To those who struggle with S.A.D.

Seasonal Affective Disorder: Seasonal affective disorder (also called SAD) is a type of depression that occurs at the same time every year. If you're like most people with seasonal affective disorder, your symptoms start in the fall and may continue into the winter months, sapping your energy and making you feel moody. Less often, seasonal affective disorder causes depression in the spring or early summer.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/seasonal-affective-disorder/DS00195

In this age of illness associated with everything, I know s.a.d. to be a real thing, as it's effected me my whole life. I wanted to share ideas about that here with you. I received my first "light therapy box" this week from Amazon. I've only had it/used it for three days now.

http://www.amazon.com/NatureBright-SunTouch-Plus-Light-Therapy/dp/B000W8Y7FY

These daily sessions are a work in progress, but I can tell that it does temporarily boost my moods and spirit. This particular light box has a negative ion feature that streams negative ions that smell sort of like the fresh air of a thunder storm in the Spring. The lights themselves are very bright, like blue sky.

I can recommend this particular product to those of the northern hemisphere who pretty much have "lost it" by the time Winter is over. It beats drinking yourself through a Winter. Be warned though, I can tell that, like a strong cup of coffee, these bright 10,000 lux lights can make you a bit manic if used too long.

I'm really interested in learning more about how seasons affect human consciousness. I really haven't been able to find much information about it, but I'm convinced through my own experiences that it is real. Hell, if cosmic alignments/astrological factors can influence human consciousness, I don't see why seasons cannot.

I have spoken to a few friends of mine about this, and they seem to know exactly what I am talking about. Some people seem to change with the seasons. I think back to last Spring, riding my bicycle nearly every day, working out, eating great, etc... Well the "winter self" is here now, and those things are long gone.

I don't hate Fall/Winter, as I think they are highly symbolic times of deconstruction. The gray skies seem to broadcast a madness that people absorb, in time. I don't know how people in countries like Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, etc.. can get through it year after year.

My grandmother complained every year about how sad she became every fall/winter. She would get very depressed and complained she hated this time of year when everything was dying. She described it as a lonely feeling.
I have read some articles about how it is the lack of sunlight that causes these symptoms.

I always loved the fall of the year back east with the changing of the colors and the season. Here it is the same day everyday, except in the winter it is a little cooler weather, which is a relief.

There are a lot of snowbirds out here every winter. It's a good place to be if you suffer from S.A.D. during the winter months.
Unfortunately, not everyone can move around with the seasons. I wish I could, I'd be gone every summer.

rainyday, for me just the thought of cold weather can be upsetting, but I make myself persevere, but yeah watching the seasons change makes up for that. And I noticed that as the horomones start changing, especially as a person gets older like your grandmother, they become affected more easily.

Raw milk does the trick for me, it's loaded with tryptophan, and is one of the top three superfoods. I like doing what works and what people have been doing for thousands of years, besides when will we always have supplements and other things to spoil ourselves with. I bet those Swedish and Finish folks have cows. But those lamps are for sure something to look into.
S.A.D. seems to be triggered by the horomones which is the endocrine system which leads to the biorythyms and to the more subtle energies out there, and finally goes straight to the source and cause or lack of which is the star or the Sun, which all leads to how the celestial bodies affect us.
I heard melatonin may help a little, since it works on the sleep horomone. It seems folks need more sleep in the winter, maybe because it gets darker sooner.

Flames, I've been looking for a lamp for someone I know who got S.A.D., thanks for posting that, I'd like have a progress report

I will keep you updated, Seraphim. The light box is a little pricey and I did a lot of investigation into it before I bought it. I agree with the majority of the amazon reviews. I wish I had experience with other boxes so I could help you decide which is the best one out there, but this is my first light.

You are right about hormones and biorhythms. When these hormones are out of balance due to light deprivation, the bodies circadian clock goes out of whack. That's interesting about raw milk, I've never heard about that before. I don't drink much milk, but I do take vitamin D every day.

Rainyday, I can see how you might prefer the Fall/Winter months in Arizona. I've never been there, I can imagine how brutally hot it must be in the Summer. .

The good thing about wiinter , is that you get to experience the appearance of spring and summer all over again .
I like the little burst of winter , the early dark nights. In saying that, i would still take a trip in the sun if the op arose

Regarding some people getting down in these times of year , i also think it may have something to do with the power of the calendar

At the end of a cyclic calendar year, people are subconsciously forced to revise how their life is going and if it meets their expectations or dreams .
Unfortunately due to the limited perceptions of modern society , they tend to revise their existence as seen through an expected societal model of how they should be performing, big mistake but most know no other way to perceive
This is confounded by christmas and new year, the 2 forced happy holidays at the endyear
So for someone not quite contented in life, and with little optimism for their immediate future, the short dark days being crowned by the societal pressure of christmas and new year are something close to hell for them to endure i would imagine .

