I love the northwest in the rather short spring and summer and most of the fall but the winter is about 6 months long and cold and dark and rainy and depressing, i spend too much wondering what warm weather feels like and when we get a day that's not cloudy i want to kiss the ground..

My psych diagnosed me with SAD about 8 yrs ago and got me one of those super bright lights that i'm, supposed to put in front of my eyes every day but that stuff gets old quick and it's not real pleasant looking into a bright light that close to your eyes..

I consider relocating but i see the nasty winter in other parts of the country and realize we're actually quite lucky here in the northwest, do any of you suffer with the winter depression ?

 

Thankfully no I do not. Although it is darker longer I do live in one of the sunniest regions of Canada so life is good. I get more upset actually about the sun being up too late and again too early in the morning because I don't sleep as well.

 

I used to, but now I live in Florida.

 

This^^^^^^

I lived in northeast, I still need my snow fix every year so now I vacation to the snow. I can't think of a better place to live, I'm heavy into boating!

 

You need to move South. I love the snow....sister in the Rockies, family by the Great Lakes, so it's nice to visit them and experience real winter every now and then, but it's hard to beat a summer in Arkansas floating a river, hiking a mountain, or floating in a lake with 90* temps 4-5 months straight

 

I'm from Florida (Ocklawaha) but moved to NW Oregon in 2006 because i couldn't stand the heat / mosquitoes / lightning / cockroaches / thunder / tornadoes / hurricanes / downpours / police / etc / etc..
Don't have any of that stuff here except for the occasional lightning or downpour but not anything like the SE, it's mild here compared to the rest of the country and during the winter we're lucky to even see snow here in Beaverton but like i said, the winter is just too long and the summer is just too short, i may consider moving to SW Oregon but that's about as far South as i would go..

 

Wow..... I don't quite understand the police comment.....no police in Oregon?

I couldn't do that though....its 75 and sunny right here right now...I'm giddy as a schoolgirl

 

Florida is a "police state"..

 

I was unaware. Good to know

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_state

 

I take a vitamin supplement that helps with SAD.


We usually drive down to the Carolinas to get a little break from the winter. Hardest for me is there's not a lot of work in winter so I have to find ways to keep busy that don't cost money.

 

A couple tips that help me...

Get good sunlight/full spectrum/grow light/high temp color(5000-6000 kelvin) florescent bulbs. The best available are generally in 4' tubes but these days there's a lot available even in screw in compact florescent. Put them everywhere you can in your home most of all in your bedroom on a timer to mimic an earlier sunrise.

Get some fish oil and vitamin D, take a lot of both. On the fish oil concentrate on DHA content. Also many good fish oils are available in liquid form, taking 8, 10, 12, of those big pills get's old fast. Coromega makes a orange chocolate flavor stuff that's good, and barleans has an orange flavor that doesn't give that fish burp and is decent to add to food.

If schedule allows I find it really helpful to be outside during sunrise. There's something about that transition time in the morning that has an energizing effect.

Also little things like when driving open your window and hand your arm out, even if it gets wet. Glass, in particular automotive glass with it's coatings blocks a lot the UV light you need, so open it, get some natural light and cool wet fresh Oregon air.

 

Everywhere is a police state. The way a 2-party state works is both parties pander to bloc voters. Bible thumpers, minorities, welfare scum, feminists, retirees. Basically any group that can be bought with money or lies. And the media decides which liar wins.

As the government becomes more and more corrupt, the two parties become more and more authoritarian.

All the democrats know how to do is raise taxes to buy more votes and attack anyone who doesn't agree with their policies as a bigot. And all the republicans can do is try to put as many criminals and scumbags in prison so the rest of us can try to live a normal life.

There's not really any political solution because both parties work together to shut out any outside competition. And movements like the tea party are easily infiltrated so they're a dead end. There's always the option of killing them all but other countries are just as corrupt as America and would send in a UN army to put Hillary back in charge. That was the whole point of the UN and the League of Nations for crooked governments to back each other up if any of them got in trouble.

 

never have suffered from sad . i used to like winter and enjoyed it , but as i am getting older and my choices from my past are catching up to me ( my body just freakin' hurts ! ) and as i drive for a living , so i get to deal with the freakin' idiots on a daily basis , I HATE WINTER NOW !!!!!!!!!!! my wife keeps saying were gonna kidnap all 5 of the grandkids and move south and i tell her it better be way south as the bad weather keeps extending it's reach further south by the year . i am old school and look at all these disorders and ailments now and even though i know it's not right i just go what a bunch of wimps ! they got a freakin' disorder or cause for everthing from the sniffles to farting sideways , and the medicines and "cures" for it all now . i swear we are becoming a nation of hypochondriacs !!!!!!!!! my 32 year old daughter has " poop syndrome " and no i'm not kidding that's what the doctors told her , along with a whole slew of other ailments including s a d , and i constantly tell her to stop watching all the bull crap doctors and such on tv are telling the whole world about all the new ailments we are suffering from ( she comes up with a new "disease" she suffers from weekly i swear ! ) welp that's my two cents so i will crawl down from my soap box now and stop ranting ..................

 

My ex wife had/has IBS or IRRITABLE BOWEL SYNDROME, she also acquired FM (fibromyalgia) and an intolerance to perfumes and strong odors and this (for lack of a better word) girl was a hypochondriac, she would invent **** just to justify her bitchiness..
Every week it was something new but we all suffer from pre-existing conditions that (thanks to modern science) have names and titles and descriptions..
All of this stuff is in our head but it's Mind over Body and the mind controls the body, convince the mind and the body will follow, the same with sickness or illness, if you convince the mind that you're sick then the body will follow..