How well do light boxes work for SAD? (Seattle: houses, buy)

[PencilMeIn]

Originally Posted by seattlenextyear

Maybe its wrong to live in a place where you have to have a box that consumes large amounts of electricity just to make the air colder.

or warmer.....which ever you prefer......it's always something. But I seriously don't want to sit in front of a light box to make me happy......I prefer the natural light orb.

[MaikeerinWA]

Who doesn't prefer the real thing?

Originally Posted by samsmom

But I seriously don't want to sit in front of a light box to make me happy......I prefer the natural light orb.

[PencilMeIn]

Originally Posted by MichaelinWA

Who doesn't prefer the real thing?

But that's the problem.....you can't get enough of the real thing out here.

[tada]

Originally Posted by samsmom

But that's the problem.....you can't get enough of the real thing out here.

So true. Apparently this is one of the few places where we use the term "sunbreak". I've never lived anywhere else, but apparently the term is popular only here. We're so desperate for sun that we have to settle for "sunbreaks", like junkies having to settle for any small fix they can get. They only last about 3 minutes and then is goes back to being cloudy. At least in other places, they can just admit that it's cloudy and hope tomorrow will be better. Not so here. Those "sunbreaks" could be the last sunshine you see for the next month.

The only thing that gets me through is that I have less than a year until I am done with college and move somewhere that doesn't suck.

[vanbao]

Alright Jenbar and SeattleNextYear. Stop arguing.

The bottom line is, Seattle is a beautiful place to live. There are a lot of things going on here that is heaven. However, the one downside is lack of sun. If Seattle has a much sun as most cities in the US, everyone would be flocking here.

I love Seattle for the clean air, the trees, the mild weather, and the diversed population. However, I am stuck with not getting enough sun light. Thus, my wife had to buy me the light to keep me from being grumpy and depress.

That is it. There are gives and takes. Can't have everything.

[goldengrain]

Originally Posted by Jenbar

Public areas in Seattle are air conditioned much more than 2 weeks.

I would rather put on some sunscreen, vs take supplements, anti-depressants and sit in front of a light box... but hey, if that's your thing, go for it.

To try and argue this point with someone who doesn't even live there, and never has to even experience what years of Seattle winters can do to you - is petty and pointless.

As was stated previously, many people have no problem at all. I am going to put full spectrum bulbs in my entire apartment, but that is also for my plants and I have an indoor cat and how can an animal tell you that it requires more light? I just think cats spend so much time in the sunlight in windows, that perhaps it is for more than the warmth.

[goldengrain]

Originally Posted by vanbao

Alright Jenbar and SeattleNextYear. Stop arguing.

The bottom line is, Seattle is a beautiful place to live. There are a lot of things going on here that is heaven. However, the one downside is lack of sun. If Seattle has a much sun as most cities in the US, everyone would be flocking here.

I love Seattle for the clean air, the trees, the mild weather, and the diverse population. However, I am stuck with not getting enough sun light. Thus, my wife had to buy me the light to keep me from being grumpy and depress.

That is it. There are gives and takes. Can't have everything.

I agree. No place is perfect. I cannot abide heat and humidity and find the huge snows in the north intimidating. The middle of the country has all of those tornadoes, more and more each year, it seems. Seattle's electricity comes from waterfalls, so it does not burn fossil fuel or require nuclear power. If there are water shortages, desalinization is possible, and Seattle has so much water around it. There are land breaks for tsunamis.

If it were not for a fault line running right under it, and all the properties near the shore being built on compacted aggregate and not bedrock, and the volcano, of coarse, it would be perfect.

Anyplace confronts us with trade offs.

[vanbao]

Originally Posted by goldengrain

I agree. No place is perfect. I cannot abide heat and humidity and find the huge snows in the north intimidating. The middle of the country has all of those tornadoes, more and more each year, it seems. Seattle's electricity comes from waterfalls, so it does not burn fossil fuel or require nuclear power. If there are water shortages, desalinization is possible, and Seattle has so much water around it. There are land breaks for tsunamis.

If it were not for a fault line running right under it, and all the properties near the shore being built on compacted aggregate and not bedrock, and the volcano, of coarse, it would be perfect.

Anyplace confronts us with trade offs.

The Puget Sound has a lot going for it, lots of job, mild weather and great diversed population. Some people are concern about the fault line to to be honest you all, I think that is over rated. These days, all houses build required it to be build to seismic codes. In other words, buildings are required to be built to withstand a certain size earthquate. It is not in the old days when buildings were build with bricks and mortars and they were not reinforced. Even if there is a fault line underneath us, I don't think it is a concern.

Take Japan for example, the whole country is an vocano and it on a fault line. Yet, there are less fatality there due to earth quake and vocanoes than other places.

I am a civil engineer and I feel so safe here that I don't even buy earth quake insurance for my house.

So in short, don't worry about the earthquate and the vocano. What I don't like is the rain and the clouds.

[jwb123]

When "The Big One" that everyone is talking about comes, earthquake insurance and building codes won't matter. It's not a question of "if", it's a question of "when" - this is proven.

[texastrigirl]

Moved to WA in late July from TX so primo candidate for SAD as I love the sun and heat. I bought the above mentioned GoLite in early March off the Costco website as they told me at the store it was "out of season". And I said "Have you looked outside today?". I did it 15 minutes a day up until the beginning of May and it helped so much I could not believe it! Wish I had started it in December! I went from sleeping 10-12 hours a day and not being able to get out of bed to sleeping 8-9 hours and not needing to nap at 4pm each day. I also did Vit D supps. My husband even made the comment that he noticed I seemed better. I just do it in the morning while checking email for 15 minutes. Worth a try for you!!