does anyone struggle in september????

Hi, you certainly aren’t on your own here. The description of how you feel in September, are my symptoms exactly. I too find that my lightbox works very well from October-January/Feb, but is not nearly as effective in September and March.

It’s a beautiful sunny day today, but being out there in it makes me feel utterly drained, I feel perhaps it’s the actual height of the sun in the sky, and where the light hits the back of the eye, it makes me just want to fall asleep. My eyes feel as though they are magnetically attracted to each other, I’m bewildered, have indigestion and yet I am hungry and nauseous……it is quite a challenge to sequence thoughts and hand eye coordination is impaired. I am sure that the sun is at the same level in the sky again in March when I feel equally rubbish. I am not at all convinced that it is the quantity of sunlight alone which contributes to sad symptoms, but the height of the sun in the sky is a major factor too. I just remind myself regularly that by the end of September the worst will be over until March arrives. I guess I am lucky that there is some respite in deep mid winter, but it is still at least 8 weeks every year when I feel like hell on earth. The lightbox has made the balance of the autumn-winter-spring manageable though, the whole 6/7 months used to be constantly dreadful.

I am amazed that I had the energy to reply to you, but you are the first person to mention how much worse September is and I wonder if there is anyone else out there who suffers in the same pattern, and whether you also have problems in March?

Hang on in there, it eases up…… along with my lightbox I am now using St Johns Wort, being very strict with myself about getting up early in the morning which I am sure is very important, and trying to have no more than one 'power-nap' a day, along with a good brisk walk. What a battle.

Thank goodness I have found your site. I thought I was the only one who. I start feeling really bad from about September and thought - it cannot be SAD because the sun is so bright this year. I did say to my partner that I thought maybe it isn't just to do with the amount of sun. Could it be the change in the atmosphere? I was going to the doctors this week as I feel so bad. I'm hungry all the time, for sweets, cakes and have found than when I eat them, or so it appears, I am totally exhausted and feel lousy. I have this feeling in the stomach which we now called "sucked out feeling". It feels as those all the energy has been sucked out from my throat to the pit of my stomach. Sometimes I can harldy lift my hands to type at work. I feel very strange, but more in my stomach. This sounds similar to some of the other comments on the site and I feel better for not being alone. I've been on the web to see if have symptons of depressin, thyroid etc. However I think it is related to what happens in September.