S.A.D hitting me early this year

[Stigmorgan]

Anyone else suffer from S.A.D?
I usually don't get enough of the depression symptoms, I just get very very tired, if I'm active and moving around I'm fine but the second I stop I struggle to stay awake, normally this doesn't start until late November or early December but this last few days I've really been feeling it despite taking extra Vit D and working outside as much as the weather will allow. Think I need to finally invest in a light box this year.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

My wife bought me one last year. My mother used to swear by them, but I can't say it made any difference whatsoever to me.

 

[jcassidy]

I got my myself a light box, put it in the kitchen windowsill to give myself a dose in the dark mornings, I couldn't swear it makes a huge difference but it can't hurt.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I think it was my wife perpetually informing me I was depressed that depressed me.

 

[Sandyn]

My son has a light box and thinks it helps, so really worth a try.
I'm sure you have gone through all the other possibilities about quality of sleep and stuff like that? There could be something else causing it? Have you had blood pressure checked, blood tests, just to rule out some other problem?

Scotland can be utterly miserable in the middle of winter, long dark damp days, dampness that cuts through any kind of clothing. I take vitamin D supplement, cod liver oil and multi vitamins from Oct onward, I also do a lot of exercise currently cycling about 160 miles a week. I still manage to fit it in around all my other stuff. I have real problems with sleep, probably only getting 5-6 hours a night, some nights I'm up for a couple of hours I have a fitbit which shows my health metrics. It's a bit hit and miss, I don't get too focused on what it says, but It can give indications of what's going on with your body. I also have a blood pressure monitor I use sometimes.

I was prescribed a pain killer recently for sciatica, but one of the side effects was it lowered my blood pressure, which is already low. The effect was incredible. I felt totally lethargic, my body felt heavy, every step was an effort I felt exhausted, so it could be something like that? I stopped using the pain killer after 2 days. It was easier living with the pain than the tiredness.
I hope you get it sorted, must be miserable!

Having said all that, I'm still a miserable git at times but getting better......

 

[Droogs]

something not all realise is that some of us aren't meant to have a single block of 8 hrs sleep. A large part of the population are still biologically programmed to use bi-phasic sleep ie a couple of blocks of 4 hours with at least 3 hours between blocks. This is apparently how we all slept before the industrial revolution. It is said to really help with SAD and other sleep related issues.

 

[seanf]

I take Vitamin D each day and do recommend it to others. I don’t mind the grey autumn and winter days when it is dry and you can get out in the fresh air, but when we have endless days of non-stop rain it does get me down and makes me lazy. Hitting the gym helps, but it can be hard to drag yourself there some days

Sean

 

[Jameshow]

Some areas of the country seem to have worse winter weather.

Here in yorkshire the weather tends to blow through and is gone, however in Buckinghamshire it tended to hang around murky days on end, same with clevedon where my wife grew up.

Haywards heath tended to get local
storms which went round and round between the north and south downs.

Cheers James

 

[dickm]

Scotland can be utterly miserable in the middle of winter, long dark damp days, dampness that cuts through any kind of clothing.

Having said all that, I'm still a miserable git at times but getting better......

Hey, it's not that bad! OK, you do wonder some days when it doesn't get light round Aberdeen until 11:0 am and goes dark again at 3, but even out in the wilds we usually have electricity for lights! And the scenery plus the people make it worthwhile.
(I know, gone completely native!)

 

[Spectric]

I think motivation really helps, always have something in the pipeline that you want to do or get done so something to look forward to. If you are lucky enough then on some days just take a flask of coffee out with some sandwiches and enjoy the scenery, be part of the enviroment rather than a spectator looking out the window, if nothing else the fresh air should really help. If it gets really bad then take a drive somewhere that is over populated and just a conjested mass of traffic and people then when you get back home you will really appreciate where you live.

 

[mikej460]

Yes it could well be the worsening weather we've had this last month. I take Vitamin D as I don't process enough even in summer despite working outside most of the day. As well as a host of other things you need Vit D for you need it to process calcium. In my case I've had problems with sleep, slight mental health issues but the main issue was my tooth enamel was too soft causing crumbling, resulting in several crowns. So I have blood tests every year at my GP Practice and this year, despite taking 800 IU supplement all through summer, my recent test showed my vitamin D to be below the recommended level so I'm now on 1600 IU a day all year.

