significantly improved my SAD after previously living in the north. I used to go on winter Sun holidays which also helped massively but I haven’t been able to afford this recently, although I plan to do anything to go on one next year as this year has been a real struggle. Vit D supplements help as does a good diet with good level of protein, and try to avoid the carb/sugar cravings…so hard not to give in to those I know. Regular exercise to get those endorphins going are also great..maybe book in an activity with a friend to help with the motivation.

summer is just around the corner and everything will start to feel better soon, just dig deep, meditate or do whatever ever you can to hold out for the lighter days x

I used to suffer from seasonal depression. Every Winter, I had severe blues and it during those periods, it reminded me of the time when I had my first had my DC as a teenage parent and all the emotional headache I went though.

Anywhoo, I took one of my children (with SEN) to do light therapy- as he was small, I had to sit with him whilst he was doing light therapy and hence I was also exposed to the light therapy.

Ever since that day, for the past 8 years, I have not experienced seasonal depression and I attribute it to the light therapy. It was a miracle.

Light box on the morning.
No screen time an hour before bed.
Vitamin D daily.
Go for a walk first thing in the morning or better still something to get you out of breath first thing in the morning. The endorphins really help.
I do 10 mins if exercise bike 3 times a week before I have my morning shower. On those three days I feel so much better. I don't have the drive to do it every day though.

Forgot to say that the light therapy we did was very intensive. We had to do 2X 20 minute sessions per day (total 10 days).

Please don't use sunbeds op. I have skin cancer and it's ruining my life and could kill me.

Do you get out and about in the daylight hours ?
Could you consider a SAD lamp?

I'm sorry you're feeling so down x