Well, really he has SAD (seasonal affective disorder). I am planning on building a light box, probably with CFL. (One book discourages homebuilt units because of poor construction; THAT is something that will not occur).
Anybody have plans or a reference to some?
I have seen other people suggesting use of standard 4-foot, 4-tube fluorescent ceiling fixtures; I suppose I could come up with a good way of mounting one of them but the ballasts and the like are expensive. I also do not like them because they typically have 60 hz flicker, whereas cfl bulbs run almost at radio frequency.
Most medical articles say that you do not need full-spectrum lighting and that standard lighting will do.
Replies
"Hello, my name is Forrest, and I'm SAD".
Wellbutrin gets me thru the winter - no joke. Otherwise I'd just hide in bed.
Forrest - better living thru chemistry
Hello Forest! Best of luck to you.
I have a junior high student here, and I would like to try to avoid medication as many have not been properly tested with young people. And, I think his symptoms are mild enough that the light might help.
I don't suffer from it, but my wife gets the blahs in the winter. This year she has tried dieting (really losing weight) and serious exercising. It has really helped.
Teach him how to grow pot indoors with grow lites. Someway, he'll get cured!
Exercize should help. But it can be real. I am with you I would be sceptic of pills. Haven't had good results. YMMV. Different for everyone - pills don't like me.Remodeling Contractor just on the other side of the Glass City
a junior high student
Wish I had thought of addressing SAD back then instead of letting it develop over the decades.
I've gotten "energized" by a lite box, but the energy boost is short lived for me.
I have a friend here, she is a local Radio DJ. she was having really serious problems that at first looked like either fibromyalgia or as later diagnosed MS.
She almost could not function, to a point where her job was in jeopardy at the station, and she was forced to resign from some other PT positions she had going on.
Progressively worse and worse..curled up and locked in a fetal postion ,,yes..that bad.
FINALLY a different doc took her OFF of wellbutrin, and now she is almost back to normal, it was a bad bad long trip for her.
I am glad it has good results for you, but it was killing her.
Just a public service announcemet for those who may not have heard of the side effects.Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
"Success is not spontaneous combustion, you have to set yourself on Fire"
I had a bad experience with it also.
And going off of it was unbelievable.
Doesn't work for me.
YMMV.Remodeling Contractor just on the other side of the Glass City
I had a bout of this before when I was in college, just being inside all day was taking it's toll on me. It was crippling, I found that just getting back to work outside again was a big help. If he's still in high school maybe winter sports would be an option, I used to go tanning a few times a week that seemed to work well too. I've also been told melatonin helps with this condition. I would encourage him to try the outdoor activity, maybe even hitting the gym. Maybe give him the light for after dinner or something. Hopefully he doesn't get to the point of needing meds. Goodluck
Would the dose be doubled for northerners?
I have this cool #### light that my brother got for me - full spectrum. Turn it on while I'm at the computer. Seems to help. No tan just helps.
I'll try to check the manufacturer.Remodeling Contractor just on the other side of the Glass City
Found the manufacturer/distributer.
http://www.bluemaxlighting.com/.
FWIW.Remodeling Contractor just on the other side of the Glass City
John, I don't know a lot about this, but my cabinetmaker is from Alaska and he knows all about it. We were having a conversation a month or so ago and I was moaning about how gloomy it had been. He mentioned that a lot of Alaskans have light boxes they use during the winter. I can get some info from him if you want, or I bet you can google for it.
Get him outdoors, for sunshine and exercise, particularly with other people.
No better cure.
"...particularly with other people." Curious why the emphasis on being with other people.
They can't get your Goat if you don't tell them where it is hidden.
"Curious why the emphasis on being with other people."
The medical/analytical approach to well-being compartmentalizes everything. Giving a "condition" a name doesn't mean it's isolated from other aspects of being human.
SAD is not dissimilar to depression, a common ailment of today's teens (as well as a significant pecentage of adults).
Human beings are social animals, and it's easy to feel isolated as a teenager. Feeling SAD makes one more likely to remain isolated and spiral into a pit of despond.
Getting outdoors for group fun and adventure is good medicine.
Makes sense. It is what I thought the answer would be but thought you perhaps knew something I wasn't aware of .
They can't get your Goat if you don't tell them where it is hidden.
Get a grow-light fixture used for hydroponic gardening; one with both fluorescent and incandescent bulbs. The new Phillips Marathon Daylight bulbs apparently work too.PS, I know several people with various levels of this condition; one actually worked on the DEW Line for a couple of years.
