Hi this is my very first post, I started out in acne forum but when SAD gets bad you dont care about acne. Does any one else here have that? I'd like to learn more about coping.

Welcome to the forum. http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/wave.gif

I get SAD every year. I hate the coming of winter. I have a really bright light in my living room that I turn on to help me when I start feeling blah.

http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/smile.gif Good luck http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/smile.gif

I have reversed sad, or just sad, but not in the way most get it. I get effected by the coming of spring and summer, I total despise these times of the year. Maybe it is because I am in so much pain and am limitied in my activities and I am jealous or envious of those who do enjoy the warm weather. I love the cold and the winter, fall is my favorite season as it means an end to the endless activities of Summer.

i just thoughtI would share my differing viewpoint on sad.

take care

peace

terry

Hey Terry, nice to see you in this neighborhood.

I hate the coming of fall and winter the cold just aggitates my RSD to no end.

Take care my friend.
http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/smile.gif cattys http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/smile.gif

I've written something here 4 times all times it has dissapeared. I'm getting depressed just thinking about it, all the things I wanted to share. I can't do it anymore this one might not work either, my posts are not going through. Okay thank you all for sharing after my 1 post and welcoming me, it's nice to know you're not alone. http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/yawn.gif Sleeping pill kicking in now. Be well

Hi there again,

As you've noticed I'm up at the wee hours. I am off work on Fridays so I can afford to be up late today. I was having difficulty posting yesterday I think the SP was kicking in. Like I tried saying in the previous post I was surprised to find I wasn't alone in this. Anyway to those that answered and anyone else who knows they have SAD how did you find out?

Mine starts like in August and peaks like in Dec to FEb then tapers off. By the end of April It feels like the jitters and I start to plan and take on extra projects to use up the extra energy tha all of a sudden I gain back.

I do have a special lamp too. I even use it in the summer for I found that a whole week at work in dreary dim rooms trigger my winter like symptoms, although not as bad.

The winter symptoms include: loss of energy, sleepy during the day and wakeful way past midnight, irregular sleep habits, enormous craving for starch that leads to irritated moods if not satisfied, crying spells, poor concentration, want to stay indoors, avoidance of people, lead heavy feeling in arms and legs; like I have to drag myself everywhere and moving around takes such effort, spending weeks in bed, etc. Does anyone have similar experiences?

The lamp 10,000 lux is extremely helpful in the beginning and end of the cycle, and of course like I mentioned as needed during the summer, but around it's (depression) peak I have to take medication. Unfortunately I spent alot of years not sticking to them because I would get extremely sick off them. Til just last year we discovered I can tolerate Wellbutrin, and as it is I have to start on low doses. Because I am so sensitive and never know how I'll react we start the meds in August so that when the depression gets really bad I've built tolerance to them.

The sleeping pills.... I finally gave in and accepted, because I would lose my job if it wasn't for them. They are called Ambien and I try to do without them as much as possible.

Another thing, I'm sensitive and react with desperation to extremes, too cold, too hot, my nose....if there's a smell, I'm the first to notice, everything tastes too sweet and I can't take hot spices, although, things have to be flavorful.

I don't know, I'm bored with myself, really. What upsets me the most is that when summer is here I forget all this stuff so it's always hard when the symptoms first appear again....like sinking in quicksand and nothing to hold on to.

The hardest part of all this is that I feel like people think I'm weird, because they notice I do change in appearance and personality but of course I don't go around telling everyone what I have.

Please, please, share your experiences. In all these years I never heard of a single person having this.

Hi, sorry about my english... correction nº 1 nothingstotry:
I meant anhedonia, which is like worthless in everything, not depressed.
Host sleep -- i meant just sleep.
Sorry!
Give us your e-mail if you wish to have a chat?!

Regards Daniel.

[This message has been edited by yuritaboy19 (edited 09-22-2003).]

Hi,

I couldn't find Adenonia except in some Spanish sentences, I can read it but don't think it had to do with what you're talking about. Could you tell me what it is and also hust sleep. I hope you do find relief enough to work again. It is difficult and I wish you the best. What type of virus is that the doctor is talking about.

Hi, I have SAD, too. I am on SSRI's all year, but
I take extra at the end of August if we are having
cooler nights (days shorten up then a lot, too!)
This gets me prepared for when it really hits--around
Nov. 8th.
However, I am predicting an early winter for us,
by the way I feel, since I felt the SAD kicked in--in
August! (Last year, it kicked in--in November).
Some years, it hits hard at Nov. 1st--if an early
winter, cold November rains! Yuck.
I take a medicine combination. No single pill helped. It was a mad fight to find the right combos.
Thought I was treatment resistant.
Keep up the hard work, I know it's annoying and I
get so tired of it all.
I experiment with Light, Light Bulbs. I buy the
100W blue bulbs from GE, and Verilux 100W bulbs,
fluorescent bulbs and tubes. (available at Home Hardware Warehouses - Menards, etc.)

I have PMS/PMDD which goes hand in hand with
SAD, but I believe I was born with the SAD. Had
it as a kid, just worsened after puberty.

Hi Wallsal55,

I too think I was born with the SAD, mom always said I always slept during the day and was up all night. During grade school I remember being exhausted from lack of sleep.

It's alleviating to know that it is normally a struggle to find consistent relief from these meds. The search for the right combo will be difficult for me, I'm afraid. I go to a teaching hospital for treatment and I just realized every year will be a different doctor for they all move on after they finish their residency, I think is what it's called. The meds I'm on now have started giving me racy thinking and I almost got run over by a car the other day, the same day I was making mistake after mistake at work. It's really uncomfortable. I have the same reaction when I drink coffee. I've been getting increasing panic/anxiety attacks too. Here we go again. I wish I were normal.