Seasonal Affective Disorder

[firewatcher]

Some recent posts have made me wonder about something. We know that ANS dysfunction can screw with our circadian rhythms, so can it also make us more vulnerable to SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder)? With the time change and less sunlight, it will mess with our natural brain chemistry; do we overreact to that too? Maybe it's just a temperature thing, I know my body has to work a lot harder just to stay warm. Just thinking.

[flop]

I don't have the symptoms of SAD but one of my health practitioners recently advised that I try to re-set my circadian rhythm (recent testing showed that my hormone profile was out of synch with where the natural rises should be). She advised that I buy a "bodyclock" - it is an alarm clock and bedside lamp combined. It emits soft white daylight spectrum light (not the high-intensity light that SAD light-boxes give out). I set the clock for the same time every day and 30mins before the alarm time the light starts to turn on, it gradually gets brighter and brighter lighting up the whole room. The idea is that is mimics the natural sunrise and sends signals to the brain telling it to stop producing melatonin and start producing a rise in cortisol so that your body is ready to get up and go. I've only had it for a few weeks (birthday present as they are expensive ) but it is nice to gradually wake up in a light room rather than be suddenly woken by a loud alarm ringing/beeping.

Flop

[Megan]

I don't know, but I do have SAD. I have mild depression year round, but using a light box in the winter helps me a lot. Don't know that it's connected to any of my POTSy stuff, though.

Meg

[jump]

I also have SAD, but in my case I don't think it's related to POTS. SAD runs in my family, and I live in a fairly northern town. Right now the sun sets at 5 -- I think that has more to do with how I feel than any ANS thing. I've had SAD since I was about 12 years old but I only developed POTS as an adult.

[Rachel]

I have no idea if dysautonomia can make someone more prone to SAD or not. Interesting thought.

I've never had a problem with SAD, even when I lived in Alaska for 7 years. We had 5 hours of dusky light in the middle of winter (the sun never came above the trees!). In the summer we had virtually no darkness. I always enjoyed the extreme changes in the seasons. However, I did have a few friends who had problems with Seasonal Affective Disorder. Some of them had to take medication in the winter months. They were otherwise healthy individuals.

I remember one friend saying that something that helped her in the winter (though she didn't have SAD) was to get outside each day at some point during the daylight, however minimal that daylight may be. Just going for a short walk, or skiing around the cross country ski loop, helped her to get through the long, dark winters. Obviously that much physical activity isn't possible for many of us. But maybe some could try just a walk to and from the mailbox.

I've also known people who have used the full spectrum lights in their house. They prefered those in the dark winter months.

[firewatcher]

I don't actually have SAD, just (it's enough) a circadian rhythm problem. However, I find that sunlight is a huge trigger for me for headaches. The brighter the light and the longer I am in it, the more intense the headache and the worse I feel. I was using one of the ultra-bright lights in an attempt to push my circadian rhythm forward and came very close to full-blown anxiety. I have always slept better in the fall and winter and generally feel better emotionally. I guess that is reverse-SAD I just saw several posts about "depression" and wondered if it might be a messed up circadian response to the time change since we all seem hyper-sensitive to changes in brain chemistry.

[HoudiniCat]

I never had anxiety/depression/SAD but have for the last two years since being dx?d with POTS - so I think there?s something to this theory. Used to love to ski/snowmobile and couldn?t wait for daylight savings time to end so it would get dark early and I could cuddle up with a book, etc. Now I?m dreading this time of year ? strictly because of these emotional symptoms. Otherwise, I?ve got many fewer physical symptoms than in the heat of summer.

[Eillyre]

I haven't seen any articles linking POTS and SAD necessarily "biologically" (although there may be some), but it does certainly make sense that people with POTS, CFS, or other chronic conditions that tend to keep them in indoor environments (particularly in winter) would be susceptible to SAD.

While my health practitioners wouldn't go so far as to say that I had SAD, I have over the past 5 years of illness experienced definite changes during the winter months (and extended periods of very overcast days at other times of the year) that I never had trouble with before.

I had a harder time getting up in the mornings, took longer to be able to function productively during the day, felt more tired than usual, had increased cognitive trouble (e.g. brain fog), tended to stay closer to certain lights in the house, and on very cloudy days did actually find myself feeling a little down and sometimes a little weepy for no apparent reason.

Neither my doctors nor I would call it a state of depression (I was usually fairly cheerful actually), but it was clearly tied to changes in how much sunlight I was getting. Lower temperatures did also contributed to the increased fatigue because my body had to spend more energy keeping warm.

Trying to get out in the sun even for a little while helped a great deal, although during the years that I was too ill to do so, I had to resort to other options. I have used a lightbox in the morning for 2-3 winters, although this winter I haven't needed to, and found it very beneficial in some respects. I have noticed that even though I no longer need Melatonin supplements to help me sleep during the rest of the year, in winter I always have to go back to taking it, at least during late Oct. & early Nov. to help my body re-adjust.

As Rachel briefly mentioned, changing some of our more energy-efficient lightbulbs to GE Reveal bulbs has been helpful, too; they filter out a lots of the yellow tones in regular light bulbs. I find the quality of light much more pleasant and notice that my brain tends to function better when near them, so we put them in lamps and other light fixtures where I tend to sit.