What is the best cure for Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)?!
Question: There is no real "cure" but there are ways to make it easier to deal with.
Here is the Seattle area, it's not as rainy as many people like to say, but we get plenty of dark and gray days making life hard for us SAD sufferers.
I cope with Christmas lights, inside and outside. All year round, I keep a string or two of colored lights strung up inside. When things get exceptionally gloomy, I turn them on. It helps to have not just any lighting, but happy lighting, near me.
Outside, I have a yearly hobby. At the beginning of December, I decorate the house and yard with dozens of strings of lights. The cheerful colors in the yard always bring me up. Taking them down is hard on me. Taking them all down at once puts a sudden ominous gloom to the yard. What I do is take down one string of lights a day, leaving less lights in the yard as the days grow longer, making things more balanced.
I leave one string of lights on a bush for the remainder of the year, so there's a bit of cheer even when the summer days are dark.
Many people don't like to mess with decorative lights like I do, but I recommend going to a store that sells seasonal decorative lights and find yourself some with lots of happy colors on them and dress your house up with them.
Answers: There is no real "cure" but there are ways to make it easier to deal with.
Here is the Seattle area, it's not as rainy as many people like to say, but we get plenty of dark and gray days making life hard for us SAD sufferers.
I cope with Christmas lights, inside and outside. All year round, I keep a string or two of colored lights strung up inside. When things get exceptionally gloomy, I turn them on. It helps to have not just any lighting, but happy lighting, near me.
Outside, I have a yearly hobby. At the beginning of December, I decorate the house and yard with dozens of strings of lights. The cheerful colors in the yard always bring me up. Taking them down is hard on me. Taking them all down at once puts a sudden ominous gloom to the yard. What I do is take down one string of lights a day, leaving less lights in the yard as the days grow longer, making things more balanced.
I leave one string of lights on a bush for the remainder of the year, so there's a bit of cheer even when the summer days are dark.
Many people don't like to mess with decorative lights like I do, but I recommend going to a store that sells seasonal decorative lights and find yourself some with lots of happy colors on them and dress your house up with them.
I've heard going to tanning beds can give your body SOME things that sunlight can, which can help. Part of the problem of SAD is lack of sunlight.
Phototherapy is one of the treatments used for Seasonal Affective Disorder. And contrary to beliefs, you don't actually need to use actual sunlight. You can actually purchase those lights commercially. The lamps have to be 25 times brighter than normal room light which you can expose yourself to for 30 minute treatments. Once in the morning and once in the evening as to trick your body that daylight is longer than it is (since the shorter daylight in the winter season is believed to be one of the triggers for SAD).
Aside from that (if you haven't already), you'll probably need a small amount of antidepressants from your psychiatrist or family doctor.
The best things to do for the treatment of SAD are:
1) Purchase a natural light system which gives off 10,000 lumens from a place like Verilux
2) Take Winter walks for exercise as well as for natural sunlight
3) Take Cod Liver Oil gels in the winter. This gives you potent fish oil and also vitamin D, which we normally get from sunlight.
4) Stay active - get exercise - remain connected to your support system
5) Don't allow negative thoughts to rent out space in your head
Best wishes,
Dave Turo-Shields, Expert Therapist
Did you know you can now get help online or by phone? http://www.CounselingPros.com
I have found that using a light box for 20 minutes every morning does wonders with seasonal affective disorder. I also suggest seeing a psychiatrist so you can start medication. If you prefer to not start medication, sign up for psychotherapy, talking about the stressful situations that trigger the depression and negative emotions associated with SAD can really help. Good luck=].
You can read more about photo therapy here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_thera...