Has light therapy helped you?

Thanks for creating this Forum!

Light Therapy really does work!

This is not a commercial:)

Research how plants need sunlight etc. and what you need will become crystal clear.

Peace and Love.

You need exposure to light to feel happy.

I find that light therapy helps me as well but that is just to give me some energy to cope with the day.

I have my two lamps in different parts of the house. I don't use them both at the same time.

I was prescribed Amitrityline by my doctor for SAD and once the medication started to kick in my anxiety levels began to drop and I started to feel a lot better.

I have used Lumie Pharos max for 1,5 months.
It hasn’t changed anything, I slept days and nights, didn’t study at school.
Then I went to sunbed again, and I was much better the next day. In sunbed I cover my eyes, so the light can’t go in through eyes. I have all classical SAD symptoms, but light therapy hasn’t helped. I don’t want to go to sunbed but I don’t know what else to do.

Thanks for your positivity Adrian.
Light is important.
Sunbed means early aging, skin cancer. It was in the media, that your chances for skin cancer are 50% higher if you use sunbed.
But every medicine has a side effect.
And in Estonia doctors recommend sunbed.
I’m trying to find alternatives to sunbed, unfortunately light box is not an answer.

My doctor said i could be on medication all year round, but i dont know if this is a good idea as i can normally cope through the summer months ok, does anyone else use medication all through the year ?

I have used my visor since end of last summer having been very low for a couple of years and depressed in mid winter. I have got through the entire winter without a single tear, which is a huge step forward. I use the visor about 4 to 5 days a week for 30 - 45 mins depending on the weather.

If it wasn't for my brightspark i would probably be suicidal now. The first time i got depression I had no idea how to cope. Thankfully i recognised the symptoms and a friend told me about SAD lamps. My doctor just wanted to put me on anti-depressants (with all the nasty side-effects) for 3 months at a time which would mean having to wean myself off in between. I don't need to use my lamp much. I use it 3 times a week for 2 hours in front of the TV. When i was at my worst i used it week days in the office for an hour and didn't need any more. I have more energy, I am unlikely to bite any ones head-off and it really improves my sleep patterns. (when i am very depressed it helps me to drift off when i am sleeping next to it!) I do use a sunbed on rare occassions when the cold seems to have seeped into my bones. I know the risks as my grandfather had skin cancer but i use it for just 1 minute at a time. it makes me freckle so i don't particularly want to use it often or much. I suspect its when my vit-D levels get low that i crave it. really not certain why it triggers it.
A bonus of the light box is its additonal use for jet lag. i can prepare for my US trips before and then come down on returning. :)

Wow, I just listened to the samples on the Bodyclock Elite 300 and they sound amazing, I really have to start saving some pennies for one of these clocks, the one I have is nothing like this.

I have got an impression after trying all the lamps that they only give me a headache. It seems to be a very good business!
Bright rooms make me much more happier and balanced person, but not SAD lamps. I need a bright room all the time, it doesn’t heal, but makes me feel better.
15 minutes, 30 minutes - anything under SAD lamp makes no difference.
I just use them to lighten up my rooms from time to time.

The lightbox may help but not completely. I was in front of it for about 2 hours a day and still crying for no reason. I did find something that really works though...L-tyrosine along with Vit C and B6 taken on an empty stomach, is converted into Dopamine....which is obviously what my body was lacking because now I feel GREAT! Works better than Wellbutrin did for SAD. It may also reduce ADHD and Social Anxiety.

I have a brite box and sit in front of it for at least half an hour per day, depending on what time I have free.

I have found that it only really has an effect if I go straight to it as soon as I wake up. I have a bodyclock and that is fantastic, for 37 years I have never been able to wake up on dark winter mornings and had to have at least two alarms set 15 mins apart to wake me up. The first went off 15 mins before I was due to wake in an effort to wake me up to be ready for the real wake up time. I was ALWAYS bad mooded (until the dawn started before 6am) and tired.

Since I got my bodyclock in September I have been a different person. I wake up naturaly about 5 mins before the alarm and go straight to my brite box. Its in front of me now.

But if I go and do something else, like wash dishes for example, before I goto the light, then it dosn't seem to have the same effect.

That's my experience.

Colin

Are you selling something Snowflake?

I find the sort of light therapy that works the best is a sunny holiday midwinter. Dream on!

No, Ivy.
Just trying to help others who may have spent half of their life in a pit of depression like I have...