SAD/ feeling low in winter support thread

[LadyCatStark]

Hi all, after reading some unhelpful comments on another thread where someone is struggling, I wondered if anyone would like to join me in a SAD support thread for anyone who is feeling low now that winter is coming, whether you have a SAD diagnosis or not.

Disclaimer: I know anyone can post anything they like on a public forum but please, out of respect for those of us who are really struggling, don’t come on this thread to tell us how much you love winter, hygge, snuggling, hot chocolate or twinkly lights or tell us that we’ll feel better if only we change our mindset.

Please feel free to share your feelings, good or bad, tell us about your day or share tips for things that help (or don’t). Hopefully we can all help each other get through this winter!

Thanks for this thread. This is something I've struggled with for quite a long time now. I started taking Sertraline in January, so it will be interesting to see what winter is like this year, now that's in my system.

I was getting a little bit of anxiety last week, which is exactly when it starts for me usually, when you start to get that feeling of autumn in the air .. but there is other stuff going on at home which might be more to do with it.

Things that help for me are eating healthy, exercising, making sure I get outside whenever I can (i.e. not just exercising indoors) and trying to stay away from social media. When I'm feeling down, I spend more time on social media, which seems to have an overall negative effect.

I’m really struggling with finding the motivation to WFH today 😭 I just need to get back put to work!

@LadyCatStark

I’m really struggling with finding the motivation to WFH today 😭 I just need to get back put to work!

I totally get what your saying. I start a new post after the October break and can’t wait to get out of the house and back to work.

I was reading the other thread that started before this one and I’m gobsmacked at how many people just don’t understand how debilitating winter is for many of us!

I’m the complete opposite - I absolutely love working from home, and although I have to go into the office 2 days a week that’s just part of a rota - my job doesn’t require it as such. ! I can get out for a walk or potter in the garden at home, and as my office is based in a hospital it’s not really somewhere I want to be at the moment. My colleagues are all over our Board and across Scotland - I’ve probably talked to them more over Teams in the last 18 months than I ever have. Plus no more long commutes in the dark 5 days a week ahead of me to worry about - bliss.

I think I want to wfh. At the moment I work in 2 retail stores and it's hell. I don't get home until 10pm so I don't see sunlight at all and am in work every day during December as they are so short staffed. I don't want to deal with it anymore. I want to job Hunt but have no motivation right now

@SirChenjins I’d be happy with going out 2 days a week, but I’ve been sat at my dining room table now every week day for 18 months 😭. The main issue is that my job involves supporting families and you can’t expect a 2 year old (or younger) to co-operate over Teams! I just feel like I’m letting them all down and it’s so important especially when some of them were born in the pandemic.

Oh I complete understand that @LadyCatStark - that must be incredibly difficult. Is there any possibility for you to do a hybrid model of working?

I wouldn't mind quite so much if I had an actual team to work with and speak to when I went in, but I have to drive 35-45 minutes both ways to sit in an office on my own to do the same job I can do at home. I say hello to the people working in the offices on either side of mine, but the chats are quite short because of workloads, and the highlight of my day is a walk around the hospital car park at lunchtime on my own. It all feels like a pointless waste of petrol tbh!

That sounds rubbish!

We’re so close, so close, to being allowed out but they’re not rushing and none of my families want the virtual support I can offer right now, knowing that we’ll be allowed out ‘soon’. With all the mutterings on the news about a return to WFH, I’m terrified that we won’t make it out before it’s all stopped 🙈 even just a couple of weeks/ months would help!

I really, really hope it all works out for you all - I can't begin to imagine how you would support families in need over Teams in the way you would want to. It has its place, but not for your kind of work. When will you hear, do you think?

Hopefully soon but I’m impatient!

It’s been really warm here all week so I’ve been stocking up on vitamin D by getting out running and walking my puppy, long may it continue, pleeeeeease!

Uh oh I seem to have killed the thread already! I had an appointment with my doctor this morning and it went well, we’re keeping my medication the same but I forgot to ask for a thyroid check 🙈.

I'm enjoying some sunshine today and am getting outside whenever I can to top up the vitamin D. I take a high strength spray every day (3000iu) but blood tests show I'm still in the middle of the normal category. Hate to think where I'd be without supplementing.

Today is my last day of isolation then back at work Monday which I really can't be bothered with. I have lost a load of weight as well as I still have no taste or smell after a week and don't want to eat anything as I can't taste it it's just a chore. At least tomorrow I can finally get out in the fresh air although sods law it will probably rain.

@ShaneTheThird I bet you’re glad it’s nearly over! I hope your taste and smell come back quickly! We’ve been lucky so far to have avoided any isolations or covid (touch wood).

@Kittii I love turtle doves. I’m not a fan of fingerless gloves with the half fingers but the turtle doves keep my hands just as cosy.

It’s been overcast here today and there’s definitely a nip in the air in the mornings. I’ve ordered St John’s Wort today and swapped my summer clothes with autumn winter clothes in the wardrobe. I’ve kept 2 pairs of flip flops out as it’s still warm enough to wear them outside. I’m trying to hang on to the last bits of summer 😂

Thank you! Today was spent job hunting from bed Now do and DSS are home so it's a mad house again. How is everyone today?

Hi, sorry to jump in. I'm the same and just yesterday upped my doseage of antidepressants. What dose of vit d do people take?

@MrsTaytodarling

Hi, sorry to jump in. I'm the same and just yesterday upped my doseage of antidepressants. What dose of vit d do people take?

