I need sunlight to function and how it affects me. (SAD)

To start off with, I have SAD ( Seasonal Affective Disorder). I've had it my whole life.

This happens to me all the time and it's really frustrating.

I've been sitting here at my computer for the past hour. All my curtains are open to allow
the maximum sunlight in. And this is how the past hour has went.
+++++++++++++++

11:00 The sun is shining brightly and I feel like I can take on the world. I can move mountains.

11:04 The sun is blocked by a passing cloud. I feel an immediate energy drain, my lids grow heavy,
the yawning begins, the brain fog weighs me down. I'm less than a minute away from jumping back
in bed.

11:07 The cloud passes, and the sun is back out! Woo Hoo! That heavy fog cloud is quickly leaving my body.
I feel the energy rushing in. I feel fidgety, like I can't sit still and I'm ready to get up and get my days work started.
I love this feeling.

11:10. Another cloud is blocking the sun. Energy drain, heavy eyelids, brain fog . I can feel the sunlight rushing out
of my body and feel it immediately being weighed down. Darkness envelops me. Fighting hard not to go back to bed.
So close to giving in.

11:15 And here comes the sun again! I'm getting lighter, the fog is lifting. Uh oh, the cloud is back. Immediate drain.

etc. etc.

And here I sit, at 12:15 in darkness. Still fighting that urge to sleep. Knowing that I'm not worth a crap just sitting
here awake, but feeling like I'm weighed down sitting in a vat of jello.

It is amazing to me how my body/brain reacts to the sun and how quickly my whole entire mood can change in the matter
of a few minutes all on account of the sun.

I've tried several meds over the years for my SAD, including Vit D, and found that nothing seems to work for me. I take adderall for my
ADD, and it used to help a little with the SAD, but not anymore. I have the SAD lights, and those don't do anything anymore either.

If you have SAD, does it affect you like this too?

I am NOT going to go back to sleep, but I feel like I've wasted most of the morning just struggling to get moving.

a reply to: virraszto

Yes I have it.. The winter was rough on me as usual. I can sort of counteract it with bright colors and lots of lights around the house. but really I get depressed to the point of not wanting to move if it's dark enough.

One thing I havn't tried is exercise. I have a feeling that could help in a mild way. You know why I havn't tried this one.. When it's dark I can't move so.. Haha...

Lucky for me that thunderstorms and even just heavy rain or strong wind also give me energy, so I don't always need the sun.

If the sun was blocked off for any length of time, and it wasn't going to come back I'd go insane or kill myself I think.

I wonder if it's more common a problem for darker or lighter skinned people? I'm half German so my genetic "memory" is probably tied to hard winters.


You could try Fire.. Light some candles maybe. That always makes me happier and more functional. I even think the entire point to the date of christmas and lighting up a tree relates to getting past the darkest nights.. People also have an inner light to them if they are tuned in.. Coffee with some cocoa in it??

btw it's sort of cloudy dark here right now which is why I am curled up in blankets on a couch with lights on all over the house...

Edit: re-read the OP and realized mine was totally irrelevant.

a reply to: KnightLight

I tried exercising. I'd go to the gym, work out for an hour. While I was working out, I felt pretty good.
I'd come home from the gym, and if it was still dark, dreary, etc. I'd go right back to bed. The workout
energy only lasted while I was working out and when I was done, right back to the SAD.

This winter was really hard, and I'm so looking forward to sunny summer days. However, I get it in the
summer too, if it's a cloudy, dark, dreary day.

I keep my place lit up so much, you almost need sunglasses to be inside. But that doesn't replace the sun's
rays.

BTW...also, you might try yellow tinted sunglasses. I did help me and I lost them somewhere. I'm going to put that
on my list to do today. Find my yellow tinted sunglasses.

I also am lighter skinned with blue/green eyes. When the sun is out my eyes turn much bluer and my freckles come out.
I think I read something about that a long time ago, but I don't remember. I'll have to look it up.

a reply to: virraszto

Interesting point.. sort of like the saying of looking through rose colored glasses. In the end I have found one thing that is always true. If you don't have something to look forward to there is no point in being awake.

originally posted by: KnightLight
a reply to: virraszto

Interesting point.. sort of like the saying of looking through rose colored glasses. In the end I have found one thing that is always true. If you don't have something to look forward to there is no point in being awake.

