The First for Women Magazine, issue 2/8/10 featured a story of Linda Macek, 50, from Mount Airy, MD. She had suffered seasonal affective disorder (SAD). Her story was retold in the magazine by Hallie Potcki. You can read her story below and find out how she had overcome the seasonal affective disorder.
. . . I never felt my best in winter months. . . But in December 2004, things really took a turn for the worse. I felt full of dispair for no reason. I tossed and turned at night, then went through my days as if I were a zombie. I couldn’t stop eating, and my brain was too fried to function. It was almost like my mood and health were pinned to the weather: gray and bleak.
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I’m a single mom, and my son, Noah, was only 4 at the time. For his sake, I had to keep my appearances. So I locked down into a survival mode. My mantra became: Keep Noah loved, the laundry moving and the 2 of us fed. Everything else was secondary. Friends and colleagues weren’t sure what to make of me—I was too sad to socialize and too zonked out to carry on a coherent conversation. Clients picked up on my ‘off’ state and started to counsel me. I lost faith that I could maintain my clinical practice, so I made the painful decision to give up.
It was hard to believe that just month’s prior, I had been working 10-hour days, biking with Noah in the park, hanging out with my friends and breezing through novels. I wondered, Where did that person go? What on earth is the matter with me?
In an effort to heal myself, I tried exercise. I tried balancing my diet. I tried natural sleep aids like valerian. But nothing lifted my funk or fog. The doctors I saw came up with the same diagnosis: clinical depression. They gave me prescription antidepressants, but the pills only made me feel worse, so I tossed them in the trash.
While researching my symptoms online, I was led to lots of websites about seasonal affective disorder, or SAD, a condition brought on by the lack of sunlight in the winter.
So I met with a holistic practitioner, who confirmed my extreme winter lethargy, poor sleep quality, inability to concentrate and weight gain were classic symptoms of SAD.
With my training in mental health, it should have been obvious to me all along. But I guess when you’re in it, you’re blind to it.
The doctor suggested that I purchase a high-intensity light box to compensate for winter’s dark days. The owner of the SunBox Company, a light-box business located near my home, helped me picked out a model. He explained if I sat in front of the box for just 20 minutes a day, I could reverse my symptoms completely.
Honestly, I didn’t expect the turnaround to be dramatic or quick, but let me tell you: Within 4 days I was sleeping through the night again, my old energy started to trickle back and I realized that I felt happy for the first time in months. In the weeks that followed, my extra winter pounds just. . . disappeared. I didn’t know how, but I wasn’t about to question it!
In the end, my light box was completely life-changing. Now nothing slows me down—especially not the season. In fact, I’m currently in the final stages of reopening my practice, which is going to be bigger and better than ever. I’ve even learned Spanish so I can reach out to more clients in my community. My alarm clock definitely isn’t bothering me anymore—I bound out of bed without it!”
Get more FIRST magazine’s health tips on seasonal affective disorder (SAD) here
→ Boosting Melatonin Levels
Source: First for Women, 2/8/10, pp. 36, 37
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Tags: light box therapy, SAD, seasonal affective disorder, seasonal affective disorder depression, seasonal affective disorder light therapy, seasonal affective disorder symptoms, SunBox company
