anybody experiencing mild/severe effects of SAD?

Student Lounge College Life
1

<p>SAD (Seasonal affective disorder) mildly affects around 40% of college students and causes more serious emotional problems in 2% of college students (don't quote me on that) during winter, when the days are shorter, thus affecting our productions of serotonin.</p>

<p>apparently, the best treatment for this is [url=<a href="http://www.myanxietycure.com/images/light-therapy-image.jpg%5Dthis%5B/url"&gt;http://www.myanxietycure.com/images/light-therapy-image.jpg]this[/url&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/p>

<p>I've been sleeping in way too much lately. This has been a recurring pattern throughout my academic years. My roommate is more or less the same, reading a lot more facebook than usual. I'm wondering if other people have similar experiences.</p>

2

<p>Have you been diagnosed with SAD, or are you just guessing? If you’re worried about your mental health, or you really think you have SAD, make an appointment with your school’s counseling center. NIH says that light therapy alone isn’t always effective:
[Seasonal</a> Affective Disorder: MedlinePlus](<a href=“http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/seasonalaffectivedisorder.html]Seasonal”>Seasonal Affective Disorder: MedlinePlus)</p>

<p>At any rate, mental health problems are best dealt with by professionals. </p>

<p>Personally I always started to get sleepier toward the end of a semester because a semester’s worth of sleeping too little and working too hard was catching up with me.</p>

3

<p>Yeah I’ve been telling everybody that’s what’s wrong with me, but I guess I don’t know enough about it to actually make a judgment for sure. But it was dark and gloomy for 4 days straight down here and I couldn’t get anything done… still can’t get much done. I’ve averaged 17 hours of sleep a day this week :&lt;/p>

4

<p>Sleep and fatigue can mean so many things
stress
illness
anxiety
poor diet
ect. </p>

<p>Try to watch what you eat, try NOT to take naps, and consider seeing your primary care MD to have some blood drawn. You may have something medical that can explain it. Try to spend at least 15 minutes outside in the sun during the day to absorb the vitamin D and feel the sun on your face.</p>

5

<p>Depressing weather just kills me. I was fine when I lived in Hawaii and didn’t have to worry about season change, but now that I’m back on the mainland, I remember how bad it was. </p>

<p>Can’t wait for spring and the cold weather has barely started.</p>

6

<p>I’ve never been diagnosed. I generally like the winter, but I do seem to find myself more easily upset.</p>

7

<p>You are sleeping 17 hours a day?? There is absolutely something wrong. Have you been checked for mono? Once you have a complete physical with blood work (ask the doc to run bloodwork for mono) than make an appointment with a mental health professional preferably a doctor who can diagnose what is going on. The SAD lights do seem to work well and even an occasional visit to a tanning booth may help. Some people will disagree with my later statement but I don’t think it could hurt to try. </p>

<p>The important thing is that you recognize that something is wrong. Sleeping this many hours also means your diet is all messed up. Nutritional problems only makes things worse as does lack of physical activity. People who are depressed seasonally have done very well with a combination of changes but most importantly is living a healthy lifestyle of physical activity and eating healthy. Its a good thing that winter break is approaching so you could get this addressed. There is no reason you should go on feeling like this when there is so much out there that can bring you back to your old self. Please take care of this very soon.</p>