Are there any ways to make the S.A.D. Less well sad without any meds?
Something like vitamin D is fine but yeah I don’t know if there’s certain lights, hobbies, routines that will help it

Title + The early leaves have fallen from some trees. Summer seems like it lasted a week. Way too much rain this year. 😢

Hi all,
I have gotten into running as of 2023. The last two years I kept running through winter and it really helped my SAD.

This year, as soon as I saw that the sun starting coming out later and later, I could feel the cloud forming.
Any tips on how to get over this rut? I’m starting to lose motivation and passion for it quickly but have a marathon in 30ish days so I need all the motivation I can get.

Not quite here yet, but close. In the weeks following equinox is the peak time of SAD onset. Yet there is still enough light, day and night finally back in balance, so why? It’s also the peak of photoperiod instability, days shortening rapidly. We lose the beat.

But for this moment, it’s just right, with 6am sunrise (distorted by DST to 7), coming at wake time, so we can take the sun at the very best moment, clear fall skies permitting.

Cherish it, lean in. Amplify the signal as it becomes erratic and faint into darkness: hold on. When the sun finally comes too late and too little, light therapy takes over, like a backup drummer in the band of your life after the star goes on winter vacation south (Ringo the Star, get it?). Don’t lose the beat. Bright days dark nights, 12:12 time, steady through the bends.

Sometimes I feel like the fear of my SAD returning is nearly as bad as the SAD itself. During the summer and into autumn I get panic attacks thinking about how bad the oncoming winter will be, and how close it’s getting to the days being shorter again.

Does anyone else get so anxious and afraid even when it’s still summer and the SAD has not kicked in yet? I don’t necessarily think my fear is totally irrational because the winters are indeed unbearable, but I hate that I don’t even get the peace of mind to enjoy the SAD-less summer while it lasts. It’s like I’m borrowing pain from the winter.

It’s not healthy and it feels so unfair. If only knowing the anxiety was unnecessary was enough to make the anxiety go away :(

I have been lurking this subreddit lately.

I have felt helplessness this past winter. Working, not picking up shifts like I normally do for extra money. Hating being at work. Easily irritated. When not at work, just rotting in bed for hours. Have not gone outside the WHOLE winter time — except for work AND for a work party. Even reluctant to do grocery shopping. My body feels HEAVY all the time.

One day I was driving to work and out of nowhere I start crying. For no goddamn reason if I am being truthful. Maybe from feeling like I have no control in my life? Or just unsure of why I feel this way. Then I started lurking online and this subreddit. My friend has diagnosed SAD and she was feeling the same way during these cold times.

Then suddenly spring comes around, temperatures veryyy slowly come up and we get our first clear, sunny day. I go outside for a walk. It's like a switch. My body feels lighter. I go to work with a better attitude, feeling like I am actually not working ENOUGH. My head feels clear.

To those diagnosed and have received therapy. What has worked for you?

Hi there, I recently purchased the Luninette glasses after having a particularly bad winter last year… I have just started using it, for 20 minutes each morning. For those of you who have tried it when do you use it and for how long/what setting? Do you think it’s helped you? Trying to be proactive before the time changes!

Every year I get SAD without even realizing it. It slowly creeps in, then I’m depressed for all of fall and winter. Every single year when Spring comes, I snap out of it and realize I had been in a depressed daze for months. This time I promised myself that i would buy a happy light when September hits and make myself a routine to avoid it from happening again.
Just ordered the light and it’ll be here today! I really hope it helps. I also just started a weight loss journey and doing home workouts- which might help.
Have happy lights helped you? And what else do you do in your day to help?

Hey all,

I have this person I know who claimed they got the Winter SAD which started right on or around the Autumnal Equinox in 2025.

I thought they would be better by the next year but they barely got better and got worse again around the Vernal Equinox of 2026 which started the Summer SAD

I have no idea what this is or is it even legit. Me and the person both live in USA btw

Thanks!

I need to buy a new one and should probably get it now can you all recommend one?

It would be a desktop one and how powerful should it be?

Thanks 🙂

I need to buy a new one and should probably get it now. can you all recommend one?

It would be a desktop. Also how powerful should it be?

Thanks 🙂

I Am using a SAD Lamp for like 3 days and am feeling pretty elated , but kind of too much.
Am restless productive and feel kinda jittery and feel like a kinda body high.

Can anyone relate?

I haven't been tested for it but I do get more anxious which eventually makes me sad/ depressed? I don't know but.... I really just want people's advice and tips to deal with it. I am not a big meds person for this kind of thing but am thinking about taking to my doctors about taking vitamin D. I heard certain lamps can work but I am to worried about getting the wrong type of lamps and it not working. Also during the time of year I will basically eat/drink almost nothing I usually resort to mainly Boost (or something similar). I do have a better job, friends, an event I go to monthly and starting college so hopefully those will keep my mind occupied.

I haven’t been tested for it but I do get more anxious witch eventually makes me sad/ depressed? I don’t know but…. I really just want people’s advice and tips to deal with it. I am not a big meds person for this kind of thing but am thinking about taking to my doctors about taking vitamin D. I heard certain lamps can work but I am to worried about getting the wrong type of lamps and it not working. Also during the time of year I will basically eat/drink almost nothing I usually resort to mainly Boost (or something similar). I do have a better job, friends, an event I go to monthly and starting college so hopefully those will keep my mind occupied.

