This is good advice and I will attempt to take it

@Eq0@literature.cafe I definitely have considered moving to the north of where I live, which luckily has longer days and a nicer climate. My wife and I have been looking at work/houses already, but it’s a complicated move, and requires a lot of consideration first. Ideally we would spend half a year somewhere warmer and half a year where we currently are, but that’s not practical without finances which we definitely don’t have access to.

@boonhet@sopuli.xyz I’ve been using the Luminette 3 glasses, as anecdotally they seemed to get the best results from the SAD community. Logically being able to maintain the position of the light consistently and go about your morning while wearing them is a plus. I am noticing a definite improvement in energy and mood, but sometimes that just makes the other problems around you more evident (though being able to see the problems is important).

The predictability is honestly unbearable at times - like I’d rather be down all the time or up all the time. Knowing your full potential and not being able to get their is extremely frustrating.

Interesting post, I can definitely relate to this - the more sun the more time I have to be energetic which allows for more activity. Interesting you mention exercise - it’s meant to be important, but it’s hard to rise over the hurdle to get started.

Thank you, I really appreciate this post. I think it makes a lot of sense historically to be highly energetic during the summer months and slow in the winter. Summers were harvest season, and you needed to work at a high capacity to ensure everything was ready for winter. In winter however, you had to go to ground and rest. If you maintained that same array of energy while cooped up indoors it would have been relentless for everyone else around. It’s possible that we need to rest because of the high energy swings too (as in we seasonally ‘burn out’), which, like some studies suggest, if you treat SAD as an extension of Bipolar makes sense - it’s often noted that the ‘lows’ of bipolar are as intense as the ‘highs’ during mania and are likely in response to that.

The anarchist in me agrees with you thoroughly. It’s not possible to be energetic and productive all the time like the modern world requires. This being said, it’s hard seeing other people go running, keep a clean house, progress their careers etc. like it’s nothing. Not saying they don’t work hard or it isn’t difficult, its more they seem to have the strength to get over the hurdles of resistance.

I take Vitamin D supplements, but I think it might only be giving me a 2% boost at most (if at all). While there’s some studies that say it’s a cooperative agent for improving SAD, others seem to say it has no affect. As far as I’m concerned it can’t hurt to take them however, and a potential 2% boost is better than nothing.

I had a tough night sleep last night, my worst for awhile, but my wife got me moving this morning and with some kind words it helped me feel a little better. I think just taking the time to find the fixes that work is important. I’m frustrated, but you’re right, I do have to be kind to myself and wait until it all comes together.

In terms of not struggling, the goal is just to rise above the simple tasks. If I can’t do those, I can’t work, let alone function. It will get better with the seasonal change, but I think I need a more permanent fix. I suspect that it’ll be a medication change, as it doesn’t seem to respond to therapy, and the seasonal change just seems to reveal and mask the problem, like the tide going out revealing rocks on the shore. There was a post here a month back about the switch from Vyvanse to Adderall improved task initiation dramatically, which they hypothesised was due to the differing chemical make up increasing Norepinephrine release. Adderall is sadly not available in my country however, and my doctors seem reluctant to switch me over from Ritalin to an alternative (which might be wise? Who knows.) I’m not sure if there’s anything that affects Norepinephrine like Adderall thats not also amphetamine based either. Its for my psychiatrist to figure out however, I can only make suggestions.

But yeah, it’ll take time. I just have to go through the process until we find the solution.

I’m definitely in a climate of dry summers, and if a genetic component is relevant, most of my family is from the north of Europe where having high energy during summer harvest, and ‘hibernating’ while snowed in during winter would make sense (thats just a theory though). There is a noted ‘reverse SAD’ where people feel more energetic in Winter, and I can see that being in response to different climates where humidity or weather factors would restrict activity in the summer months. But I suspect too that it could be more random than that - purely individual as to how people respond, and the extremes as to what the affect is.

I am, but it doesn’t seem to be yielding significant results. I’m sure it’s helping a little but it’s not the full piece of the puzzle.