okay girls,
you can go to gaiam and enter light therapy in the search box at...

http://www.gaiam.com/retail/

and
the nimh doesn't have a fact sheet but they are researching the topic and you can check out the research team and contact them through this url,

http://intramural.nimh.nih.gov/research/sbr/

and this article looked pretty good to me

http://world.std.com/~halberst/contrib/sad.html

and, let's have a happy winter, okay chickies!
love, soozie

and ps...I'm sure that you are all aware of the correlation between sleep deprivation and weight gain? check out those articles and get yourself under a warm cozy fluffy comforter and sleep, sleep, sleep...serious ear plugs and sleep masks may be necessary in some households...right, Den? not that we know anyone who snores...right, Den?

oh, and that will be $110 please...just kidding , just kidding...
:

Thank you Soozie! Wow, I've never talked to so many people at once that had issues or knew about issues with SAD. I thought I just got depressed in the winter when my ex-husband got layed off each year from seasonal construction work. Less money, and he layed on the couch all the time and watched me work, cook, clean, etc. Very depressing. Since we've been divorced, it doesn't change. Actually last year was the worst it has been. I get upset and out of sorts as soon as the leaves start to fall. I complain and cry about the weather change each year. Last winter I was having a crying spell and I realized I just wanted to go somewhere warm and sunny and craved it so bad. I knew if I had heat on my face I'd feel better. This year as soon as I saw leaves on the ground, I had a terrible feeling of dread, because I know what is coming. It's like being in labor and feeling the contractions come on. You know it is going to be really tough very soon, and you can't do anything except cope with it until it passes.

I don't have any windows at work. I have gray walls and in the winter I sometimes go for days without seeing daylight, depending on how much OT I have to put in. Usually I get a bit in the mornings on the way to work, and that is all. I think I was made to live on the Equator.

Thanks for all the info!! I love my little lamp and thought about putting full spectrum bulbs all around the house. But then I realized that they are so bright and clear, I'd have to do a better job cleaning the house

TOO FUNNY SOOZIE!!! We just went out tonight and bought a comforter because I have been FREEZING the last few nights!! Hope the new meds help!! Bad night last night but I think it was because I was so cold. It'll probably be a week or more before my body has learned to deal with the new stuff.

By the way.....I DO NOT (not) SNORE!!!!!

I had to use full spectrum lights when I had an iguana (okay, I had two...). You can buy the ones shapes like florescent lights at the pet store for $14. However, the full-spectrum lights that are shaped like incandesant bulbs are not "true" full-spectrum... according to the iguana people.

I don't suffer from SAD but I hate the holidays and I hate winter but I'm more bitter and angry at the ho-ho-ho shoppers and the we-wish-you-a-empty-pocket carolers and I just want to run them all over with my car... see not depression, rage. Perhaps that naughty nurse constume would help?!?

I'm feeling much better. Still coughing but recovering. My landlord is being a total jerk today and making me worry if he's not interested in keeping us. We've needed a new fridge since we moved in but I only started complaining in September. He said, "if you could just wait a month, I'll have enough money." Well, it's November and he came to tell us he's jackhammering the basement in a week so we have to move our storage (thanks for the notice!) and when I asked about the fridge, he got all upset and very snotty and said, "I working on it. You should have it by December 1st." DECEMBER 1ST! My fridge doesn't seal, food spontaneous rots because sometimes it shuts and sometimes it doesn't, the ants have invaded my freezer and they are in there by the thousands and he's acting like I'm asking for central air. I would start pulling out my tenant's bill of rights and waving it around but I know from previous tenants that you win the battle but lose the war. I'm pulling my hair out! .... hmmm... I think I needed to vent. Thanks.

Jessica, you're just going to have to move to the apartment in my house. That's all there is to it.

I've got some full spectrum bulbs in my grow lights in the basement. I suppose I could sit under them with my plants... it would be better than nothing. (and NO, I am NOT growing cannabis down there!)

I don't know how many of us can actually AFFORD to buy a light box. But as there are so many of us in need of one, I suggest a robbery of some sort. My idea... the rest of you have to come up with the details.

Suzanne, too funny, yes there is a purpose for subdued lighting!!! My dining room is always dusty but, we have a dimmer on the light switch in there, thankfully. We rarely use the dining room, it's a tiny room and it ends up serving as my sewing room when I have my machine out...in the middle of the table, and then of course the iron board is up in there too...oh, my, the house is truly a mess since I had my surgery.

I shouldn't complain, because Jen, your ex is even working my last nerve ending...laying on the couch, geez louise! My DP is great, she's not a tidier but she does the laundry, the grocery shopping, she vacuums...I tend to be the only one who ever straightens up the house or puts things back where they belong.
I'm sure that you ladies can relate to that endless cycle...sometimes it feels like I'm just running along behind DD and DP putting things away, or throwing out trash...junk mail, recyclables, and if, horrors, I'm sick or whatever, the assorted items, the "stuff", just piles up until I get to it...

Right about now we're nearly waist high in stuff...oy vay!

and Jessica, yes, do move in with Ellis...and Ellis, do sit in the basement with your plants, well, on second thought, even with the lights, that might be a tad bit depressing.

Den, glad that you got a new snuggling comforter and I don't want to sound like an *** but, exercise helps too...okay, okay, shut up Soozie. Some folks with SAD take antidepressants for part of the year, starting just before they know that they're going to start crashing and burning. Then they wean off once the sun is back up in the sky.

