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Anonymous
joined 9 Jan 2009
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Posted by Anonymous, 16:06 21 January 2004

Hello all,
I just found this forum and wanted to introduce myself.

I am Julie I am from the USA but live in Norhtern Ireland.
I believe I have SAD but am not able to find a Doc who "believes" it exists.

My symptoms are not as severe as some I have seen. Mostly at a certain time each year I feel as though I MUST hibernate. I eat more (cannot even think about losing weight until summer). I feel so tired and sleep so much and becaome achy and my muscles feel like they need a stretch all the time...and when I do stretch it only makes me want more.

In the USA i did not feel so bad because at least the summers were good and long. I lived in the South USA for a great deal of the time becuase I HATE winter. Now I am in Northern Ireland HUGE change in body clock (I still run on USA time 5 hours behind UK time) ..it is getting to a breaking point where I feel I need help with it. The weather is almost always bad and winters longer than I have been used to.

I sleep all the time...it is making my hubby annoyed (rightly so) and me as well. No matter how much sleep I get I STILL WANT MORE :!: I do have some depressive symptoms...and I tried the generic Prozac..flueoxetine(sp?) for 2 months but it did not seem to help. I may try it again with the help of a light box and putting daylight bulbs in the house.

Anyway...I think that is enough for now...I am sure I'll have more to share...but it is time to go back to my bed.. :?

Cheers and Happy lighting to you all...thanks for reading.

Julie
Northern Ireland

Julie in Sussex
joined 21 Jan 2003
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Posted by Julie in Sussex, 09:53 22 January 2004

Hi Julie in Northern Ireland!

Really have to reply as I am the Julie in Sussex person!

Glad you found the Forum, it's a safe comfy sort of place, lots of us come here most days, it's therapy really. Am pooped today, but just need to reassure you that most GP's seem to have little knowledge of SAD, so there you are not alone, lots of us here are self diagnosed, I'm one of them.

Do read a really brilliant book by Dr Norman Rosenthal "The Winter Blues", everything you need to know about SAD is in there. Maybe trying a lightbox before you try medication again would be a sound plan. If it is going to work for you it works faster than meds, 4-10 days. Then you might find you don't need meds, or if it doesn't turn you right around you could have meds in conjunction with a lightbox. Prozac and the like do work for a great number of people, others can feel even more pooped finding that their ounce of get-up-and-go has got-up-and-gone, it's a very pesonal choice/effect.

Having said all of that, all help that is available is valuable : meds, light boxes, Lumies, St Johns Wort (good for very mild winter blahs, but not tough enough for full blown SAD which is classed as a major depression), healthy diet, exercise, structured days, plenty of water, being outside on sunny days... and as Siddy advocates, do keep a diary it's an enormous help to have an overview of how you have been feeling from one year to the next, let alone one day to the next.

Got to find a sofa... all the best. Julie

siddy
joined 22 Jan 2003
674 posts

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Posted by siddy, 20:14 22 January 2004

Hello,

Welcome, but quite frankly I would be back on that plane to some warm and bright American state. I know you have George W (I won't say what that stands for!) Bush and poor quality chocolate but hey it's not so bad!

It's always raining and grey over here even in August! Anyway I concur with what Julie in sussex has to say because quite frankly I am too tired to answer in detail. Exercise though is good when you haven't got flue and colds!

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