Its begun

Its began - my winter blues. Early this year - normally after clocks change. Dont want to do the antidepressant thing this year - want to try without. Thought this year would be different- mind you i think that every year! Feeling low but still able to function. Sleep is beginning to be affected. Any advice on body clocks - my husband has offered to buy me one for xmas pressie as i think it may help with the sleep.

I get a lot of benefit from my lightbox (it's a Bright Spark) and I find mornings a lot better since I bought my bodyclock (the advanced Lumie one), so I reckon an early Christmas present would be a great idea....don't wait until December!

kt,

I know how you feel. I am so pissed I have to deal with this too. I wish I could be like I am in the Summer, enjoying life. Instead, I lay in bed in the morning, hating life! I have suffered with this for 10 years and it took me a long time before I even realized what I have.
Since you are consious of it, you can work with it. It is never going to be ideal and it always going to be hard, but hang it there!!
Get a light box and put it on your desk at work and use it every morning. I have that alarm thing but I sleep right through the light and it just pisses me off, but it is better than nothing (in the summer months, i don't even need, I just pop right up!) I have crazy nightmares too. Are you on antidepressants now? It may help to adjust when you take them...I noticed that if I take them later in the day, I tend to get nightmares. I also know that I get nightmares if I wake up and then go back to sleep a lot. Maybe you can try and do a lot of positive reinforcement with yourself and when you have a negative thought, try and replace with a positve,
This winter can be better for you!!! Hang it there!

Definitely try a light source of some kind.

I've been exactly the same as you, but a few years behind.

I'm on anti-depressants for the first time and I've accepted that some of us need a little medication to get through the day - just like diabetics need insulin and kidney patients need dialysis. That's just the way I've come to see it, remove the stigma. Just another way to look at it.

Hope you feel better and more like yourself soon

This year i am finding that i am more angry about the fact that i have to suffer with this yet again than the actual symptoms. I just want a break from it. It ruled my teenage years and early twenties - now i want to get on with life and leave that part of me behind.

I second you on that. I'm as mentally tired with this cycle, as I am physically tired with the symptoms.

I found it started earlier this year. I think because August was such a dull month, by September it had all started to kick in.

God i wonder what february will be like this year for us saddos - thats usually my worst time! Never normally this bad now!

Thanks guys for all your support - it is nice to know i am not alone!

Im feeling more positive today - despite not falling asleep until 3.30am - i was up by 8.30 and had the housework done! Had the light box on for most of the morning!

Hey - this may sound a silly question - with the body clocks how do they actually do any good - dont you just sleep through the light? Would it work if i turned my light box on then hit snozze for half an hour?! - Yes i am blonde by the way!!!!!!!!!!!

Im so glad you can understand me - my husband cant despite being with me for 7 years! He tries bless him - but you need to live it to know it!

Oh my god - that is spooky.

I have the same thing with clothes - i was supposed to go out with my husband the other night to the cinema - really wanted to go but did not feel good in anything i wore - ended up screaming at my husband that i felt i looked like a boy!!! and refused to go out!!

Im going shopping tomorrow with a friend as we are having a night out over the weekend and have a few xmas parties pending and i am dreading it as i have also piled the weight on in the last few weeks due to stuffing my face!!!

I am determined that it will be a good day though - and i am sure i dont look as bad as i think!!!

So glad I found my way back here and could get my thoughts down. Like the rest of you it's been tough the last few weeks. It seems we all suffer in different ways which isn't surprising. For me it's extreme sluggishness and lethargy and the inability to connect thoughts in my brain. Oh and number blindness (misread them all the time) My work has really suffered the last few weeks - missing deadlines, unable to plan properly and I have felt generally down. Luckily I have supportive work colleagues who are helping me.

So I am coming out fighting!
Light box at work every morning really helps. A quick top up later in the day helps too.
Getting out for a 20 minute brisk walk at lunchtime really helps.
Cutting down on alcohol helps (gnash).
Taking supplements like zinc, serotonin and B vits really helps with immune system as well as SAd.
Eating healthily and doing regular exercise really helps - gym was very gloomy on Monday night though.


I am on Prozac and have been for ages now. Tried to come off it in the summer and hey guess what, I got depressed! So I am stuck with it but since I want to function and enjoy life it's a small price to pay.

Other tips? Stay positive, banish negative thoughts (meditation helps me with this), do things that you love and that make you laugh (films, comedy, whatever!), and if you are genuinely tired, sleep! Don't feel bad about your need to hibernate at times. It's YOUR way of dealing with life.

