Seasonal Affective Disorder Support Group
Seasonal affective disorder, also known as S.A.D., winter depression or the winter blues is an affective, or mood, disorder. Most SAD sufferers experience normal mental health throughout most of the year, but experience depressive symptoms in the winter or summer. The condition in the summer is often referred to as Reverse Seasonal Affective Disorder. Seasonal mood...
Over about ten years, I have gained experience treating my SAD with medications that work, walking, sitting outdoors, and especially using my 10,000 lux sunlamp. This had really been helping my condition of SAD until a few years ago when my personal stresses started to become unmanageable.
Three years ago, my father died a slow, painful death from cancer. My mom and I have fought bitterly ever since. Dad and I were close. I am quiet and have no close friends since college. I have a music degree and love to sing classical music and play classical music on the piano. I had casual acquaintances in the choir and that became my life. I can not work at a job because of my Winter SAD. I can not function as well in the Winter. Along with family stress, I have social stress since the community choir is losing a lot of members and financial support. I depend on Section 8 housing and I had to move out of the apartment complex I was living in because too many old people in my building were causing fires and I was scared. I used to love living there.
So I moved to a rental condo nearby and it was rough. The family upstairs made noise almost 24/7 and so the only thing to do was nap. The family was nasty to me. But I loved the pool in the summer and felt great in the spring and summer. I got a better neighbor and just started to feel good during my second lease. Section 8 screwed up my lease because they did not pay their portion of the rent and I did not know this until my landlord (who never really wanted Section 8) threatened to evict me. Well, the Section 8 person said that he can not evict me. The landlord has put the condo up for sale and I am allowed to stay there until he sells it.
So far, I have had to put up with a few open houses at the condo. Some of my stuff was moved. I am given only a few hours notice of the showings. Since I have SAD, I can not remember where I put things and I do not sleep right and am not organized.
When the landlord told me he was selling the condo in the Fall (a bad season for me), I freaked out and tried to overdose on Xanax using alcohol to wash it down. I panicked and drove a short distance to mom's house to get help but I hit a stop sign and one car, I guess but don't really remember. I never drink or take drugs and a spent a few days in a bad dual addictions unit.
I got several traffic tickets, most of them were paid by mom since I have a very low income. But I still have to appear in traffic court for the rest.
I really could use choir to relax but the new director and new people are pretty mean. Mom nags me too much. I am living at her house until I sign the lease for my new apartment, which is near a noisy highway. I am a light sleeper and sleep is important for my health.
But this apartment is all I could afford on a subsidy. I have too many things to do by January 1 of next year! The stress is killing my SAD memory and I am angry, frustrated, tired, overworked and stressed! I have no support system as I must kiss a wonderful condo goodbye. The condo had a pool and a patio with a garden where I loved to sit out. Sitting outside and swimming really help my SAD and stress destroys me. How do I handle all this stress? I now curse at home too much and slam doors hard.
The SAD problem might not seem like much but I am losing things and have SAD memory loss. I have trouble with my lamp doses since I have one new medicine. Any advice is welcome. Sorry for the rambling on and on!
Three years ago, my father died a slow, painful death from cancer. My mom and I have fought bitterly ever since. Dad and I were close. I am quiet and have no close friends since college. I have a music degree and love to sing classical music and play classical music on the piano. I had casual acquaintances in the choir and that became my life. I can not work at a job because of my Winter SAD. I can not function as well in the Winter. Along with family stress, I have social stress since the community choir is losing a lot of members and financial support. I depend on Section 8 housing and I had to move out of the apartment complex I was living in because too many old people in my building were causing fires and I was scared. I used to love living there.
So I moved to a rental condo nearby and it was rough. The family upstairs made noise almost 24/7 and so the only thing to do was nap. The family was nasty to me. But I loved the pool in the summer and felt great in the spring and summer. I got a better neighbor and just started to feel good during my second lease. Section 8 screwed up my lease because they did not pay their portion of the rent and I did not know this until my landlord (who never really wanted Section 8) threatened to evict me. Well, the Section 8 person said that he can not evict me. The landlord has put the condo up for sale and I am allowed to stay there until he sells it.
So far, I have had to put up with a few open houses at the condo. Some of my stuff was moved. I am given only a few hours notice of the showings. Since I have SAD, I can not remember where I put things and I do not sleep right and am not organized.
When the landlord told me he was selling the condo in the Fall (a bad season for me), I freaked out and tried to overdose on Xanax using alcohol to wash it down. I panicked and drove a short distance to mom's house to get help but I hit a stop sign and one car, I guess but don't really remember. I never drink or take drugs and a spent a few days in a bad dual addictions unit.
I got several traffic tickets, most of them were paid by mom since I have a very low income. But I still have to appear in traffic court for the rest.
I really could use choir to relax but the new director and new people are pretty mean. Mom nags me too much. I am living at her house until I sign the lease for my new apartment, which is near a noisy highway. I am a light sleeper and sleep is important for my health.
But this apartment is all I could afford on a subsidy. I have too many things to do by January 1 of next year! The stress is killing my SAD memory and I am angry, frustrated, tired, overworked and stressed! I have no support system as I must kiss a wonderful condo goodbye. The condo had a pool and a patio with a garden where I loved to sit out. Sitting outside and swimming really help my SAD and stress destroys me. How do I handle all this stress? I now curse at home too much and slam doors hard.
The SAD problem might not seem like much but I am losing things and have SAD memory loss. I have trouble with my lamp doses since I have one new medicine. Any advice is welcome. Sorry for the rambling on and on!
I have a wall calendar that I use to keep track of what is coming up that I need to deal with, but otherwise, I have to set the problems aside. (I'm not ignoring the problems, I'm just acknowledging that I can't do anything about them right now, but I will be able to later.) It's the only way I can deal with the stress/anxiety of this time of year.
Another way I deal with stress this time of year is to break up things into smaller parts. Going grocery shopping might be overwhelming today, but if I only focus on driving to the store, then I'm okay. Once I get to the parking lot, I focus on getting into the store. In the store, I focus on only the section I'm in. And so on... I call them Little Steps. Going to the store to go grocery shopping might be overwhelming to me, but I can handle the Little Steps.
I hope things get better for you. (I once had an apartment sold out from under me. It is a horrible feeling to have your home taken away from you through no fault of your own.)