Grrrr ... why does everyone think they've got it...?

rant number 1: anytime I tell someone I suffer from SAD, they immediately tell me that they do too.

I don't doubt that most people feel down and worse for wear in winter, but everyone thinks they've got SAD. I feel like I've been run over by a train most days in the winter. I can't sleep, can't stay awake, can't concentrate, have no motivation etc etc... everything falls apart!

If I finally get it together to tell someone what is going on, I just feel completely trivialised when they say 'oh yes I have that' , cause really I don't think they have!

rant number 2: if they don't have it, they think they're an expert on it - because they read a flippin' magazine article on it!

'Did you know you can use a light box to treat that?!'


Grrrr ... rant over...

"Did you know you have a light box which can treat that?" Hilarious! Their light box is this thing in the corner that churns out "daytime TV".

Yes, it always annoys me too when you say you suffer from SAD and they say "yes, I feel a bit gloomy in winter as well, I must have it".

Been using my new Pharos Maxi (replacing my Britespark) for the last month and it's great.

John

A well meaning relative brought me a long article from the internet. Some people, you can just feel that they think your crazy when you talk about SAD. (I know the rest do too, but they can play it off a little better.) This person has long been one that thinks its all in my head.
The article had all the usual stuff. Eat healthy, exercise, and schedule two weekend trips to sunny places during the winter! :roll: If you took the trips you were certain to be OK!
Well I don't eat healthy when I'm affected, and can't. And I don't mean I don't want to or don't feel like it. I can't. I guess if someone were to come in and shop and prepare the meals for me... I usually don't enter grocery stores in the winter and certainly don't cook. (And I'm a stay at home mom of a busy family.) Sometimes I wake up hungry and will drive to a fast food drive through in my PJ's, scarf down something terrible for me then go back to sleep for 10 or 12 hours. But wow, that really makes me dream. If only I could hire a health conscious full time chef in the winter! I would probably feel a little better with proper nutrition. And I wouldn't have the guilt of knowing my kids aren't getting the foods they need to be healthy while I'm mentally and physically asleep for 7 months.
Exercise, well if I can't stay awake for the 6 minute drive to take my kids to school...
And the trips, :lol: well, I guess if I could keep a job past Nov... Yes, I feel so good in the summer I sometimes end it with a job under my belt all jazzed up about climbing out of debt... The poor people that spend the time interviewing, processing my paperwork, training me, and then, listening to my excuses, having to find replacements at the last minute when I call in sick, and finally, finding my humiliating resignation on their voice mail :oops: If I just went to work after I got hired in the late summer, I guess I might be able to afford a planed trip... Of course, since my college career mimicked my work pattern described, The type of jobs I qualify for would probably not fund two weekend trips to sunny locations in the winter!
NOT THAT FOUR DAYS OF SUN COULD SNAP ANY SAD PERSON BACK INTO SHAPE FOR THE REMAINDER OF THE ROTTEN, HORRIBLE, ALL CONSUMING, GRAYNESS! :x

Well said Suave, I know for sure I am with you on almost all of that.

If I could, I WOULD!!! Can't people just TRY and understand that.

I feel the same about holidays, blame the cheapie airlines for that one......I bugger off to spain several times a year on the old £20 ticket and crash with my brother who lives 1hr. from the sirport. It's true I feel worse in the all consuming greyness afterwards, but the sun is like a drug and I just need it.....................on the eating healthy thing, my teenagers generally eat it all before me and I can't remember all my card numbers so I can't get money out to buy rubbish food. Having been overweight before and lost it, I can't be doing the big chubba thing again. In the house my mrs. moves the chocolate, biscuits etc. around every day which is infuriating as i can't find them (I work from home half the week), but under the circumstances perfectly understandable. My temper is poorer nowadays and I don't put up with too much from people. Last weekend I had to go out with the in-laws for a family meal, although I'd rather wrestled godzilla for an hour. They have an annoying habit of 'sharing' the food, so no sooner had the starter arrived than people were reaching across grabbing my whitebait with their fingers! Appalling isn't it. I threatened to stab the next person with a fork if they did it on the main course. As long as I can socialise outside I am better. On sleeping I've never been an 8 hour a nite person. Some nites its 10+hrs. others its 3 or 4hrs. I tend to put up with it. If I'm whacked I take a sleeping pill, if not my mind keeps going - its like being in your very own movie theatre. The dreams are horrible and they invariable wake me up and we start the whole sorry cycle off again. Mornings are the worst I feel like death warmed up. Exercise? doesn't matter if I do 2mins. or two hours a day - no effect. I am not particularly stressed at work, although I tend to avoid my work colleagues during the day, except for basic pleasantries that is, as I have opened my mouth badly on occasion and had to apologise for it.
Wear shorts for as long as possible if its +15 deg. then my brain thinks its still summer.
To avoid the muppets who give out stupid unsolicitored advice about SAD, I just don't bother telling them about it in the first place. Select a few well intentioned people and keep them close.
tata all for now

Yeah I agree, people just don't understand. They just think you get a bit down in the winter.

It's the same with most if not all forms of mental disorders unfortunately