Beating the "winter blues"...
 

Hi everyone, I'm hoping to get some advice and this seemed like the right place. Since around thanksgiving, I have not been myself. I've lost motivation to exercise, I've been sleeping in every day until 9:00 instead of getting up at 7 to work out, and still feel tired around 9:00 pm. I dread going to work every day, even though I know I have friends there and I used to love what I do. I'm craving carbs like crazy and I am bingeing more often than not.... Normally, if I were eating this way I would feel miserable and sad, but it's like I'm past that. I can't even get myself to care. I am so irritable... I've never been in a funk like this and I hate it... Every winter I get a little down but never this bad... Does anyone have any advice or something that's helped them..?

I'm usually pretty self motivated and can kick my own butt into gear... But I just can't find the energy. The thing is, I know it's my own fault and that I CAN eat right... I just don't really want to. I've gained about 9 lbs in 3 weeks and I'm terrified. Winter won't end for me until April, I can't go on like this for that long.... :( thanks to anyone who made it through my entire post if whinyness...

I used to take anti-depressants in the winter (but not in the summer), so talking to your doctor about a little pharmacological assistance might be a good idea. For this winter, I'd planned full-spectrum lighting for the rooms I spend the most time in, but I moved to a sunnier location, and so far I've done pretty well with a little supplemental vitamin D.

I think that I have SAD (seasonal affective disorder) and my 18 yr old son does too. Last year I bought a portable light box to do light therapy. Mine is a Phillips goLITE blue. I use it early in the morning for about 30 minutes. It helps me a lot. I bought mine online. It was actually recommended by my sons doctor.

Get hold of a therapeutic bright light box. You can buy, rent, or hire/purchase. I'd recommnd trying it in some way before you buy, as there are different types and not everybody gets on with all of them. Make sure it produces 10,000 lux if it's fluorescent, 5,000 or 2,500 at the least, or an equivalent if it's LED. Avoid anything that fits into a normal light-fitting, they get sold as "full-spectum" or "SAD light" but they're therapeutically useless, as the light needs to be much brighter than that. Insufficient light (blue light, to be precise) creates insufficient serotonin leading to depression in some people. Light therapy is as effective as antidepressants for SAD, although the most effective of all is to use both together. I don't have SAD, but I have years of experience of using light therapy to treat my sleep disorders and I've researched it a lot to that end.

I have SAD also. In some of the reading I did I found an article at the Mayo
Clinic web page about vitamine D and SAD. This article said that large doses
of vitamine D had proved to be as if not more effective as light therepy for
SAD. But realy huge doses of vitamine D can be toxic so it might be best to
have this tested. The test is not very expensive I just had it done through
Saveonlabs.com and paid for it out of pocket for about $40. Some people need a lot more vitamine D than others. In my case the RDA of 400 iu is
not nearly enough I need 5000 iu to get me into the optium health range.
As an unexpected bonus of taking a little extra vitamine D my myopia is a lot
better. In retrospect I had noticed that in the summer my myopia is a little
better now I know why. By the way there is a link between weight gain and
low vitamin D levels. Again this is one vitamine that you might want to have
checked some people need a lot more than others.

Alot of great info given here. I'd say danzingurl gave the textbook symptoms of SAD.

I have been on Wellbutrin XL for a few years year round, I understand that you probably would not want to go the prescription route for just part of the year. So I'd also recommend a light therapy box, I have this one http://www.verilux.com/light-therapy...-light-therapy
and at work I try to hover around windows as much as possible, and of utmost importance is regular exercise.

We had an usually mild and sunny November and I credit that with my feeling good still now, usually I am horrible from early November through April.

I know how you feel. I have the same exact issues. I have not been diagnosed with SAD but I'm pretty sure I have it. This year seems worse for me and I have lost my motivation to work out. All I want to do is eat junk food. I am not looking forward to spending all winter like this.

I didn't suffer from SAD or depression until a car accident that caused some left pariatal brain damage. I have a sun box light. My insurance paid for it because the psychiatrist that is doing my meds wrote me a subscription for it. It does make a differene. Also the vitamin D, I have my vitamin D level tested regularly due to some cancer meds I take and as needed my MD prescribes some for me. Negative ion generators are supposed to help with winter depression, too. They found that out because they were using it as the "placebo" treatment in a light box test and it turns out it actually helped. Hope you're feeling better. Actually winters when there isn't much snow are traditionally worse as the sun reflected off of the snow increases the light people get. The strange thing about my SAD (which was touched off by brain damage so may be different) is that I react to the change rather than the amount of light so that I am most depressed in August and already feeling better in January.