In my SAD induced self, I think that way too. But when I'm not in that gloom, I can't wait to wake up in the morning
and get started. That's when I beat myself up over giving in to SAD and wasting those precious days sleeping instead
of living life. I think that's why I try to cram so much into my SUN days that I can, to try to make up for my SAD days
of feeling dead inside.

Meh I love the Rain LOVE LOVE LOVE IT! I love moody cloudy! And I like a sunny day when it doesn't overwhelm and give me a blinding headache!

I would move if I didn't like it, but I live in a pretty balanced area...

I have it too. This winter was particularly brutal. Literally to the point I stayed in bed for most of it.No amount of exercise, vitamins, light therapy etc, seems to help me.I can get temporary relief going out in public to the bright fluorescent lights in the stores.It's not the same though. I simply hibernate for the winter months. Now though, the sun shining more, daylight hours lasting longer, warmer temps outside and it's an immediate change. It was a beautiful morning today and for the first time in six months I went out into my yard and did a bit of raking, tidying up etc.The sun energized me so much I came inside and continued spring cleaning the house. This is just the beginning for me, as I have become accustomed to my seasonal "affective" disorder. As spring progresses into summer, I am generally more happy, more outgoing, more fun to be around. I LOVE to be outside every waking minute as long as the mosquitoes don't bite.I'll be that way till late October and then the depression begins again. It's the way I am, and my life has evolved around it.

a reply to: AccessDenied

I am the same way in the summer. I'm up when the sun comes up, and I spend most of my time outside. I keep
a garden, so I'm usually out until it starts getting dark and my hubby hollers outside and tells me it's time
to come in...lol.

Every sunny day is a spring cleaning day for me. It's like a race against time. I start a new race every day, when it's sunny of course.

I start freaking out a little towards the end of Aug, knowing it will come to an end very soon. It really hits me around Oct. and then I'm a mess and down for the count until around May. Those April showers almost do me in. ;(

Does the sun affect you in a matter of minutes, like it does me?

I also used to get pretty severe mood swings from the lack of sunlight in winter, cloudy days, etc. Three major things helped:

(1) Sungazing usually manages to keep me filled with energy, almost like storing up my batteries for those cloudy days.

(2) Qigong and/or Meditation also works to keep me in a bright mood.

(3) Sticking to a mostly organic paleo diet of natural foods (no processed food, no sugars, no gluten, nothing that would cause a major blood sugar swing) takes care of the rest

Hope that helps someone out there! I certainly feel your pain.

I've never been diagnosed with this, but now I'm wondering if I have it.

Have you tried just going outside and standing or sitting in the sun for a few minutes? Just to see if that, for lack of a better term, recharges your battery?

Sitting in a sunny room doesn't make me feel better, especially after this brutal winter. I have to be outside, directly in the sunlight. It just makes me feel better, even if the next day is rainy and gloomy.
I've just always been that way.

a reply to: abeverage

It's not the rain that takes me down, it's the dark, dreary, gloomy days. Most of those days have rain, but not all. If the sun is out and it starts raining, I'm perfectly fine.

a reply to: chiefsmom
If the sun is out, I know it is. I don't have to be outside to feel the sun fill me with energy. I keep all my drapes, shades, etc wide open, day and night to get as much sun as I can inside. I do feel much better in direct sunlight outside, and I am outside in the summer from sun up to sun down, but when it's too cold to go outside, the sun coming in from the windows is enough
to make me feel alive.

originally posted by: virraszto
a reply to: abeverage

It's not the rain that takes me down, it's the dark, dreary, gloomy days. Most of those days have rain, but not all. If the sun is out and it starts raining, I'm perfectly fine.

I hate static weather of most kinds too much clear sunny is obnoxious as a overcast blah day!

a reply to: virraszto

My mood changes do not happen so quickly. It's cloudy here now,and my mood is calm but not down. Usually if the day starts sunny,I'm good for the rest unless it rains in the afternoon. Thunderstorms actually make me fearful,anxious,and sometimes angry. Cloudy days are also those when it's easier to tick me off. When the sun shines I can't smile enough. It's like summer turns me into a young girl again,and winter an old woman.

