What has helped your seasonal depression SAD?INDOOR TANNING???

[minivanman]

I sold my businesses in Nebraska & Kansas, loaded up the van and headed to Texas. Cured in 1 day!

 

[Vigilante]

That is what helped mine yesterday

 

[OMDA]

Vitamin D
Fish oil
Sardines or Sprats every now and then
Good meats
Busting my a$$ in the gym (weightlifting + climbing)
Dedicating some time to high quality social interaction
Selectively ignoring negative/whiny/annoying people

 

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[MTF]

i sit outside only in sunny skies, cloudy is pointless.
lol i dont think i have SAD though, i do it for the vitamin D

If you're in NYC as your profile suggests, your body won't produce vitamin D between November and March (source).

As for me, by far the most effective way of dealing with it is practicing sports. If you have nothing fun to do outside of work, it's extremely hard to deal with SAD.

I also use a strong light-therapy lamp (10,000 lux). I take vitamin D (5,000 IU), though I'm not sure if it's making any difference mood-wise. This year I also started focusing more on maintaining a positive attitude and spending time outside even when the weather sucks.

All of this helps, but in the long term, I'm not sure if it's a good way to live if each year you basically spend six months waiting for spring/summer to do do stuff you love doing the most. I still notice a huge, huge difference to my well-being when it's summer (or when I'm in a hot climate) vs when it's winter.

 

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[TheSilverSpoon]

I suffered from this and honestly I can say vitamin d, good lighting, going outside etc - none of it worked. My experience was that all of these were band aids on a broken leg.
Moved to Arizona and the overall quality of my life shot through the roof. Been here for many years and never looked back.

This.

I spent the last two months or so of 2017 travelling around in the southwest. Early 2018 was back in the northeast. No matter how much vitamin d, lifting, and outside time I get up here - it doesn't seem to even come close to what the desert sun did for my mood.

 

[Karl Anderson]

Hello everyone who has SAD , Seasonal Depression, or Seasonal Affective Disorder .

What has helped you get through the northern winters? Share anything that helped you even if you came to the conclusion that moving south was the only solution. Share things that didn't work too.

I'll start with one that hasn't been talked about on this forum and that has helped me a lot which is Indoor Tanning. Yes, going inside one of those tanning beds that cause cancer. In fact yes, staying in the sun or tanning beds which both give off UV light in EXCESSIVE amounts cause cancer. It's like saying water causes drowning. Studies have shown that moderate UV light exposure can actually lower your chance of cancer (of the more common and also deadly forms) and your chance of skin cancer really doesn't go up much. UV light is UV light, meaning if it comes from the sun or a tanning bed it's the same. So yes you can actually get Vitamin D from tanning beds. Someone you can youtube and research is Michael Holick.

I hope I kept that short and sweet and if you're interested you can research this more. Even though tanning has helped I still plan to move from Upstate NY to California. Seasonal depression is mental and physical and seeing the cloudy grey darkness still affects me even with adequate Vitamin D levels and also using light therapy / Sun lamps. I guess there's no substitute for the right environment for YOU.

Share your thoughts

 

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[MTF]

Has everyone noticed immediate benefit or did it take awhile for you to feel a change? Whether it's vitamin D, Fish oil, Sun Lamps, Going outside in the sun in the winter etc.?

Vitamin D - not sure if it's working at all. I feel pretty much the same whether I take it or not (but that might be incorrect because I often travel to sunny places during winter)

Fish oil - I don't take it, but I'd assume that like with vitamin D it probably takes time to build up in your organism.

Sun lamp - it might feel a bit weird in the beginning but actually as far as I remember I felt better almost immediately. For me, the best combination is early morning, tea, and a sun lamp (though in sometimes also use it in the afternoon or evening to sort of prolong daylight).

Going outside in the sun in the winter - as long as you're dressed properly (i.e. you aren't cold) and go to some kind of a natural setting it works almost instantly. Urban settings don't really make much of a difference for me (I actually think that sometimes they might be even more depressing than staying inside); while spending time in a forest makes a huge difference.

 

[jpn]

Started Vitamine D (1000 IU's), omega 3 (EPA & DHA 1200 mgs) daily and regular weightlifting. Depression symptoms were gone in a day or 2. Still sleeping a lot longer in the winter 9-10 hours, but at least not depressed or anxious anymore during the day.

 

[vth]

I suffered from this and honestly I can say vitamin d, good lighting, going outside etc - none of it worked. My experience was that all of these were band aids on a broken leg.
Moved to Arizona and the overall quality of my life shot through the roof. Been here for many years and never looked back.

