Hi Davey,

I hope you are still feeling a little better or more today. Next winter I plan to get some kind of SADD lights to try and help my mood which for the past several years has tended to get worse in the fall as the days get short. Years ago, I tended to feel better in the winter and then feel worse when the days started to get longer--I remember thinking about how everyone else was perking up and outdoors a lot in the spring, and I just wanted to crawl under my covers. Why it switched over to more of a winter depressions phenomenon I don't know.

Your posting reminded me of something I have been thinking about for quite awhile. I have been taking various psychotropics for almost 25 years. I definitely had hypomanic and depressive episodes before I started taking medicine. One big difference I have noticed is that before I started medication, I had extended periods of stress and anxiety in my life that seem to lead to these episodes. Now the depressive episodes seem to come from nowhere--it's like a trap door just sprang(is sprang a word?) open. One day I am fine and the next I am completely overwhelmed with depression. Because these mood changes seem to come from nowhere--unrelated to how my life is going--I think I find myself much more demoralized and upset by them than the episodes before medication that seemed related to what was going on in my life. I was wondering if you and anyone else experienced depressive episodes either or both ways and what you think about it?

Meta