Just a thought...

Could lack of nature be depressing?

Could the sun only be a part of our winter blues?

Don't astronauts in space experience the same depression from lack of natural shapes and fractals?

--

More time outside and in nature, outside of the city. Enjoying the moment. Without music. Listen to the wind, the birds, the sounds of nature.

--

I love my computer, and can only be happy on it if I'm away from it for the equal amount of time.

a reply to: KnightLight

Me, too!!!! I can actually feel the low systems coming in.
Lethargy, stagnation....

but yes, even severe weather helps.... I sit and watch it roll in, and rail at the sky - BRING IT!!!
Otherwise, I try to go outside every day - when the sun's out I am FULL of energy. When it's cloudy, I seem to crash.

Winters are very hard for me. I have a sunny window on the south side of our house that I sit in if it's too cold to go outside.
It's definitely a 'disability.' And don't even get me started on the Daylight Savings Time thing - that one hour of sleep lost affects me for MONTHS.

I've always been a heavy sleeper (and I love to sleep).....but yeah - for example, today is overcast, breezy and chilly, and I feel only half awake.

On sunny days, especially if they're WARM sunny days, I feel like I could conquer the worl.....
uh, entire yard!!

But, alas, no. The mind is willing, but the body protests.
I also am half-German (the rest is English/Scottish/Finnish)....ginger, blue eyes...
I can drink most guys under the table, but bring on the clouds and gloom, and I'm a sloth.

----------------------------------------------------
OP, S/F to you. It's a curse. But at least we have each other. To commiserate, you know.
I had a suitor once in Alaska who asked me to move there - I said, um, no. No way. If I was still 20, I'd go for it just for the novelty and experience, but now, in middle age, I can't. The dark just wrecks me.

a reply to: abeverage

LOL!!! My Dad was always out on the porch during tornado warnings, while the rest of us grabbed the pets and cowered down in the basement. Now, I'm just like him....watching it arrive, stubbornly not taking cover.

He used to tell my mom (about the weather) when she said it was 'fine': "But its' not DOING anything!"

Yeah, he was a sailor and pilot. I feel the same way. At least I did get to see an actual tornado close up, from the gulch where I was sheltering...I don't think he ever did get to see one.

originally posted by: BuzzyWigs
a reply to: abeverage

LOL!!! My Dad was always out on the porch during tornado warnings, while the rest of us grabbed the pets and cowered down in the basement. Now, I'm just like him....watching it arrive, stubbornly not taking cover.

He used to tell my mom (about the weather) when she said it was 'fine': "But its' not DOING anything!"

Yeah, he was a sailor and pilot. I feel the same way. At least I did get to see an actual tornado close up, from the gulch where I was sheltering...I don't think he ever did get to see one.

I'd love Love LOVE to see a tornado! WAHOOO! We have some mild thunderstorms here which I find invigorating! I will proly get struck by lightening someday (check out my photos of lightening I plan on surviving that however and developing some cool superpowers or something!

Back on topic I don't think I have SAD but who know...I love Snow too when it is snowing like crazy giant flakes and the world is covered in a chilly white blanket of silence and wonder...

a reply to: abeverage

I love Snow too when it is snowing like crazy giant flakes and the world is covered in a chilly white blanket of silence and wonder... - See more at: www.abovetopsecret.com...

Snow is fine...as long as I don't have to drive in it.

I lived in Summit County, Colorado for 4 ski-seasons, and loved it....came back to Tornado Alley when I got married and started a family....
I did miss the 'seasons' - (there in Summit County - which is Breckenridge/Keystone/A-basin/Frisco/Dillon - there are only two seasons: Winter and Mud).....
but.....the overcast gloomy just-rain days really bug me. I remember as a kid being okay with rain-days when I was in school because it was warm and well-lit and we were safe (well, except for the duck-and-cover drills).....
but, as I've aged, I feel the weather more.

Like today - overcast, chilly (50 F), and I feel like I could slip into sleep very easily....
but give me some severe weather or an ice/snow storm and I'm all about it!!!!

I guess maybe it's the amount of static electricity in the air???
I don't know. But it was pretty awesome to see a huge F-4 tornado while outside. Wow....

The movie Twister? LOVE IT!!!!