SAD Archives • Avoiding Rx

25May 2013 by Marjorie No Comments

Bright light therapy requirements changing over time

treatments

I've mentioned this in passing a few times on the site -- the exposure length and timing of the bright light therapy I use to control carb cravings, insomnia, low mood, and zombie brain changes over the years. I used to need it only from October to April, for 30 minutes, and it wouldn't work after 9 am. Then I switched to 60 minutes for quite a while, until it started to make me antsy. Now I'm down to 20 minutes, it won't work after 7:15 am, and I seem to need it all year. I consider this further proof that some chicks are not meant to live further north than a palm tree. Here are a few references I've used to figure out timing and "dosage." Chronotherapeutics for Affective…

Things that still mess up my mood

symptoms and conditions

August 13, 2017: My theories on this subject have changed. Until I can get my act together to update this content, please see this post. This was adapted from a post on my old blog, Blessed Depth. I've written elsewhere about how I threw off the yoke of my decades-long depression about 15 years ago, but a few things still trip me up. Some are culprits familiar to most sufferers, but some were a bit of a surprise. Insufficient calorie intake. If I undereat for more than two days in a row, my mood will fall. A day of normal eating corrects it. Vicodin. I don't know what I'll do if, heaven forfend, I'm ever in a long-term pain management situation, because even a modest dose makes me feel lousy…

Seven fomenters of brain fog

nutritional therapy, symptoms and conditions, treatments

Several factors combined together to cause me years of spaciness and difficulty concentrating. Highlights of this period included giving the wrong last name when called on in class and almost getting my head wedged between two floors of a department store while riding the escalator. Most of the causes were ferreted out after I went gluten-free, and now I can face a big project and a tight deadline without sweating it too much, given enough Pepsi. The problem is that metabolizing an acre's worth of high-fructose corn syrup when you're 25 is one thing; now it's quite another. I'm still looking for the final pieces to this puzzle. The main causes were: 1. and 2. High histamine, caused at least in part by low iodine I discovered this by accident…