Beating seasonal affective disorder

When I was a freshman in college, my psychology major roommate approached me one day.  "We need to talk," she said.  "I seriously think you need to see someone.  You either are clinically depressed or have seasonal affective disorder."  Nothing seemed out of the ordinary to me.  For as long as I could remember, I would feel this way every winter.  I wouldn't want to get out of bed in the morning.  I wouldn't want to do anything for that matter.  I felt gloomy.  If I had my choice, I would just stay in bed until the trees started budding again in the spring.  This apparently is what my roommate found so disturbing.  I would stay in bed unless I was going to class, eating, or studying (which was also done in bed).  I figured this is how I am so I didn't do anything about it.

When I started working after college, I obviously had to get out of bed, but I felt miserable for the entire winter season.  During the course of our marriage, the Cobbler has dealt with my winter blues every single year.  One Christmas he even bought me a Happy Light in the hopes that it would bring me back from the dead.  Sitting in front of it for 15 minutes every morning helped some, but the effect was negligible.  I still really wanted to be in bed hibernating.

Finally, a couple of months ago I read a thread on the Well Trained Mind forum about seasonal affective disorder and some of the posters mentioned taking a Vitamin D supplement.  I wondered if it could work for me.  I did a lot of web research and discovered that your body produces 10,000 IUs of Vitamin D for every 20 minutes of full body sun exposure.  Exposure to the sun is the only way you get Vitamin D unless you take a supplement or eat a lot of dairy which is fortified with it.  My daily multivitamin contains a modest 400 IUs, I tend to stay out of the sun, and I eat very little dairy these days.

In November, I made a pilgrimage to the Vitamin Shoppe and purchased their brand of Vitamin D3 in the 5000 IU dosage.  This is the exact bottle I bought.  That little bottle purchased for $5.99 has changed my entire life!  I know that seems a bit dramatic, but I feel like a different person.  I don't want to stay in bed all day! I'm not tired anymore!  I feel like the woman I am in the summer time.  I have since finished off my $5.99 bottle and went back and ponied up for the 120 day supply $9.99 bottle.  Best money I've spent in a long time!

Do you have SAD too?  Here's a YouTube video about it:

Finally, Red's fever is gone this morning --- yay!  She acting more like herself and I am so relieved.

And with that---here's the rather disturbing link of the day  WHY?!?!?  WHY do people insist on texting while walking or texting while doing anything else for that matter. I think the art of doing one thing at a time is gradually being lost in our society, but that is an entirely different blog post altogether.