 

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[Karl Anderson]

I suffered from this and honestly I can say vitamin d, good lighting, going outside etc - none of it worked. My experience was that all of these were band aids on a broken leg.
Moved to Arizona and the overall quality of my life shot through the roof. Been here for many years and never looked back.

I agree. It's like try to cope at a job you hate...the solution is to leave and go somewhere else. Yeah I'm moving out west to California before next winter.

 

[Marigold]

Moving to Spain from Scotland.

I was a follower of Jack Kruse for a while. He talks about AM sun before UVB and making sure you get 20 mins on bare exposed skin and eyes.

 

[RazorCut]

Ha! My 21 year old son is a self taught web developer. I got him started on Elance (Upwork) and now he subcontracts exclusively for a Swedish company and they fly him out to Stockholm every 6 weeks or so. They have asked him to move there but he's not keen. Only a smallish young company but they have some very nice contracts. He's just finished one for Ericsson.

-

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I'll jump in here too. I live in the PNW, and grew up in Boston, so ....yeah.

I increase the nootropics and Vit. D starting November 1 and carry that through March 1. I make it a point to hike to the butte on sunny days, at least once a month, because it's the Wide Open Sky Filled With Sunlight that helps reset things. And, finally, last year, I got a tanning package, and go weekly in December and January, sometimes into February. The risk of skin cancer is less than the risk of suicide/homicide. Funny/not funny.

Thanks for the reminder!

 

[Limitless4Life]

10,000 IU of vit D per day in the morning

Recommended to me by my doctor who studies this stuff. Ask your doc first though.

Plus fish oil

 

[Supa]

Vitamin D didn‘t change much for me tbh. And even if I felt a bit better after taking it, I‘m not sure if it‘s a Placebo thing.

Cold weather is not really the problem for me. It‘s the days on days without one shine of the sun.

So I try to cherish every sunny winter day, using my change in mood to get back into a positive state of mind or strengthen it.

Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn‘t.

But since I‘m fighting OCD too, it‘s not always easy to say what is causing my mood drops. The lack of sun doesn‘t help either way, while a sunny day almost always does help my mood for a few days.

 

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[Patrickg]

Vitamin d! Mixed with excerise and some activity outside. Also I try to do one thaw a winter in Florida or something similar.

 

[Dave E RDN]

I was diagnosed with depression in college. I still use a high lux light in the morning to this day. It's a little beaten up but works great. These day the more modern models are even better.



This will not cause your body to synthesize vitamin D so I supplement with 5000 IU a day.

Other things I do to manage depression:
- fish oil - 2000mg epa/ 1000 mg dha
- exercise
- get adequate quality sleep
- be social
- get stuff done and work on my goals, rather than stew about creating anxiety

I got this info from a book called the Depression Cure. It is certainly not a cure but it is very helpful.

 

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[RazorCut]

Well it's pushing winter again so I guess its why this thread has resurfaced.

Just walking outside of the apartment makes it worse for me. Soulless concrete buildings. The snow and ice turned grey when mixed with car emmisions. Everything's just dead and it brings out a lingering sense of anxiety and desperation.

Going to a more natural place definitely seems to help. Taking a walk in the forests can be really different. Then you see the beautiful side of this season, and I think that does a lot to the human mind.

What country are you in @jon.M ?

I am a self diagnosed SAD sufferer. I even dislike Autumn/Fall as I just see it as the forerunner to Winter. Give me Spring and Summer anytime.

I currently do one or two 3 1/2 mile walks through the forest weekly. Have a sauna and steam room session most days and have a 9 minute suntan session once a week (just about to head off actually). That together with regular exercise at the gym 5-6 times a week seems to be keeping the symptoms away this year.

Having said that it's still only November.

 

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[MTF]

The only thing that helps me effectively manage the symptoms is traveling to warm and sunny places. The moment I'm back home when it's fall or winter, my energy almost instantly drops by at least 50%.

If you're suffering a lot, using SAD lamps and stuff like that helps, but it's nowhere near as effective as simply being in a place where you get to see bright blue skies daily and where you don't suffer from biting cold weather that makes you stay home, making everything even worse.

 

[jon.M]

Well it's pushing winter again so I guess its why this thread has resurfaced.



What country are you in @jon.M ?

I am a self diagnosed SAD sufferer. I even dislike Autumn/Fall as I just see it as the forerunner to Winter. Give me Spring and Summer anytime.