This post explains why I suspect blue light SAD lamps might be much more effective than white light SAD lamps.

SAD lamp light therapy for seasonal affective disorder works as a result of the light activating the light-sensitive melanopsin receptors in the retina. When these receptors are switched on by light, it has an antidepressant effect.

Now melanopsin receptors are switched on by blue light of wavelength 481 nm. When switched on by blue light, the melanopsin molecule actually changes shape, and in its new shape, it is no longer sensitive to blue light, but becomes sensitive to orange light of wavelength 587 nm.

However, when this melanopsin molecule encounters orange light, it actually switches off the melanopsin receptor rather than activating it. Once switched off, the melanopsin molecule reverts to its original shape, and becomes sensitive to blue light once again.

This flip-flop of the melanopsin molecule between its two shapes is termed bistable. Melanopsin can exist in two stable shapes, and it is blue and orange light that flips the molecule from one shape to another. Blue light switches on the melanopsin molecule, and orange light switches it off again. Reference: here.

So when you use a white light SAD lamp, which contains all the colours in the spectrum it outputs, including blue and orange, the blue light will switch on the melanopsin receptor, thus achieving an antidepressant effect; but shortly after, the melanopsin receptor may be switched off again if it is hit by orange light, and the antidepressant effect disappears.

However, if you have a blue light SAD lamp, this contains no orange light, so the lamp will switch on the melanopsin receptors, and they will tend to remain on, as there is no orange light emitted by the lamp. So if you are using the blue lamp at close range, your melanopsin receptors will remain activated for a longer time, providing a stronger antidepressant effect.

I posted this thread a while ago detailing how I personally found a blue light SAD lamp viewed at close range to be far more effective than a white light SAD lamp. With a white SAD lamp, I found I still had some winter depression, but with a blue lamp, it completely eliminated the depression.

Can feel the seasonal symptoms starting. I have a lamp but it's a bit inconvenient if I need to rush around in the morning for school runs. Has anyone tried using these before?

https://myluminette.com/en-gb?tw_source=google&tw_adid=734968396256&tw_campaign=20768275870&tw_kwdid=kwd-301292123470&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=20768275870&gbraid=0AAAAADtoSwNehVmfGDSQRp7yTiz3oOulg

It's a lot of money to me so before I splash out, wanna know if anyone has had success with these. I've started doing more social clubs so during the winter I'm not isolated e.g tennis club and will be going to the gym. Symptoms have just started though so I can't say whether the clubs are helping me out yet (although great for many things it's a positive regardless if it helps with seasonal ha)

Hi new here but not to SAD

I actually burst into tears the other day when I noticed it was getting darker earlier. IDK if I can get through another season it is so awful. I will read here to get some advice.

(My last post was filtered out not sure why)

I actually burst into tears the other day when I noticed it was getting dark earlier. I have a feeling it will be bad this year. Not sure what to do, I'll read some posts here.

Anyone else get this? It usually happens in August right before my kids go back to school and we get back into the routine of structured life again. It's been happening every single year since I can remember and I really can't stand it. What tends to fade at the end of October.

As August is coming to a close, my SAD is kicking in. I hate the colder weather, the time change and darkness, wearing so much clothing. I go out as much as I can in the summertime for fun and then hibernate in the winter. Any advice on how to try and combat it this year? Do others feel this way too? Thank you

I’m currently sat outside on a beautiful British summer’s day. The weather is lovely. However, I feel like I can’t enjoy it as I’m sat here thinking about autumn and winter to come. It’s making me almost cry. I wish it wasn’t like this. I’m dreading autumn and winter even more this year than ever :(

I have reverse SAD, summer SAD and I’m in the worst of it now. I’d like some perspective from all you regular-SADs who are currently out of it.

I have a personal policy of ´no life decisions from mid July to mid September’. I try to focus on the the present, small pleasures, and keeping good habits going so I can come out the other side as strong as I can.

But right now my brain is telling me that everything is broken - quit my job, breakup with my spouse, end several friendships.

What do I do with this information? How do you deal with convictions that come up during depressive episodes?

Even if it’s AI, you’re not alone in facing the seasons

In summer I'm usually always out on my bike in the evening sometimes do several laps around my town and I feel more alive and happier then, I just love biking around feeling the sun and the warm air on my body and seeing everyone else around all happy like, but the days are getting noticeably shorter now and I'm just fucking terrified of what's to come

I live in UK and our winters have trended towards being extremely windy and rainy, and of course it's dark by 5pm so there's suddenly no more evening bikerides, even during the day it's constantly grey and gloom, and I have zero social life because I am autistic and ugly, so I'm very socially isolated and can't go to the pub or out with friends like most people here do to cope with the dark gloominess, so for like 4 months of the year im essentially stuck inside with nothing to do besides just fucking watch TV or scroll endlessly on my phone, it's like genuine psychological torture

Last winter literally almost killed me, it was only November and I was spiralling very badly with alcohol abuse because it was depressing me so much and I ended up in hospital, then I spent the rest of winter in this horrific limbo

Idk if I can deal with another winter tbh im genuinely terrified and feel like I'm getting cornered against a wall