You are a nice guy Flames, I don't drink raw milk all the time, you take vitamin D, I heard it's best to take it in the form of cod liver oil. Speaking of which another neat poster put up the Weston Price Foundation. Excellent resources on health. I'll dig up there vit. A and D article for you.

It's amazing how light affects us and works through us, I've got to dig up some info on that as well. I went to that very interesting Star website you posted and here are a few things on light........will listen to interview for sure.
"Through quantum physics, it was shown that an event and its observer are always inherently linked. Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle indicates that if ascertain the exact location of any particle, then we are clueless to its momentum or energy, and vice-versa. This is because “matter” is not made up of divisible and solid parts – as the atom was once viewed. This dualistic nature of energy allows it to manifest in both wave and photon form. Space and time are also connected in this incredible way.
But yet it is still sometimes difficult for us to intellectualize our deep connection to all of this energy around us.
In an effort to make sense of these waves running through our bodies, we began to discriminate. We saw that there is light and dark, on and off, good and bad, life and death, big and small, male and female, and other such opposites. The simple act of labeling something and setting it apart created its opposite in this universe. It is with this act of definition that we destroy the thing’s relation to the whole.
This idea of opposing forces is what allowed for us to develop the concept of the binary system. This, in turn, allowed for the rapid calculation of queries into our true nature. This information can now be processed and digested by us at a rapid speed through the use of light communications."

Thank you for the compliment Seraphim, that was kind of you. I believe that there is physics that need to be understood when understanding how light effects all organic life. I'm a big dumb dumb when it comes to comprehending some of it, but I think a little bit of it is beginning to sink in.

The area of physics has begun to be priority number one as of lately, in my area of studies. Not so much comprehending mathematical equations and models, but getting the "jist" of areas of physics that Einsteinian physics does not explain.

Now for an update about the light therapy: It's been 5 days (I think) that I've been using it. The sun has been out the last two days, so naturally that has helped. I use the box at about 4pm (not so much in the morning like suggested), because at 4 pm it's already dark. It's kind of like a "shot of expresso light" in the darknesss, so to speak.

My hope is that it will help boost my energy levels as close to possible as it were last Spring and Summer when I was highly active. Some people who may not understand so called "seasonal affective disorder" might say "well, even during Fall/Winter be outside during the day anyway", the point I try to make is that constant gray skies sometimes even make things worse.

I hate to analyze the hell out of all of this, I'm just trying to explain how greatly some people are effected by light deprivation, or at least "sky blue deprivation". Sorry if all of this sounds nutty, but to me it isn't.

I describe so called "seasonal affective disorder" as this to people: "imagine throwing a dog in a cage for four months, and then imagine throwing a big heavy black blanket over that cage, then imagine that dogs sanity in four months."

oops..skipped this topic....you big dumb dumb it doesn't sound nutty at all.

I know this thread is a bit dinosaur, being almost a year, and all. Someone turned out all the lights, so to speak, again.

It's been waay more challenging to utilize the same intensity for my workout, than it was all last Summer and Spring. I really have to grind through it. I am taking 5000 IU of Vitamin D 3 every day, using a "S.A.D." Light/10,000 LUX, but it's like throwing a band aid on an inferno.

My doc recommended that I go tanning. That would feel really silly for me. But I might do it, to burn the skin a little, and create an artificial form of sun light on my skin. I swear to Jesus, Buddah, Allah, Zeus, that my blood was meant for beaches, sun, warm weather, hot chicks, white sand, swimming, deep water fishing, beach volleyball, staring at the Sun going up and down behind an ocean somewhere. *sigh* Makes me sad just thinking about it.

This is where I'd rather be right now.



Attractive lady aside, just look at all of that beauty and warmth. Aqua water, white sand, beautiful blue sky. I am devoid of meaningful climate.

Move to Hawaii. You will love it there.

I lived there for three years. It was three years of summer. NONSTOP NICE WEATHER.

Then all of a sudden, I craved snow and seasons again.

Right now the berlin bear gets ready for hibernation. I got to appreciate the slow-mo days over the years.