I take 4000 iu a day. That’s prescribed though.

I get sad too every winter, it'll have started by the end of this month and November and December are hell on legs. I want to hibernate and stuff my face with carbs. What's really helpful for me is a winter break to somewhere like Tenerife, I start to feel significantly better after a couple of hours of landing. But I have a massive slump when returning back to the UK, especially if it's raining or over at for a few days. And didn't go last year and am unlikely to go this year either.

Lightboxes don't seem to help me at all and often seem to trigger migraines. And I try to avoid ADs too.
I slowly get better after the winter solstice, and I find Christmas very difficult.
Does any one else have a manic point when they suddenly feel better in Spring? For me it's always the first week of March, I go absolutely hyper and then I feel bright and sunny and human again. It's like I have new batteries overnight!
For years I struggled to rationalize what happens and then my husband read an article about SAD in the newspaper and it described me perfectly. I also think others in my family experience it to an extent, though I seem to be on the extreme end.
Best wishes to anyone else who is afflicted

I have depression and SAD. Have had multiple hospital admissions and they are all during winter. Last year wasn’t so bad as we’d just moved house so I had stuff to concentrate on but I can already feel myself slipping now. Agree with @Iamnotavicar in that light boxes don’t work for me and the gradual light alarm failed to wake me up so I sent it back.

I too get manic in March as soon as the clocks change again. I struggle massively with Christmas and new year but love easter.

I’m already on an off label dose of fluoxetine and have an appointment with my psych next month. I have a feeling she will want to add a mood stabiliser and another anti depressant in which I’m not keen on but will do if it keeps me out of hospital.

Those who take vitamin D at a high dose what do you take? I need to get my blood work checked as my vit d levels are often low and I’ve been prescribed high doses in the past. I’ve noticed some places do the injections of vit d and b12 too has anyone tried those?

I take 4000iu vitamin D although not prescribed.

@Iamnotavicar I wonder why you don’t want to take anti depressants (you don’t have to answer that of course) but I feel like a new person on Sertraline. I was going to say I feel like me again but I don’t know what a non-depressed ‘me’ is like so I feel totally different. Even colours seem brighter!

I've tried at least 6 different ADs over the years and they either give me chronic insomnia or make me very sluggish, to the point of not being able to concentrate enough to work. Whilst they can lift my mood a bit, they also take away any highs or joy too. One (Duloxetine) has according to my gastroenterologist also been a factor in my microscopic colitis. I'd rather try and get through those hard few months without the drugs, and try other ways to keep going. So it's a no from me, been there and got that t-shirt!

I've recently moved house to somewhere which has much less rain and I'm curious to see whether that has an impact this winter, I'm hoping that fewer overcast days will help. Or at least be not as bad.

On a couple of occasions I mentioned to my GP that the incidence of self harm must be higher in winter across the whole population due to undiagnosed SAD, and she wrote in my notes that I was a suicide risk because I'd mentioned it! Whereas I was talking about it to try and understand it better and point out that low light probably affects more people than we think 🙄

@justpoppy

I have depression and SAD. Have had multiple hospital admissions and they are all during winter. Last year wasn’t so bad as we’d just moved house so I had stuff to concentrate on but I can already feel myself slipping now. Agree with *@Iamnotavicar* in that light boxes don’t work for me and the gradual light alarm failed to wake me up so I sent it back.

I too get manic in March as soon as the clocks change again. I struggle massively with Christmas and new year but love easter.

I’m already on an off label dose of fluoxetine and have an appointment with my psych next month. I have a feeling she will want to add a mood stabiliser and another anti depressant in which I’m not keen on but will do if it keeps me out of hospital.

Those who take vitamin D at a high dose what do you take? I need to get my blood work checked as my vit d levels are often low and I’ve been prescribed high doses in the past. I’ve noticed some places do the injections of vit d and b12 too has anyone tried those?

justpoppy - you are the first other person I've heard of who gets a manic phase in March! I look forward to it, even though it means I'm usually awake by around 5.00am and have a few weeks of hyperactivity when Im (even more) unbearable.

SAD has held me back career wise as I need to be able to do a job well in winter, and a few people have said to me that I've the capability to be at the top of my profession, and they can't understand why I haven't pushed myself more. However I know I can't function well enough at my lowest to perform well, as just keeping going is very hard. And just keeping my job feels like a major achievement every winter.

I'd love Christmas if it was in June! But usually I find it overwhelming, especially the long haul prep that everyone gets engaged with, it feels like a countdown to when I know I will be unwell

Oh no @Iamnotavicar it doesn’t sound like you get on with them at all! It’s not fair that it’s affecting your career like that and it doesn’t sound like your GP is very helpful.

I don’t get a manic phase in March, I don’t really feel better til about May, it’s like a SAD hangover! I do live way up north and by the sea though so our weather is usually worse than most places. We never, ever get snow either 😭. This year though I think we’ve had the best weather in the country so I wonder if that will help keep me going longer.

I found ADs really help but I have had to try a few of them to get the right one - some have left me zombified while another made my muscles twitch so I had to come off that pronto. They’re not for everyone though.

I’ve had a bit of a panic this week as I can’t find my SAD lamp - DD was using it a while back as lightning for some indoor photos and it seems to have disappeared. I’m not happy with her as you can imagine. Looks like that’s another purchase I’ll have to make - snd hopefully they still available as do many things aren’t.

Does anyone have any recommendations for a SAD lamp?