Searching for Opinions/Advice
#248208 - 02/23/06 05:14 PM
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hohoyumyum
Reged: 05/28/03
Posts: 2263
Loc: SacTown, CA
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My husband and I moved up near Portland, Oregon in late Ocotber last year. I've noticed since then that I am increasingly fatigued and moody. I can never quite get enough sleep and when I'm not rested, the IBS kicks in. I've also noticed that I'm pretty stressed out and getting kind of depressed. I think what bothers me most is that there is so little sunlight here right now. There was one week of great, sunny weather and I felt wonderful that whole week. My hubby suggested that maybe I have SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder). I miss sitting on a warm beach with a good book and a cool bottle of water. Every day I don't see the sun I feel a little worse. It's just to dim here for me. We have family up here and I love my job so I know that the trouble isn't from work or from being far from family. I've seen some great ideas and suggestions from this group. What do you guys think? 
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If you're not dead, you've still got time.
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I have SAD too. Silly acronym, isn't it?? If it were called something more sinister, maybe people would pay attention to it more. 
I get depressed, tired and moody in the dark months. It started for me when I came back from overseas the second week of October. It's like I have NO energy, like someone just turned my switch OFF. 
I did buy a Happy Sunshine Lamp (there's that silly naming convention again!!), and I'm pretty happy with it. I turn it on in the morning and leave it on by my bed most of the day. I get a lot more energy from it as a result, but it doesn't as much improve my mood. It does makes me feel less tired all the time, though.
Here's what it looks like, and a link:
Happy Sunshine Lamp
~nelly~ 
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I have SAD as well, and I seem to go through phases. In December and January I noticed being tired and weepy more often. I got very easily upset and still do. It doesn't help that a lot of things in my life seem to be coming to a head right now...but that's a different story.
Like IBS, SAD is really different from person to person. ME, I find I make myself better by completely immersing myself into a completely dark room for a few hours, listening to some nice music, or just sitting and relaxing, and then going out into the rest of the world doing my best to see how light everything is.
Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't. It takes willpower to 'make' yourself happy, and sometimes, as much as I hate to say it, it's soooo not worth the effort.
I think a really important thing to remember is: everyone is allowed a crappy day. If your SAD and IBS are both kicking in...don't try to be happy. Wallow if you really want to. I find that holding all the unhappy SAD feelings inside for too long just makes me feel emotionally heavy. Just one day wallowing in sweats and hating the world leaves me able to wake up the next morning a (mostly) normaly person.
I've babbled enough I think!
I hope this helped, if you can sort advice from babblage.
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My doctors keep recommending it to me. Honestly, I'm a cavewoman from "The Far Side" all winter. I've blacked out my windows with black curtains. I'm in such a cruddy mood that I have no desire to live with natural light beaming in--SERIOUSLY. (This is great for movie/t.v. viewing, etc., however!)
I look like a ghost.
I think "SADness" makes my IBS worse. Who knows. I'm so SAD that I quit smoking just so I wouldn't have to go outside. (10.5 weeks ago--pretty good)
I'm just afraid of how impossible I'll be when/if I'm 52.
Kate.
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It is for me...
#248258 - 02/23/06 07:23 PM
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Nelly
Reged: 08/06/04
Posts: 4381
Loc: Within stray mortar fire of DC
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Yeah, I think of aging a lot. If it's this severe now, are we going to get that far?? Scary.
The lamp! I felt so stooopid when it came to my door. But I plugged it in and swallowed my pride, and you know what? It did make a difference. The biggest effect was that I started cleaning my room-- I actually had the energy to dust all those little things that the bright light picked up. Then at night, as soon as I turned it off, I realized how DARK it was in my room. I fell asleep no problem that night. It was great!
It is kinda hard to remember to turn it on every morning, but the days I use it, I really do feel more energy. I'd only admit I use one here to my IBS friends, tho!! 
There's medical evidence about these lamps boosting seratonin, getting receptors fining and that in turn improving mood and sleep at night. I would try anything once, and if worse comes to worse, hey! It's a amedical deduction!
~nelly~
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I haven't been diagnosed with SAD. I don't know if it is even something you are diagnosed with. It seems like it would be a sort of exclusion diagnosis. I hadn't even heard of it until we moved up here. I've heard about the lamps and was wondering about how they work. I'll check out the link. Thanks. 
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If you're not dead, you've still got time.
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maybe I need one of those happy lamps! I get so depressed every winter. Since childhood actually. I've heard of those lamps but they're expensive and I never seriously considered it. Hmmmm. Dan
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Ladies & gentlemen take my advice, pull down your pants and slide on the ice.
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Okay, now you have me spooked. The comment about the cleaning and the dust...I shudder. It's really creepy, but you cannot see the dust, etc. in the dimness...and I'm so terrible that I have a cleaning lady. Seriously, when I'm SAD...I'm too depressed to sweep, even, so I pay someone else to...do something I could easily do.
Nelly, when I'm SAD, even taking a shower is a monolithic heroic effort. AND YES...I've been "there" this week.
The cleaning lady doesn't clean my bedroom, though. She cleans everywhere else, except IN THE BLACKEST of the hole. And I know...that there's a film of dust.
Does this sound familiar?
Here's something that creeps me out--what would I do if I had enough positive energy? Honestly, I think it's easier for me to be SAD and stay limited, to stay in the dark.
Kate.
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The Dust
#248316 - 02/24/06 08:19 AM
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Nelly
Reged: 08/06/04
Posts: 4381
Loc: Within stray mortar fire of DC
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You're so right. It's so much easier to wallow in the dark! I've forgotten what it's like to have energy, except on the days when I DO have energy where I'm like, "Why was I wasting so much time before??" It's a cycle, no doubt.
I just don't want to sink any deeper, you know? I guess it's like that for some people too, where it's just easy to eat pie every day. But everything has a concequence, and with depression I lose so much TIME. I'm going to wake up and be 35! How the heck did that happen?
The dust mocks me. It's the only witness to my daily failure as a human being. I stare at it and it stares back. I avoid its stern reprimanding stare and pretend I'm far away. Vanquishing dust makes me Superman the next day, when I wake up and see the "clean." Hasn't happened in a while tho.
Showers no longer hold any interest for me. The agony of it is that in the shower, anything is possible. I can plan out my day, feel productive and be in control of my life. Then I'm out, and drying my hair becomes a nightmare that sends me back to bed, exhausted. So not fair.
SAD is isolating. No one understands. Except the dust, which sees me for who I am.
~nelly~ (I must take a shower.)
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I felt like an idiot ordering it. But it really makes a difference when I turn it on. I think it has a guarantee so you can send it back.
~nelly~ Whatever works!
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