I don't think that I suffer from SAD...but, I do love the spring and summer and the fall can get me melancoly and the winter can seem eternal sometimes. I always try to focus on Winter Solstice...the shortest day of the year is December 21st and then we're cycling right back into longer days...so, instead of seeing the Winter as ending in March...I think of it as starting to end on December 21st...works for me anyway...

boy, I'm pretty verbose this weekend...
love, Soozie

Verbose, yes, but you have really cute boobs so you say! I hope you are healing well.

I ordered one of the light thingies. I figure I could put it on the bus after I use it and Ellis could use it and send it back on the afternoon bus! Whadaya think?

I have always had a problem with winter darkness. I even had it before they talked about SAD. It used to be that I'd get very involved in a play scheduled for February which sort of got me over the Hump. Let's hope I get cast in The Vagina Monologues when I go to the casting call next week.

I'm outta here before I start *****ing about the cold weather and the fact that it has clouded up again. There is a service for Remembrance Day at 1 today and I need to bundle up and show my face will all the other Delta dignitaries. At least I have teeth and am literate. I'll fill up with hot soup and look forward to herb tea afterwards.! I'll try not to trip when laying the wreath but no promises!

Soozie, there are a few lights in my house that always seem to be blown out, and I never "seem" to have replacements


The desk lamp I bought was from QVC, it's a Tensor full spectrum lamp (Item Number H82833) and it was just about $18 plus shipping. They also sell one called a Compact Daylight Simulation Lamp (item Number F5223) that is the SAME thing as the desk lamp, but has a white housing instead of black. And it costs $43 I can open mine all the way so the bulb shows, if I wish. The difference for reading was amazing! I had actually stopped reading for several months because of eyestrain, but now I'm fine.

The light boxes are SO expensive! I'm still wondering if I can do the same thing without it.

The Tensor site has a brief section on it at http://www.tensorlamp.com/full_spectrum.asp so it appears to be the same type of lighting benefit, just without the box. I just don't know.

Wow, it's amazing how many people are affected by SAD. I am too. I use the full spectrum bulbs in lamps in my living room and also in my bathroom. They do seem to help somewhat. I may have to investigate the light boxes too but I need to find out if I'm going to be unemployed or not before I decide if I can afford to buy one!

I'm with Soozie, I count the days until December 21, cuz then I know the daylight hours will slowly start to increase again.

I went to a concert last night, KISS and Aerosmith. Just what I needed to make me stop ruminating about my life and job for a few hours. It was great! KISS sure knows how to put on a show, their showmanship is certainly one of a kind. Aerosmith followed them, and even though their music was great, they were a kind of a letdown after the display that KISS put on. But anyway, it was a great show.

The SAD thing is expecially bad here in Canada where our winters can last up to 6 months

I am more of a fall/winter person but I still need those crisp sunny days to keep me going.

I've seen both Kiss and Aerosmith (separately) and both put on good shows although Kiss is obviously more theatrical. Sounds like you had fun twodog!

HEY SOOZIE!!! You didn't hear the news!! I joined Curves. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?!? I have just gone a few times, but I know it will help. I'm in the middle of a med change too.....I was having lots of sleep disturbance and generally feeling like I was wading through quicksand. Finally went and dealt with it. I have Dysthymia, so the SAD thing is a bit of an issue, but I need the meds year round.

RUTH! Good luck on the try outs!! I didn't know that you were a thesbian!!!

The thing that seems to get to me is dirty windows, strange as that may sound!! When I took the screen out so there wasn't a grid over the sky every time I looked out, AND washed the glass, it REALLY helped!!

Even though I've been diagnosed with depression, I really think it's SAD instead. I've never been depressed in the summer, well maybe once in a while at night, but NEVER with the sun shining! I'm going to get one of those light bulbs y'all are talking about. Couldn't hurt. Ohhhhh, and today has been AWFUL! Having only been 21 for 6 months (my, how the time flies!), I still have a lot to learn about bar drinks. One painful lesson I learned last night is just because I can drink 4 rum and cokes and be okay does NOT mean I can drink 4 long island iced teas and be okay. I seriously thought I was going to die! And needless to say, today I feel awful. :-D Oh well, live and learn!

Hang overs suck! Hope you feel better Harmony!

And I hope the rest of the chicks in the dark feel better too. I now I don't have SAD, partially because I get bad in the middle of the summer. Also I like the dark.

Things here are going ok. I am so way behind on emails (Sorry girls!) I have been trying to keep busy around the house. the weight thing has stalled, but at least it isnt going back up right now.

Ruth, yes, verbose but with cute boobs!!! and good luck with the audition...
did you say thesbian, Den...just checking...I thought you said, Lebanese...

Suzanne, I just can't believe that those expensive light boxes are so much better. Those companies just want to make money. I really believe that adding some full spectrum bulbs here and there and making sure that you have plenty of time in bright light and doing things like Den suggested, having a large clean window where you can see the sun when it does poke out, are important and just as effective. Shall we do our own research study?

For you Jen, since you have no window in your office, maybe a beautiful poster of a gorgeous sunny scene. I have a great print over my desk in my office. I forget the artist's name, he's some contemporary dude, (Behrens?) but, it is a sunny day and it looks like Italy...or some beautiful European coastal city...with overflowing flower baskets, an azure sky, and an outdoor cafe...I love it. Of course, if you are sitting there in the dark the poster is irrelevant.

Yay Den! you curves girl you! Everyone I know who joined curves seems to really like it. and they look good too!

and Ruth, hurry up and start busing that lamp back and forth to Ellis so she can come up out of the basement.

love, soozie