reverse SAD -- love of cloudy days and dislike sunny days (depressed, medication)
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I live in the upper Midwest (Grand Forks ND) and I have ran into many people who suffer from SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) due to our shorter days, and often cloudy and cold weather. Once summer arrives and days are longer many people are very happy.
I am the opposite and always have been. I strongly prefer cloudy days with no sun for days on end and I love nighttime and dislike daylight. This time of the year and through the winter, I am happier, exercise more, and I want to be awake more. Once Spring arrives and the grass greens up and it hits about 70 degrees I can go through a period of severe anxiety and can get very short tempered in the hot temperatures over the summer.
I grew up in Kentucky and was that way as a child too....pulling the blinds down in the summer and never going outside in the heat versus always going out when it snowed in the winter. That is one reason I moved to where I did to escape the summer heat as much as possible. Anything above 75 or 80, and I just dread going outside as I sweat terribly and get very irritated easily.
I just want to stay inside my house with blinds down and the A/C on.
In the winter time...I love being outside and love being cold. I often wear shorts down to 30 degrees where people think I am crazy. My body can tolerate cold very well versus the heat.
My question is how many others out there are like this? I have been recently to my doctor as I noticed over this past summer in particular, my irritiability and anger was more severe than usual. I can usually handle two sunny days in a row, but give my 4 or 5 without much clouds and I just feel like shutting myself in and my wife notices I am way more irritable and I complain all the time. I had my doctor do blood work and all was normal with the exception of testosterone which was in the 180 range (I am in my mid 40s). I started treatment, but while that may explain the extreme irritability and moodiness over the past summer, it doesnt explain my aversion to sun and my love of cloudy days.
I am in the weather forecasting field as a career, and for this upcoming week in my area it will be cloudy for the next 5-7 days. I am elated and so happy as it had been sunny for the past few days. My co-workers talk about the gloom and I love it. Surely there are others like this.
My doctor has said that reverse SAD is real and I certainly feel it.
Sorry for the rambling....
Dan
Last edited by Kamsack; 11-14-2010 at 05:41 AM..
Reason: spelling
'Seasonal Affective Disorder???'...What the hell is THAT? ROFL...I do believe I've heard everything now.
We get about 364 days out of 365 of sunshine here...and you can bet I jump up and down and head for the outdoors when clouds and rain are about.
Clouds mean that ball of fire up there is no longer keeping me locked up inside, roasting me like a pig on a spit, not being blinded and choked by duststorms, and is not trying to put me in my grave earlier than need be. Rain is life, fresh and clean air, cool, and everything is green and bursting with life...sun means everything is brown, stifling and dying a slow lingering death.
I don't mind that ball of fire up there...in moderation, but there's nothing like some clouds and especially rain to cheer me up.
People think *I'm* crazy when I head for the outdoors when it's misting rain, or light showers {obviously can't stay out when it's bucketing down, although it's great to be under a big brolly or verandah as close to it as I can get when it is}, and how good a sound is that? Listening to all those raindrops hitting the galvo roof and seeing the earth soaking all that water up. I sympathise with those who have tiled rooves...they can't hear it.
'SAD?'...Certainly don't need three guesses as to who could come up with the idea anyone could be considered *suffering???* from that. If anyone believes that, then I guess they'd believe anything.
Dunno about you but I'm perfectly normal, and I don't 'suffer???' from any seasonal 'disorder???'. Gotta say, that's about the most absurd thing I've heard in a long while, and I'm still ROFL...Wonder what affliction I'd be 'suffering' from if I picked my nose or scratched my bum? The only thing I'd be 'suffering?' from is a blocked nose and itchy bum from sitting on it too long.
'Seasonal Affective Disorder???'...What the hell is THAT? ROFL...I do believe I've heard everything now.
We get about 364 days out of 365 of sunshine here...and you can bet I jump up and down and head for the outdoors when clouds and rain are about.
