Hi, please help if you can

Hi Ceri

Firstly welcome to the forum, I am relatively new here although I have suffered with SAD for about 20 years. I am sorry to hear you have had a diagnosis of SAD but things aren't as bleak as they may seem at the moment.

I think the best reference book for this condition is Winter Blues by Norman E Roenthal. He suffers from SAD himself and is a clinical professor of psychiatry. It will give you an insite into diagnosing SAD and the relative treatments to try and eleviate the symptoms. He also has a website http://www.normanrosenthal.com

There is also SADA who are a support group for people with SAD, they can give you advice on light boxes etc. Although they are predominately a internet support group so you will probably get as much if not more information from the people on this forum.

One of the best ways to deal with SAD is preparation and forward planning. I now have in place a survival plan by the beginning of September through to April. This includes when I will start using my light box and body clock, if I need to increase my medication, advising my family and friends that I probably won't be as sociable as usual and keeping a diary. My diary has been my saviour. I write down everyday what I am feeling and if I have done anything that may have made me feel better/worse. In my early stages of SAD I could look back and see the pattern evolving and see how I had felt in previous years.

You need to take control of your situation as different things work for different people. You will be offered lots of advice on the forum and will eventually find what suits you best.

It also helps to know that you are not alone in this battle and everyone is happy to listen.........that in itself is beneficial.

Take care

Hi Ceri

I will try and answer some of your questions for you

Will it get easier with time? It should get easier with time if you prepare yourself before the winter months. Have a plan in place by September and that will help.

Will people be supportive if i say i have SAD? I would like to think that most people will be supportive. A lot of people still believe that the condition doesn't exist but the people who suffer from it obviously know that it does. Gather as much information as you can, ie print off's from your computer describing what SAD is and how it affects you. Highlight the areas that relate to how you feel and give this to your family and friends. I found it easier to let them read the articles than explain how I was feeling myself.

Would planning a summer holiday in the winter help? I feel it would help as do a lot of other people on the forum. I went to Tenerife in Dec 05 and had a great winter that year, not nearly as bad as usual. Purplecrab and Clive have also had winter hols and found it helpful.

Am I making this up? Am I wanting it to be SAD? No you are not making it up, it may be that you are wanting a "Title" for how you are feeling but sometimes thats part of the acceptance and helps in the maintenance of the condition.

I am glad your doctor has eliminated all other causes for how you feel with the blood tests. Unfortunately at the moment it is just trial and error to see what helps you. It is probably too late to make a lot of difference this year as we are coming out of the bad period but try and make a note of when you start to feel better, how you feel, are you finding it easier to get up and function.

I have recently found out from my doctor that I am also suffering from ME. In 2003 I had 2 MRI scans because they thought I had MS, the scan came back NAD but the neurologist said that I had CFS/ME. This information wasn't passed on to me until Monday of this week!! This is one of the reasons I am so hot on keeping a diary. I could go back over the years and explain to the doctor how I had been feeling at specific times. I have had a more difficult time over the past six years with not a lot of respite during the summer (only getting marginally better) and this now explains the reason why. I will now have to sit and re-evaluate how I am going to deal with my situation. It is important that the doctors can have a history of your symptoms as this can help in making a diagnosis when all the obvious tests fail.

I hope this helps you a bit, I am sure you will get some great advice on here.

Take care

Hi Ceri

You've some good questions there. I never claim to be a doctor but from my experiences over the last few years, I'd like to try answering them if I may.

Will it get easier with time?
If you know what to expect and have a plan in place to deal with it, it's much easier. It's far better to know what's happening to you than feeling like hell without any idea why.

Will people be supportive if i say i have SAD?
A lot of people I know consider SAD to be silly science. My boyfriend did and we nearly split up last winter because I turned into an utter monster (no really) this year he saw the same pattern developing and we got a light box and he's been shocked at the difference in my behaviour and the way I feel. It depends on who you're talking to, and how you explain it.

Would planning a summer holiday in the winter help?
I should think it would - I've heard that other people have found it helpful but that there can be a comedown when you get back to the good old English weather.

Am I making this up? Am I wanting it to be SAD?
I read about SAD for a couple of years and identified with a lot of the symptoms but never did anything about it until I hit crisis point - just hid away until April reading books and not being bothered to go out. The fact is that it was always there, it just took time for me to recognise it.

It's unfortunate that we don't have a test we can do - like a blood test or something that definitively says "Yup, that's SAD" but it's the way of it.

Sounds like you have a good doctor, who is at least aware of the possibility of SAD (many aren't), and the best thing you can do is to build up evidence of how you feel and when that will either confirm or reject the disagnosis.

Good luck Ceri.

Hi Ceri

Like you i have recently found this forum and im amazed at how many people also suffer like this each year!

I have bought myself a dawn simulator alarm which is very helpful, and my light box arrived today so will let you know how i get on.

My doctor just wants to give out anti depressants all the time but im not going to take them yet because i dont belive they will help me. The prozac i took was awful and i dont want to go down that route again. He doesnt appear to know much about SAD so im trying to find a support group at the moment.

Take care

Kirsty

Ceri (EDIT I'm sorry I thought this site was for Social Anxiety Disorder. Anyway, perhaps helpful for some :D )

I've been where you are with shyness/SAD.

I am no longer so shy that it effects my life in anyway.

My advice differs from many on this forum;

I don't think it is helpful to think of yourself as having a 'condition' called SAD (or any 'condition') as I once did.
Why? Because you are not your 'condition' and having a 'condition' is just an unhelpful label - nothing more.

You are a human being who appears to have trouble communicating freely with others (or use your own words).

I should tell you how I "got out".

I tried....
Phycologists/therapists
Drugs
Tons of self-help books
Courses
etc, etc.

I've done it all. So what worked? At the end of the day, none of the above.
How did I get to a point now, where I can say I am very comfortable (mostly) around other people most of the time?

Awareness. Mindful awareness. No, it's not some kooky, new-age mumbo-jumbo. It's ancient, it's real and it's growing in use in psyc practices, hospitals and universites around the world. In my opinion, it's THE ONLY THING that REALLY works.

How does it work? Simple, you learn to practice watching your mind. What is your mind telling you? How do you get to a point of anxiety and fear, step by minute step you practice following your thought patterns.

Is it easy? Oh no.
Is it worthwhile? My word, is it ever. You want YOUR LIFE back? Start researching the mehtod yourself.

What you'll need;
determination, patience and courage.

Good luck.

I'm open to any questions :D

Is anyone else as affected by March weather and its lack of warmth as I am? I dread it like the plague every year in Wisconsin, and I drive my spouse crazy as a result. My "SAD" , if that is actually the syndrome, does not kick in until the end of February or so. This year has been the worst in 30 years, I think, as far as early March weather goes. I have been South twice this year for 4-day escapes, but it only intensifies my distress in Wisconsin. I was brought up in the deep South (Alabama and Lousiana) , and th older I get the more I want my winters over in Feb. Understand, if you can, that winters in the Upper Midwest can last for five to six months. I am on the verge of leaving work just to be able to find happier climates. My lack of regular exercise (we have over a foot of snow, icy sidewalks and single digit night temperatures) affects me badly, too, and I am a religious fast wallker, normally. I tried "mall walking" and being inside with toxic smells of the mall did not work for me.
Any ideas?

Ceri, your holiday doesn't have to be somewhere warm, just somewhere with good quality light. I had a week in SOuth of France in January and it totally turned round how I felt. temperature was only about 16C, but there was a longer day there and it was warm enough to walk around outside. I'm told that the sort of light you get skiiing is good as well.