Oh and I also celebrate the seasonal changes now wher epossible - midsummer picnic in Regents Park for friends, party or night out for 21 December. Not sure how to celebrate the clocks going back yet - probably an extra gym session and a lovely swim. Can't believe I just said that.

Oh and another thing I have learnt is that I get anxious about all this SAD stuff. Will it be as bad as last year (yes and no - because I know what I have to do). Still I wish it would go away.

Stay happy!

kt, sorry to hear that you've had such a bad weekend. I hope things start to look up.

Ask your GP about CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy), rather than generic counselling.

Don't know about sjw plus ads...perhaps another q for the gp?

Kt

SJW + other antidepressants = greater risk of serotonin syndrome, because SJW has a MAOI action. The SJW should have a warning on the packaging.

I agree that you should try and explore this.

NHS often gives 6 weeks therapy which can be a good start. I have had this a few times and it has helped me. However best thing for me was 18 months of CBT which ended this spring.

I was really lucky and it saved my life. Having someone to help me stay consistent with the light therapy and to change my way of looking on life, work etc was great and I am drawing on that support now as I go into winter.

It sounds like you are having a real tough time and my heart goes out to you.

Hey Joel,

You know your stuff - Thank you. I looked into it with the help of link to a website i was sent and i found this info. I had never even heard of serotonin syndrome.

ST. JOHN'S WORT may interact with CITALOPRAM

Serotonin, a type of chemical that is called a neurotransmitter, is responsible for sending signals from one nerve cell to another. Both citalopram and St. John's Wort increase blood levels of serotonin in the brain. A lack of serotonin has been associated with depression. However, when serotonin levels are higher than normal, you may be more likely to experience side effects such as nausea, vomiting, agitation, restlessness, headache, or dizziness. Excessive amounts of serotonin may cause a condition referred to as "Serotonin Syndrome"--a potentially dangerous set of symptoms that include overexcitement, tremors, very low blood pressure, high body temperature, excessive sweating, and extreme confusion. Any of these signs should be evaluated immediately by a doctor. Do not use St. John's Wort while you are taking citalopram. To avoid potential problems, inform your doctor before taking St. John's Wort for any reason. Discuss this potential interaction with your healthcare provider at your next appointment, or sooner if you think you are having problems.

This interaction is poorly documented and is considered moderate in severity.

Ah, I'm not alone!

(Hello again folks - another fair (sic) weather poster)

It seems SAD has kicked in early for us all. I've just had my meds upped to the maximum prescribable. (Paroxetine 50mg)

I was bought an LED lightbox at the beginning of the year (by a supportive family member), I'm not sure it was too effective, anyone have any experience of them?

Anyway, I hope you all make it through winter with too little hassle.

Regards

Gresh

I'm another one who makes and breaks appointments, feels better then guilty. Sheesh, what a nightmare.

I tend to tick off the days to the winter solstice, then force myself to think that 'days are getting longer- things must get better'. Yet supposedly the impact of SAD is greatest in the jan/feb period. Can anyone explain that? Are days duller on average in winter than autumn ?

I find December is my worst month, I seem to go downhill and reach my worst point in December, then once New Year has passed I seem to go along on that plateau for a while until the nights start to get longer, although symptoms do not go away until March/April, wouldn't it be great to be like the anilmals and actually hibernate then all our problems would be solved :lol:

sorry guys looks like my computer has a stutter I thought it hadn't posted

I only found out recently that although the winter solstice is 21st December, sunrise actually continues to get later until January 7th or 8th. Evenings start getting lighter from 15th December or something like that. The 21st of December is just the day with the shortest time between sunrise and sunset.

Up until I found that out, I always wondered why it felt like the mornings were still getting darker after Christmas - it's because they are! It's the dark mornings that I hate most, I just cannot get out of bed for work.

I'm having a really bad day today. The weather where I am (near Glasgow) has just been woeful for the last fortnight, with no sunshine at all, persistent lashing rain, high winds etc. Even if the sun could come out for a few hours, it would remind me what a sunny day looks like. Today I can't remember. When an advert for holidays in Egypt came on the television earlier, I started to cry.

Feel like my get and go, got up and went. Flat as a pancake today, keep starting things or going to start things and getting distracted, just the thought of how i feel made me a bit teary. Have started to keep a mood diary as my mood is so up and down, felt ok yesterday (poss 'cos sun was out?).

Hope you guys are doing better than me today. :(

Wow Chicago, you sound just like me. Thinking south,Tennessee is usually sunny when I visit my dad. Still, to me, nothing is like the sun out West.