Two days ago I backed organic 75% cocoa brownies, yesterday I made fresh noodles..
and I took the last apples from the garden and made applesauce. When I don't sleep I eat.

I got to appreciate the slow-mo days over the years.

That's a good way of looking at it, Irony. About Hawaii, believe me, if I had the dough to live in Hawaii, I'd be writing this post on a surf board, right now.

Then all of a sudden, I craved snow and seasons again.

This has always been something I've wondered about. The possibility that I could actually miss the misery of Winter. I bet I probably would. Incredible.

Two days ago I backed organic 75% cocoa brownies

For the first time in MONTHS, I went on a chocolate rampage, the night after Halloween. I don't even think about sweets, but for some reason this time of year, they taste so goddamn good. I usually feel guilty after a good chocolate rampage.

When I don't sleep I eat.

I'm the same. It's like that hibernation thing you mentioned.

Flames - Bro, you really should get the hell out of the midwest or northcentral or whatever they call it there. You're living land-locked. Land is good, but the biggest source of energy on this rock is the ocean. I'm not saying its bad where you are or making any judgements about the people there either. I'm just saying that if you had a chance to experience a different climate and geography, then you would have some basis for experiencial comparison to better reflect upon your dillema with S.A.D.

Even a temporary arrangement, say, like a vacation could do you some good. But if you can swing a vacation, don't play tourist or you might get caught up in that whole pressure of the race to make the most of your time, running around seeing everything you want to see and then your vacation's gone and you're back home without hardly feeling like you even left.

About 14 years ago my excessive drinking put me on the street so I decided if I was going to be homeless I wanted to do it in an easy climate, so I hitch-hiked from Georgia, which is butt-ass cold in the winter, to South Florida and lived in a homeless shelter called the Miami Rescue Mission for about 16 months 'til I could get my shit together.

The point of that little snippet of trivia is that while I was there I made some friends who also had substance abuse problems and knew of the shelter because they lived only a few blocks from it. What I learned astonished me. They told me they were born there, in this shithole called Overtown, which is like the Watts of Miami, and had never traveled outside of Miami proper their entire lives. They had never been to the beach, hardly ever went to Biscayne Bay, unless it was to get high, and had never took a trip down to the Florida Keys.

These men were in their 40's and 50's and as I spoke with them I began to realize that not only had they never ventured beyond their native environment, they also had no intentions of doing so in the forseeable future. They were entirely satisfied with the existence they found right there amongst an area comprised of about tweny city blocks.

The difference here is that you are not one of these people. Based on many of your posts I've read, you are not remotely satisfied with the limitations of the geography wherein you inhabit. To hell with cliches like, "Where ever you go, you take your problems with you" or "You can't change what's inside by changing what's outside." Such platitudes were probably said by people who never went anywhere.

Maybe it could be a good excuse to go visit a distant relative or something. If your funds are low, hop on a bus Gus, pack some can goods and dry stuffs to eat and use the net to look up the best and most economical hostels to stay in. If it sounds too intimidating because its something you've never done before, then don't go alone, see if you can get a friend to tag along.

One of the benefits of traveling to some place new is that its something you can do to change the geography you live with in a direct and efficient way. We all live with our own personal geography in our heads, but that takes years of perseverence to change. Changing your thinking can take a lifetime, but changing your environment can be accomplished much quicker. Also, taking an active roll in the determination of your physical geography can be empowering to take a stronger command of the direction of one's mental geography.

If you do decide to go somewhere I hope you take some pics of the journey and post them up here sometime. Peace.

Thank you Bobdog for your concern and analysis. I really don't have any response, other than my drive to deny the modern world. My tears remind me that love has become void. This is revealed to me in all of my dreams.

My dreams consist of love, romance, and being beaten by people whom I can't even remember by name. I am probably insane in the literal sense. I don't give a fuck.

I am a sort of Romantic idealist/misanthropic/anti-anxiety user/ who cares more for the forests than the men who destroy them. That's definitely insane. I'm glad you have come to the forum. I hope you may pick up where I have failed.

I traveled around and lived abroad from when I was 20 until 30, after that I went home to take care of my family. I think there is a time for everything. If you are the type who likes long journeys. Just yesterday my mom mentioned my adventurous side to see if I got any plans to leave again, but now that I am lamost 40 I like traveling for 3 month abroad and then return home...I guess I am lucky that I have a good family life and parents who will always love me. When I left Germany I indeed was trying to escape, only to see that the whole world is the same in regards to the human condition. When I lived a year in South Africa and I came back to see my parents for a couple month my father noticed that I had changed forever, that's to do when you see pure poverty in the thirld world. It amazed me how people in such a wonderful natural environment can cause so much suffering to themselfs. I think that suffering is part of life, but most of the suffering that I saw was really not necessary. The thing that keeps me going is that beyond all the madness, beneath the masks. I still love humans.

