Thought I'd check to see how everybody is doing.

I've had a few blah days but nothing compared to the horrible winter a few years back.

I recently morphed into a new job which hs been extremely stressfull but coping. I must have Happy Lights stashed all-over town now. One on my desk at the hopsital, one on my desk at the office, one at home--I'm sure I'm keeping Verilux in business. It's funny that people ALWAYS ask about it when the come into my offices at work--they're always interested to know if it works or not. Methinks there are a multitude of people out there with undiagnosed SAD.
I'm staying on my same regime of vitamins and medication--looking forward to some sun-time in February.

Let me know how ya'll are doing.

Lisa

It's been a month and no posts???!!!!

I'm hoping no one is in the depths of despair!!!

Post! I need to know how everyone is doing!

You know, up until a couple of days ago, I'd have said I was doing fine, because I hadn't noticed that things had slowly been disintegrating a bit. But then someone posted about SAD and after I responded, it finally dawned on me that I've been having a harder and harder time getting up in the morning the last couple of weeks. That, in turn, has been causing me to stop being regular with my light box use and to miss some of my morning exercise sessions. I'm not feeling depressed which is perhaps why I hadn't been noticing the other signs, but if I don't nip this in the bud, that'll be next.

So, the depression and brain fog started to kick in, bleh. I know it's partially hormonal, but it's worse than normal because I haven't been taking care of myself as I should have been.

I forced myself to get up at 6 this a.m. I got in front of the light box immediately and got dressed to exercise -- but then crawled back in bed for awhile instead. I will exercise later, though, and at least this morning was a step in the right direction.

How is everyone else doing?

Despite everything that's going on in my life right now, I'm actually feeling fine.

With regard to my post above, I have upped my Vit D intake to 10,000iu Vit D daily, I'm trying to make sure that I walk outside every day during daylight when I can, and I'm using my light box. I've not had a sunbed since the end of November though, but do intend to start having them again.

I've also started to take melatonin. Initially it was to help my disrupted sleep patterns, but having done some research, I have discovered that it can also help with SAD.

Is anyone else here taking melatonin?

If anyone is interested, there is a timely and interesting post on SAD over at Mark's Daily Apple:
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/seas...isorder-lights/

My DH nailed Xmas this year: he bought me a Happy Light. It's one of those things I figured I "should" buy "someday", but just never got around to. So far? I love it. It's not doing much to salvage my non-existent motivation to leave the house, but I have slept like a baby and woken up at 6:00 or 7:00 am on a consistent basis - that's well before sunrise. I love my early mornings, even though they're dark. (Did I just say that?) I have my coffee, Happy Light and 'me' time before he gets up and I make us breakfast.

That's less than two weeks of use.

Hey Lisa, I have a problem with mine, though, and I wonder if you've experienced anything like this at your office. I have no room on my desk for it, so I was resting it on my lap. My desktop computer is actually a huge laptop with a touch pad rather than a mouse. The light makes the touch pad go haywire. I also had a brand spanking new flash drive sitting next to the computer, and I think it's fried! I plugged it in and got a strange error message for which I received no solid answers after googling around for over an hour. It might not be fried, and it could be some other issue, but... have you ever had issues with your Happy Light frying anything?

Yeah for your DH!! He totally gets snaps!!!

You're doing better than I am---even with me and my happy light time, I still hate dark mornings.

I have had the one HL for about 6 years at home--first it was behind and to the left of the monitor--never a problem.

My work light--enough room that it sits to the left of the monitor--no problem.

My other office-stashed in the corner to the left but not touching anything but the speakers--no problem.

I have all kinds of flash/thumb drives laying around both/all and have yet to encounter an issue. Jeez, I hope it's not the light, that's just what I need---my HL frying the crap out of my brain Talk about crabby!

So at this moment, I can safely say that I haven't had any problems with my HL. In fact, I was just telling someone that my original HL is still using the original bulb.

Demi--are you finding any change with the melatonin??

I think that it might be too early to tell. However, as I'm feeling fine and haven't had a sunbed session since the end of November, I suspect that the melatonin could be helping with that.

Holy Moly! I can't believe I haven't checked in on everybody since January.

How is everyone doing???!!

I went to San Diego in February for 5 days--warm, sunny, ahhhhhh! I felt great for about 10 days afterward--I mean really great. Even one of the docs I work with told me "you are so happy".

March was tough and now finally we're half way thru April. Using my sunlight simulators like crazy!

How's everyone doing?? Sunny days should be just around the corner.

Lisa

How's everybody doing.

I really feel the difference since mid August. I'm dreading winter.

Right now, I'm doing OK. Not awesome, but I'm not ready to jump off the roof.
I usually start feeling the change around mid-September and this year was no different. The rainy season has already started so I'll be contending with that until
May.

Light Therapy
Supplements
Activity

Standard operating procedure for me living in the Pacific Northwest.

Sometimes I ask myself why I didn't move somewhere like San Diego?!

I just bought a HappyLight and this morning was my first time using it. I am putting it on my desk at work; this means that I won't use it again until Monday since I'm working from home tomorrow and then off Thursday and Friday. So next week will be my first full week with it. I am hoping that it helps me a bit. The Vitamin D supplementing in the winter has helped but I still end up feeling like I'm living in a cave come late January. Hopefully this will alleviate that feeling. If nothing else, it's definitely a conversation piece.

--Melissa

So far this year, I seem to be fine and haven't needed to get my light box out yet. I also haven't had any sunbed sessions. I'm wondering if that has anything to do with the fact that we've been experiencing very mild weather for this time of the year in the UK. This means that we've also seen more of the sun than is usual; normally, it's overcast and foggy.

However, I am also currently on anti-depressants, so that could also explain how I'm feeling. My GP has been talking about my coming off them, but I wonder if I should perhaps stay on them over the winter? Any thoughts?

In the meantime, I have upped my D3 to 10,000iu and have been doing a fair amount of exercise.

One thing I have been doing is to indulge in either a sauna or steam bath a couple of times a week. I went to a health spa with my DD a couple of months ago, and re-discovered how much I enjoyed them. So I decided to make sure that I continued with them once I was home.

Now the reason I am even mentioning this here is on account of an article that I read in New Scientist this morning:

Saunas could heal your mood and your heart
http://www.newscientist.com/article...your-heart.html

... and the part that caught my attention:

IMO, anything that boosts serotonin is definitely worth a try.

I'm doing OK. Was feeling pretty bad early November and then realized I hadn't started using my light.

Demi, if you're feeling good, I'd stay on the anti-d's through winter.

Take care everyone and happy holidays!