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...

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Spring mania

MaybeICanHelp
MaybeICanHelp
I have read that some people with SAD experience a mild mania, or more accurately hypomania, during the spring and early summer when the amount of sunlight is near maximum. I think I might be experiencing this. The best way to describe it is that everything is opposite from the way I feel during the fall and early winter. Although this sometimes feels like a "mania" to me, relative to how I felt during the fall, I wonder if this is just how "normal" people feel all the time. I am wondering if anyone else experiences this.
deleted_user
deleted_user
Definitely. Especially when I was a teenager, I felt overwhelmingly happy for no reason at all in the summer. I particularly remember one day when I was 17 I drove to work (as a dishwasher!) and by the time I walked into the kitchen I was crying because I was so happy... all I could say was "it's just SO nice out!"
deleted_user
deleted_user
That happens to most of us .... but id take the hypomanic pattern over the severe depression anyday. This winter SUCKED. If it becomes bothersom there is LOW DOSE LITHIUM (NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH PHARMACEUTICAL LITHIUM) that Solaray makes that you can get from a health food store.

It is 5 milligrams (pharmaceutical is like 100 mg of the actual lithium ion.) it is much more suited to treating the HYPOmanic symptoms. If it gets out of hand you may have Bipolar II with seasonal pattern. Which is a sister illness of SAD but if that is the case you may need treatment by a naturopathic PHYSICIAN (not a noturopath) or pharmaceutical medicine from an MD.
MaybeICanHelp
MaybeICanHelp
Thanks for the information. I agree that I would take hypomania over depression any day. I think of it more as a curiosity than a problem. Sonja, wow, can't say I have been so happy about the nice weather that it brought me to tears. Thats funny.
deleted_user
deleted_user
As an avid gardener and outdorsey person with SAD, I can tell you spring is my favorite time of year! The flowers are bloomin, the grass is growing and life is good! The fish in the mountain streams practically shout my name : ) Beautiful nature brings me to tears from time to time too. A mountain is just powerful & inspiring. I tell people that I have a bad case of cabin fever. Here in Montana, by April it is still too cold to really go camping comfortably, but I want to so bad! Wish I lived in Fiji sometimes : ) Natural light is wonderful for your mood.
deleted_user
deleted_user
Find a hobby that will give you pleasure satisifaction etc. all year round. I am always putzin with the lawn in the summer. I have a pool and simply love summer especially BBQing. The worst thing to do is sit around. I am not sayiing you cant relax, however I use each day as if its my last!
Moirne
Moirne
I'm definitely going through this now. I can really feel sonja's experience, I have also cried just because I was so happy to have my life back, and be able to enjoy the nice weather outside. It became especially double when my grandmother passed away a few weeks back, exactly when I started to get this 'mania'. Of course I was sad, but this exuberant feeling of being alive and happy was ruling me. It was strange, but I don't feel guilty for it. I'm sure my grandma would just have been happy for me, with me. :)

And it doesn't bother me, I just enjoy it to the fullest. Because I know what it's like when I can't.