Two days ago I backed organic 75% cocoa brownies, yesterday I made fresh noodles..

Did you purchase that organic produce at the ELDORADO organic store in Berlin , cause that location is where anita berber used to shake her totty for sell out audiences seeking decadence and debauchery or even sexual freedoms in response to the rigid control of sexuality in these times
I quoted before from Voltaire... In berlin one enjoys the freedom of both consciousness and the penis

Nice piece on the virtues of travel bobdog

Kapis wrote:

Two days ago I backed organic 75% cocoa brownies, yesterday I made fresh noodles..

Did you purchase that organic produce at the ELDORADO organic store in Berlin , cause that location is where anita berber used to shake her totty for sell out audiences seeking decadence and debauchery or even sexual freedoms in response to the rigid control of sexuality in these times
I quoted before from Voltaire... In berlin one enjoys the freedom of both consciousness and the penis

Huh? are you talking about your penis?

No, not my penis, the former Eldorado nightspot in Berlin where AB publically opened the boundaries of Blue exposures, now has an organic foodstore trading in its exact location

But im not sure if the org shop is still called eldorado or not, thought you may have confirmed

Thought it was an ironic connection , organic products now been traded where the yoni lingham dynamics were going down almost 100 years ago

You seem to know more about my hometown than I do.

I am still clueless...in regards to your references...

i will upload the clip from my berlin documentary and maybe you might recognise the location , may take me a day or so depending .

Das Clip - let me know if you recognise, the area is pretty well documented here .

Okay, thanks....no I did not know this.

Maybe this has to do with our limited allowance on historical facts..selfknowledge,
it's a private study for us to know our own history.

I am quite sure that there was more resistence in Berlin then anywhere else in Germany,
but it's simply discounted.

Berlin is a "swamp" of freethinkers. It's leylines affects peoples mentality I think...maybe that's why Friedrich the Great (and others) appeared to be so schizophrenic. On one hand he was born to rule
like any other "born" despot, and on the other hand he gave very contrary freedoms to the
populous unlike most other European monarchs; his most famous proclaimation was:
"everyone is free to pursue his own happiness"..

It is noteworthy that "the Germans" (often Slavs) were sort of Prototype Democrats, they elected tribal chiefs which were killed by their own people if they turned out to be despots or too "ambitious". This fact made it very difficult for the tribes to defend against the Romans, but anything east of the Rhine Rhine river (natural border) was never conquered. A good expample was Herman the German (Latin name: Arminius) who was taken hostage and raised in Rome to be educated by the enemy. His revenge was awesome, understanding the Roman strategy he tricked them with their own devious mentality and on a single day he killed one tenth of the entire Roman armee in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. Later he was KILLED by the other tribal chiefs after he became a bit "too ambitious" by wanting to become their leader in the "Roman fashion", they took that very bad, but overall he was respected for his ability to keep the tribes focussed on winning the battle against Roman imperialism.
I think their social structure was much like that of the Celts..

Later when german kings would be crowned "Emperor" (the first was germanborn Charlemagne: claimed to be the father of France and Germany by the french and germans respectively) they only succeeded if elected by the other Kings..who swore allegiance (or not)..a leftover from the chiefdom-days..I guess it is quite obvious that the german tribes had usurped the Roman system and then used it to their advantage.

Today only 6 % of the "german" male citizens and 10% of the "german" female citizens living in Germany are actually descendants of the Germanic tribes (DNA proof), 30% have Slavic roots
and almost 30% have actually JEWISH (Ashkenazi) origins. Todays "german" population is
quite the opposite of Hitler's "clean race" ambitions, he himself is said to be at least partially Jewish.

DNA tests reveal Hitler's Jewish and African roots

http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/dna-tests-reveal-hitler-s-jewish-and-african-roots-1.309938

Next time you in area, take a little trip to the eldorado and check out the ambience , if i go back to berlin, i will pay a visit for the "spirits of free expression " sakes

How does that combine with your Evola infection?

I'm just pulling your leg

http://www.kabarettarchiv.de/

There are still Cabaret shows in Berlin in the 20'ties style..

Any "class act" style of anita berbers , cabaret does not rock the boat