I currently do one or two 3 1/2 mile walks through the forest weekly. Have a sauna and steam room session most days and have a 9 minute suntan session once a week (just about to head off actually). That together with regular exercise at the gym 5-6 times a week seems to be keeping the symptoms away this year.

Having said that it's still only November.

Sweden. Lucky for me, I live quite far south. In the most northern parts there is no daylight at all during a period of winter. Talk about uplifting environment

 

[luniac]

I brace myself and go into my 30 degree backyard and sit in the sun for 15 minutes.

 

[Belphegor]

I moved from CA to the Pacific Northwest and I've been trying to improve this for two years.

I picked up a SAD lamp I keep on work desk always running. I got it on a recommendation and it seemed gimmicky, but it works for me and countless others I've met in the PNW.

I also take Vitamin D and Fish Oil but hadn't heard of those for SAD.

Otherwise, get outside whenever the sun comes out and take advantage of any good weather you can.

 

[rogue synthetic]

I'll add another recommendation for 5000+ IU doses of Vitamin D along with 6-12g of fish oil.

I spent years fighting seasonal depression (hell, depression any time of the year) before I clued in that I always felt better when I had these two on my daily intake list. I didn't find out until later on that the omega-3s and vitD actually have been shown to do good things for mood in clinical trials.

 

[Dunkafelics]

I don't have SAD, but fully understand the benefits of getting sunlight exposure during the harsh and dreary winters.

I actually just got a Happy Light for Christmas and it has been great! Placebo effect or not, I do think there is value in having it.

I also take a daily dose of Vitamin D in pill form.

I will forever be envious of my Fastlane friends down in the Southern US...

 

[Dunkafelics]

All of this helps, but in the long term, I'm not sure if it's a good way to live if each year you basically spend six months waiting for spring/summer to do do stuff you love doing the most. I still notice a huge, huge difference to my well-being when it's summer (or when I'm in a hot climate) vs when it's winter.

Great point.

I generally have a positive mindset and get things done business wise.

However there is nothing more frustrating than dealing with grey skies and rain for 5-6 months of the year ... thanks for giving me something to think about!

 

[luniac]

If you're in NYC as your profile suggests, your body won't produce vitamin D between November and March (source).

As for me, by far the most effective way of dealing with it is practicing sports. If you have nothing fun to do outside of work, it's extremely hard to deal with SAD.

I also use a strong light-therapy lamp (10,000 lux). I take vitamin D (5,000 IU), though I'm not sure if it's making any difference mood-wise. This year I also started focusing more on maintaining a positive attitude and spending time outside even when the weather sucks.

All of this helps, but in the long term, I'm not sure if it's a good way to live if each year you basically spend six months waiting for spring/summer to do do stuff you love doing the most. I still notice a huge, huge difference to my well-being when it's summer (or when I'm in a hot climate) vs when it's winter.

yea i do 1000 jumping jacks every day and other stuff. on cloudy days i agree no vitamin D, but sometimes it's clear skies and the sun feels close to summer strength so i think i get an emergency dose of vitamin D from that.

 

[PureA]

I have a SAD lamp (half hour each morning)
D3 5-10k iu
Fish oil
I exercise and gym a lot and this undoubtedly helps but hard to distinguish to what factor as I do this year round.

 

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[OMDA]

Vitamin D pills seem to affect me on the order of a week or 2. It takes a week of not daily dosing to come to the realization that my emotional state and energy is lower.

Getting sunlight is almost a same day mood lifter, on the other hand.

The only other regular supplement I take is creatine and I notice a difference in mental acuity in about 15 mins.

 

[luniac]

thanks

a habit i follow with great benfit is barefoot walking and tree hugging

this is not some old hippie BS. i don't endorse stupidity in my life.

we are talking seriously here.i have done research.


the khi energy has to flow in you. you have to eliminate electromagnetic energy in you ( because of TV , smartphone , all that modern crap ) with the help of nature.

so the yang part can balance your body.

that kind of things :


View attachment 17557




.

I've read bout this before, not convinced yet regarding electromagnetic energy and Qi comin up from the grass.
Maybe its a placebo effect, purely psychological benefits.
spending an hour in nature after 8 hours in an office has got to be mentally helpful.

 

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[luniac]

I sold my businesses in Nebraska & Kansas, loaded up the van and headed to Texas. Cured in 1 day!

yes when i finally succeed im moving from brooklyn new york to miami florida and buying a beach house.