<!----><!----> <!---->
Phill Giles<!----><!---->
The Unionville Woodwright<!----><!---->
<<The medical/analytical approach to well-being compartmentalizes everything.>>That's a mouthful. The doc missed my husband's cancer for a few months bec she was treating each discreet symptom instead of seeing the pattern they formed. Ironically, we got a better diagnosis once we typed them all together into Google.
About 30 years ago I found that when I was taking a shower if I looked into the rising sun (thorough my bathroom window) for 5-10 mins it really helped. I've never taking any meds for it but over the years I did find that light therapy works well for me.http://www.josephfusco.org
http://joes-stuff1960.blogspot.com/
Joe: "...but over the years I did find that light therapy works well for me."
Splinter: "The doc missed my husband's cancer..."
Missed it and failed to cure it because allopathic medicine is based on a Newtonian/Cartesian bio-mechanical paradigm. And that's not how either our bodies or the Universe works.
"Light therapy" is one of the keys to health. Low-intensity UV light at a frequency of 380 nanometers repairs our cells. Carcinogenic molecules absorb and change the frequency of such light. Our cells absorb and store photons in their DNA, and our brain communicates with every cell in our body by photon emission through synaptic microtubules. We are beings of light. If that cellular communication system gets disrupted, we become ill. Cancer patients lack the quantum coherence in their photons necessary for communication - both within the body and with the outside world.
That's also why eating fresh greens is so healthy - contains lots of sunlight.
A dear friend of mine was cured of inoperable cancer with wholistic nutrition and laetrile therapy (banned by the AMA because it was too effective). My uncle, a lifelong Physician and Professor of Medicine (who was on JFK's medical advisory committee), told me as he was dying of cancer, "We just don't have any idea what we're doing". He turned to macrobiotics and meditation at the end so at least he could die well.
Cancer's a pretty big tent containing a lot of different varieties. I'm sympathetic to your argument about giving the body what it needs to live optimally. But no one lives forever; at 68, the asbestos fibers got the upper hand in the old boy.
As you say, there is a great deal to be said for dying as well as living well. When i had my own brush with cancer, i very much appreciated a book by Stephen and Ondrea Levine called Healing into Life and Death.
Hi, I'm Luka, and I have SAD as well.
Wellbutrin is also the only med that works for me.
(But as Sphere points out, all meds work differently, for different people.)
As far as a light box...
You don't really need a box. And if you make one, he does NOT need to sit in front of that thing and stare into it.
Get some of the cfl's to get the "daylight" spectrum.
Really light the room up with them. Use 3 or 4 or whatever you need to.
And... Add at least one regular everyday lightbulb for every two daylight cfls.
I have found that the yellow from the incandescents makes a difference.
If you were to use only incandescents, it takes a LOT of them, to make any difference at all.
I have tried the daylights by themselves. They do make a difference.
But not as much as you would think.
The incandescent added to that, also makes a difference.
I am sitting right now under one 'regular' cfl. It has the same yellow color as a regular incansecent. And a 2 foot daylight florescent. This combination gives a result, remarkably like real daylight.
About the only thing that made any further difference was to add one of the ge 'reveal' lightbulbs to the mix. Those things burn out real quick. (One usually lasts about three months for me.)
But the combination of the three, really does an amazing job of making a difference in the SAD.
Yeah, it may be cold, but at least it's a wet cold !
Edited 2/13/2008 10:54 pm by Luka
Luka,
Your on the right track, a color labs I worked for would make a photo evaluation area and light it with a combination of flor. & tungsten lighting to get the closest to the daylight. We didn't find the one lamp that came the closest to daylight, but mixing them seemed to work.
We would mount porcelain fixtures around a 2x4 flor. drop in fixture, we were cheap back then. I imagine now they would have a ready made fixture, but them worked great. A little experimenting and you could be darn close to the daylight.
Fred
PS, "really light the room up with them", means just that...
A -=LOT=- of light.
Not just, a 'well-lighted room'.
Yeah, it may be cold, but at least it's a wet cold !
All ballast for T-8 bulbs are electronic.
And some for T-12's are.
.
A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
A friend of mine bought what she calls her "Happy Light" but it was around $300. She's a no-nonsense individual, a nurse practitioner, and suffers from SAD despite an active life and oodles of outdoor exercise. She's tried other lights, but said this one actually works for her. I can find the maker, if you're interested. She was going to loan it to me to try, but i started remodeling another part of the house instead...works every time!
Now, if i could just get a DIY arthroscopy kit for a torn memniscus... :^(
This is the company that makes mine.
http://www.bluemaxlighting.com/
Use it sporatically but I like it.Remodeling Contractor just on the other side of the Glass City
http://www.sunbox.com/Products/ProductPopUp.asp?ProductID=239
or
small model - http://www.sunbox.com/Products/ProductPopUp.asp?ProductID=78
Jeff