Anyone dealing with SAD? What works for you?

[nobodyspecial]

I am NOT asking for medical advice, just sharing personal experiences. Thanks.

[geardaddy]

1. Gin and Vitamin D fizzes n/t

[nolabear]

2. Yes. Makes me nuts. I haven't found good answers but some okay ones.

I'm in Seattle where the shortest days are 8am-4 pm and it's grey all winter. I'm at the beginning of the season where I have to fight for energy (you should see me in summer when the days run from 4 am to 10 pm!). I'm sporadic with the light I've got. I HAVE found that taking vitamin D helps. So does getting some actual outdoor exercise like walking, where I have to oxygenate myself. Carbs are bad, no matter what your body tells you. Caffeine might be bad but it's the stuff of life around here and coffee is the last thing they'll pry out of my cold, dead hands.

I'm interested in input too. It's a fight. I'd go batshit crazy in Alaska!

[NRaleighLiberal]

3. maybe not in specifics, but certainly in the overall mood in this season -

chilly mornings, early darkness, some gloomy gray days...which creates a loss of energy, lowering of mood etc

There is more going on than that around us - issues with various family members, some significant changes in my professional life - but what we are doing is trying to get to the light earlier - instead of mornings in our family room (north facing, dark, lots of glass, chilly) we've relocated to our south facing front room - no TV, but we put on music and do crosswords and love the morning light - later on, we are sure to walk the dogs in the afternoon (before dark).

We are also trying to get out and do more things - get out to a museum, go to a show, take short trips away from the house.

No doubt, though, that it is harder to get motivated, hard to stop snacking, easier to get down in the dumps at this time of year.

[hedgehog]

4. Check out the Vitamin D connection:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10888476

http://www.jlgh.org/Past-Issues/Volume-1---Issue-3/Vitamin-D-And-Mood-Disorders.aspx

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/natural-standard/201201/feeling-sad-season

[nobodyspecial]

13. Thanks for the links

I did start D3 a few years ago. Is there a maximum dosage. It's in my multi, plus the calcium, magnesium & zinc tabs I take. I also take fish oil and exercise nearly every day. It keeps me somewhat sane, meaning I've been much, much worse. It's just like this switch goes off in my brain and I hate it.

[hedgehog]

15. Here's your government's opinion:

http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminD-HealthProfessional/

It's a long article, basically discussing the know minimum required vs. some recommendations vs known safe maximums.

[nobodyspecial]

17. Here's what I was looking for:

Long-term intakes above the UL increase the risk of adverse health effects [1] (Table 4). Most reports suggest a toxicity threshold for vitamin D of 10,000 to 40,000 IU/day and serum 25(OH)D levels of 500–600 nmol/L (200–240 ng/mL).

Tolerable Upper Intake Levels (ULs) for Vitamin D
?9 years 4,000 IU
(100 mcg)

Looks like you have to be really overdoing it to start causing harm. I need to double check my labels, but I think I can safely up what I'm taking. Maybe it will help.

Thanks for your informative posts.

[LiberalEsto]

5. I use a Sun Box for a half hour daily because of SAD

It hits me badly. I want to sleep all the time, feel like crying for no reason, especially at sunset, and develop a craving for carbohydrates. In addition to the light box, I take vitamin D3 for it.
I need to start doing these by mid-September and keep it up until early March.

I live in the Washington DC metro area and found out about SAD maybe 10-15 years ago from a Washington Post article about the National Institute of Health's research into seasonal depression. That article led someone in the area to develop the first light boxes to combat SAD. I find the light therapy very helpful.

[seabeyond]

6. go outside. breathe fresh air. face the sun, eyes closed

a gentle hummmmmmmmmm, take self into the now, this moment of feel and peace and calm and be in the now. no thinking.

and if the sad has to be felt, then embrace it. then, go outside.....

i do not do sad often. but, when it comes, i allow myself to feel it, all of it. because generally, somewhere in that sad is love.

[nobodyspecial]

10. I should have been more specific

I'm talking about Seasonal Affective Disorder. There is no love in there.

[seabeyond]

12. ahhh. lol.

i would like to self delete then.

my mom had that. is that where you are really down during winter?

not good. i wont tell you her story, but... i empathize.

[RevStPatrick]

7. Sex and drugs and rock 'n roll...

That usually does the trick.

[RiffRandell]

9. Tsk, tsk tsk.

That's a remedy for all seasons.

[hrmjustin]

8. I go by the ocean and Walk or run for miles. Clears my head.

[Wait Wut]

11. What's the opposite of SAD?

I live in Arizona, so whatever it is...I have it.

I miss clouds, rain, thunderstorms, fog, misty mornings...green.

Anyway, I hear those funky light things sometimes work. I can't picture myself sitting in front of one of them, though.

[hedgehog]

14. I always had two low points every year - March and August.

It made sense in March - my Vitamin D must have been low after a long dark winter. But August? I finally realized that as the intensity of the sunlight went past my tolerance level, I was staying out of the sun.

[Bucky]

16. I used to get it real bad. Living in gratitude radically reduced my symptoms.

Also, not having a tv reduces my stress.

[JesterCS]

18. Marijauna n/t

[pipi_k]

19. Like some of the others...

upping my dosage of D3 has helped some. I'm 60 and have been suffering from SAD for so long I can't even remember not having it.

Spending time under lights...any kind. I'd rather have one of those light boxes, but regular household lights have to do sometimes.

I try to find something to look forward to each day. Right now I'm working on an interesting crochet project, and have something else lined up for when I finish the first one.

I like to read, and actually look forward to being able to read in bed each night before going to sleep.

And I love music, and try to listen to some each day.

Playing with my two dogs.

Basically, anything that takes me out of my own thoughts, including remembering that I've been through this many times before and it usually clears up on its own by April of the following year (at which point the depression turns to its opposite...anxiety...and then I'm dealing with a whole different animal).

PS...when all else fails, I have a good cry for myself, then get up and go on...

[Adsos Letter]

20. Getting out of the house.

Just sitting at home seems to increase the depression.

[LadyHawkAZ]

21. Thyroid HRT wiped mine right out

No more SAD, ever.

Before that? Getting as far from my house as possible and staying out for as long as possible. Being in my house was where it always hit the hardest. Even just going a couple miles and renting a motel room for a couple of nights would help.

[TwilightGardener]

22. I moved to the high desert. I grew up

in the east, and decided I could not take the clouds and gloom, that permanent grayish-white sky, having lights on inside during the day. I don't care how cold, hot, dry, or windy it gets out here, I need the sun and will tolerate everything else to get it.

[handmade34]

23. Light Therapy

with full spectrum light... very helpful

[TrogL]

26. I've got a big one at my office desk. Everybody cheers up when I turn it on

[csziggy]

24. Doing needlework helps me - probably because of the lights

I use OTT or full spectrum lights, pretty bright ones, to light my needlework. If I don't stitch, I tend to get depressed. I think it's because for other activities I don't use as bright lights hitting my face as much.

[nobodyspecial]

25. Was warmer and sunny today

so went out for a 5 mile run. Feeling much better today. Thanks for all the input.