For the last 15 years I have woken up at around 3am every night, having to get up and do something for 30 mins then back to bed and sleep like a log until 8am. Everything I've read says it just happens to some of us and not to stress about it. It doesn't bother me now but when I had to get up at 6am for a long drive to work it was a real problem. I read Peyps Diaries a few years ago and it was once commonplace to have 2 sleeps.

 

[mikej460]

Hey, it's not that bad! OK, you do wonder some days when it doesn't get light round Aberdeen until 11:0 am and goes dark again at 3, but even out in the wilds we usually have electricity for lights! And the scenery plus the people make it worthwhile.
(I know, gone completely native!)

did you get to see the Northern Lights over the last 2 nights?

 

[mikej460]

I think motivation really helps, always have something in the pipeline that you want to do or get done so something to look forward to. If you are lucky enough then on some days just take a flask of coffee out with some sandwiches and enjoy the scenery, be part of the enviroment rather than a spectator looking out the window, if nothing else the fresh air should really help. If it gets really bad then take a drive somewhere that is over populated and just a conjested mass of traffic and people then when you get back home you will really appreciate where you live.

In modern parlance this is part of 'mindfulness'. We are incredibly lucky where we live in beautiful countryside but you can get so used to it, so now I stop and take it in as often as I can. Watching red kites glide over the woods and fields around us really helps to stop you in your tracks.

 

[Lonsdale73]

My mother used to say "This weather's getting me down" and as a kid I'd wonder how that was possible? Got my fist inkling when I was working weird hours down in London and all week the weather - more specifically the light - would be brilliant and then I'd leap out of bed on a Saturday morning, throw back the curtains to fond a day that was flat, greay bleak and wet. That would be it, my whole weekend ruined.

 

[Spectric]

You have some amazing countryside in Durham, both Weardale and Teesdale are just fantastic places to walk and unwind.

 

[Jameshow]

Good run cycle or woodwork in the evenings helps!

Need a decent winter project!

Stress us the one thing that keeps me awake...difficult meeting etc....

Cheers James

 

[tonyho810]

I get SAD every autumn/winter, I dread the whole thing. I find St Johns wort worthwhile. My Mum sugested it about 35 yeares ago, I was very cynical about it and tried it to keep her quiet. After using it for about 3 weeks, I remember going to work on a horrible cold grey morning and thinking how vile it was, then meh, its not so bad. I have been using it ever since. Excellent stuff. (A couple of weeks in the sun in December works wonders too)
Keep your pecker up,

Tony

 

[Cabinetman]

The tiredness described could easily be that you are low in magnesium. It’s not something that’s tested for routinely and it can have a huge effect on the body if you are low in it.
One sure sign is muscle cramps, particularly in the night. It’s easy to get tested for it at the GP. Have a look on Google for the effects of low magnesium, I think you’ll be surprised. Ian

 

[Sandyn]

Hey, it's not that bad! OK, you do wonder some days when it doesn't get light round Aberdeen until 11:0 am and goes dark again at 3, but even out in the wilds we usually have electricity for lights! And the scenery plus the people make it worthwhile.
(I know, gone completely native!)

First part of my life, I lived in Aberdeenshire, then the second part, I lived just outside Inverness, up in the hills.
It was cold in winter, toilet frozen in the morning, diesel frozen in the tractor. lol. We had the same long dark days in winter, but it was never the damp cold that we get where I live now. I live at the bottom of a valley, so the dampness just hangs about some days. Right in the middle of winter, some days the temperature hangs about 2C, misty, so it never gets proper daylight. It's utterly miserable for cycling. I would prefer it to be colder, however, in summer , it's just beautiful. .

 

[Sandyn]

We are incredibly lucky where we live in beautiful countryside but you can get so used to it, so now I stop and take it in as often as I can.

Yes, we live in a really beautiful country. I do stop and take time to enjoy it, but there are some parts of central Scotland that are complete sheit holes, because of idiots that throw their litter out of their cars. I guess it's the same for all over the country. Just about every grass verge in busy areas has 5 to 10 bits of litter per metre. Mainly food wrappers, soft drink tins and bottles.