Seasonal Affective Disorder. tell me all about it.

[DisasterArea]

i like the sun. i like being warm. i like summer.
i really don't like winter at all. come november i really just want to hibernate and not come out again until march.
usually i jsut crank up the heating and grumble for a few months. this year i'm not sure if it is just SAD or lots of little things but i feel myslf sinking. doesn't help that work is shite but don't know if i could deal with work if i wasn't so grumpy about winter.
if i go to the GP will he laugh at me?
any self help thingys that won't cost a fortune and that you lot think might help?

A co called Lumi do an alarm clock with a light that rises like sunrise and if you want sets like sunset so wakes you like in summertime, you wake to light and apparently its the right wattage as those SAD lamps. Have one, love it, not affected by sad though, just didnt like getting up in the dark. About £60

AVON are doing a sunrise clock too - I think they have it on offer at £10 or £15 Im not sure that it is theraputic though

My GP advised me to get a decent multi vit and buy a Natural light lamp.

I dont actually mind winter, dont get depressed, but my hyprochondria goes haywire from October onwards, i go into hiberation mood and need to be shoved out the house. She told me they were common symptom of SADs.

oh hypochondria. definately have that. always something wrong with me.
i really don't think a sunrise clock would wake me up. have been known to sleep through alarms if i don't swap then about regularly. years of working shifts have knackered my bodyclock.
have started taking a multivitamin because i have found that has helped in previous years.
i'm just so tired and rather teary which is v unlike me. and very grumpy which is fairly usual but i don't like being grumpy. i want to be bouncy and sunny and happy.
may look into lamps.

I used to use the sunrise clock (before it was replaced by the dd and ds alarm clock) and it was surprisingly effective - it gets your body ready to wake up using the light so when the alarm goes off you're in a light sleep. I couldn't believe how much better I felt using it.

I get SAD relatively mildly but always start feeling down in January. It's worth trying to get outside as much as possible when it's light - I've noticed it's better now I only work one day a week and am out & about far more with the kids.

chance would be a fine thing. am nursey. work crappy shifts.
so d you do the light alarm thingy followed by a real alarm clock then?

DH heads for divorce in winter, he is sooooooooo bad.

He has a light box which I insist he uses. It works a treat. I really can recommend them.

i have a lumie brightspark which cost me around £100 i sit on the pc in front of it for an hour a day in the mornings and it does help but have to take antidepressents aswell.i hate winter

Dr Norman Rosenthal wrote a very ggod book about S.A.D. 'Winter Blues - Everything you need to know to beat Seasonal Affective Disorder'. The revised edition is just about to be released and I am going to a talk he is doing on 6th October at Regent's College, when he will be sharing his latest research on the benefits of Transcendental Meditation.
www.sada.org.uk/profile/news/read/id/18/
I'd be really interested to hear from anyone who has used this type of meditation, particularly for S.A.D.!

A good light box used in the morning helps

I curl up with my lightbox every evening. And take antidepressants from Oct to Jan. I love the reaction on crowded trains when I flip through my diary and pass the pages saying "START TAKING THE PILLS!" in red marker...
And getting outside every lunchtime. I used to go stand in a lighting shop as that perked me up a lot though suspect the staff thought I had a lightbulb fetish or something...

They're now saying vit D in largish doses may help a lot - will see this winter. At least that's dirt cheap unlike a new lightbox.

nocitrus - its most affective in the mornings otherwise it makes you too awake my bed time - ive found anyway
ive started usuing my lightbox this week i just feel so sleepy and its a struggle to get up ,if i didnt have to do the school run id stay in bed all morning