S.A.D. and the roller coaster

I have Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and live in an area where I need meds to get through the winter. What I've notice since I was very young is that I'm much more horney in the spring than any other time of year. Maybe it's nature, many animals mate in the spring. Or, maybe it's just that people start wearing less clothing. I'm also prone to ups and downs through out the year (or sometimes multiple year segments) where I decide to "go straight" and get rid of my kink gear and try to be "normal," or rather, vanilla. I always come back to being Kinky though.

Anyond else go through this? Are you affected by the seasons or other phenomena?

You NEED bright light bulbs. LOTS of them.

Color corrected 5000-6000 degree K light.

LED bulbs of this type are plentiful and easy to find in recent years. Many people stay away from them because they don't have that "soft white" --yellowish color. The 5000-6000 deg K bulbs look like the light that shines in your window. That's what you want, not the soft white shit regular bulbs emit.

You will be amazed at the difference it makes.

Yup. I am the same. Been dealing with SAD since I was a young teen. I'm on top of the world from April through September, and a bored, apathetic lump for the rest of the year. I need anti-depressants to get through the Winter, and therapy lights.

I had a great opportunity for some real-life kinky action last Winter and I passed on it because I just didn't care. I regretted that when my mood picked up again. I am so horny during the Summer there is almost nothing I'd say no to. I barely even beat off during the Winter. Wellbutrin has helped a lot, it is the first anti-depressant that has had a significant effect on me. I also like it because it makes me a horny pervert with rock-hard erections during the Summer.

I definitely am affected by the short, cold, gloomy days of winter. It might be SAD, I’ve never officially been diagnosed. It doesn’t start as early as September or end as late as May for me, thankfully. It usually starts around mid to late October, and gets worse after we turn the clocks back that first weekend of November. (Damn time change! I wish we would stay on daylight saving year round. Better to get dark at 5 pm versus 4 pm, but I digress).

It usually ends for me after we turn the clocks ahead in March, when it once again gets dark around 6:15 pm.

I hate how my energy levels absolutely crash, I’m always tired no matter how much sleep I get, I tend to be grumpy, and no ambition. It isn’t a constant thing, if I can get outside when it is sunny it helps. Which is hard to do when I go to work and come home in the dark, and working in an office it is difficult to get outside. But on the weekends I try to get out during the day.

The overcast days are the worst. I don’t even want to get out of bed. But luckily, like I wrote, it isn’t a constant problem, but at least 2 or 3 days a week, or more if we have a stormy stretch of weather.

The rest of the year I have all kinds of energy and want to do things a lot more, and my mood is much improved.

Which is why, when I retire (hopefully in 18 years) we will definitely be selling the house, which will be paid off several years before then. My wife is younger than me by several years, so she will look for a job either in the south or the west, and we will move from the cold, gloomy northeast to where she finds work (which shouldn’t be a problem with her master’s degrees and resume) and pay cash for a nice, small house with a big garage. Then enjoy boating and motorcycling in the warm weather year round!

You have to re-lamp your entire house and use bright 5000K full spectrum light bulbs.

The only lights in our house that aren't like that are the ones in the ovens.

Bright, clean white light is fantastic. Your house looks better and cleaner, colors look brighter--like they do in sunlight and it's an overall much nicer environment and you feel better in that kind of light.

We have gradually been changing the bulbs to those LED lights you mentioned. We have a lot of recessed lighting throughout the house that take those big, flood type lights. The LED replacements are expensive because of that, so we have replaced them gradually as the old ones burn out. We only have a few more to go. The new bulbs have helped both the mood and the light bill.

Unfortunately the only way to escape the cold and snow is to move, which is the plan eventually, when I retire. I didn’t mind winter when I was younger, but with each passing year I despise it more and more. I will not be spending my retirement shoveling, snowblowing, and roof raking, paying crazy high heating bills, or sky high taxes. My retirement funds will go a lot further in a state that has a much lower tax burden and cost of living. The reason we don’t move now is because usually those states have a lower payscale to match. After I retire, we will sell our paid off house. We will be able to pay cash for a house in a warm, sunny locale, so with no mortgage and my retirement funds, plus my wife’s income until she retires and she taps her retirement funds, we will have comfortable, relaxing, “golden years”, in a warm climate. We are really looking forward to that!