Clouds mean that ball of fire up there is no longer keeping me locked up inside, roasting me like a pig on a spit, not being blinded and choked by duststorms, and is not trying to put me in my grave earlier than need be. Rain is life, fresh and clean air, cool, and everything is green and bursting with life...sun means everything is brown, stifling and dying a slow lingering death.
I don't mind that ball of fire up there...in moderation, but there's nothing like some clouds and especially rain to cheer me up.
People think *I'm* crazy when I head for the outdoors when it's misting rain, or light showers {obviously can't stay out when it's bucketing down, although it's great to be under a big brolly or verandah as close to it as I can get when it is}, and how good a sound is that? Listening to all those raindrops hitting the galvo roof and seeing the earth soaking all that water up. I sympathise with those who have tiled rooves...they can't hear it.
'SAD?'...Certainly don't need three guesses as to who could come up with the idea anyone could be considered *suffering???* from that. If anyone believes that, then I guess they'd believe anything.
Dunno about you but I'm perfectly normal, and I don't 'suffer???' from any seasonal 'disorder???'. Gotta say, that's about the most absurd thing I've heard in a long while, and I'm still ROFL...Wonder what affliction I'd be 'suffering' from if I picked my nose or scratched my bum? The only thing I'd be 'suffering?' from is a blocked nose and itchy bum from sitting on it too long.
Seasonal Affective Disorder is the label given to a condition many people experience, when the hours of daylight shorten in the winter. It's a series of more severe depression symptoms than just the usual winter blahs, including fatigue, muscle pain, headaches, yes - sadness and melancholy of course..eye strain, sleeplessness, restlessness - it's physiological as well as psycological. In other words, this particular problem affects the body AND the mind.
The fact that you have never heard of it til now shows ignorance, and misplaced arrogance on your part. The term has been around for over 20 years, it's nothing new.
Perhaps before making fun of something you've never heard of in the future, you might look it up and see if maybe you're about to make fun of something most people know at least -something- about.
SAD is pretty common in the northern latitudes of the world....maybe a bit less so in the south. SAD is a bit more than just wishing it was sunny or warm out in the winter months, but I do know some who are on anti-depressants in the winter.
Now the reverse SAD seems to be pretty rare, where the impacts are opposite. Almost as if you are allergic to the sun or heat, and can definitely affect moods and just overall being. The reverse SAD isnt well known, and I know a lot of folks do scoff at my feelings of loving the cloudy weather and not liking the summer sun and heat. But I have been in discussions with my family doctor about ways to better treat it. So far anxiety medication has helped. I dont feel depressed per se, but overall my body just gets real hot and very uncomfortable at a much lower outside temperature than most. This past summer seemed to be much worse as it was combined with apparent low testosterone levels.
I am like the OP - I LOVE rainy, cloudy weather and detest hot weather. I also get very irritable in the heat. I have met few people that have the same preference. I am also more of an introvert. I am a writer and dabble in artwork and projects and love to work on these things when the weather is stormy.
Not only is SAD real, there are treatments developed for it, including special lights. Not a recurring cost since once you buy it, that's it. People use them for some time each day.
I had actually never heard about SAD until about a year ago when I was researching WA. (Just found out about reverse SAD this summer) My husband and I had been searching for a new place to live and a lot of threads in the WA section of City-Data mentioned SAD. The summers in IN are horrible for us. I get extreme headaches, body aches, get depressed, anxiety, short temper, and just feel miserable all over. My husband gets hot and sweaty easily and when it gets too bad, his anxiety problems kick in big time. I love going outside when it's raining or cloudy. It relaxes me. Everything smells so fresh and clean. I don't have insurance so I've never been to a doctor about this. I've just been trying to deal with it but every summer seems to get worse and worse. My mom thinks I'm crazy because I get so happy whenever it is cloudy or rainy here. She loves the hot weather and sun. After checking out WA, we decided that we are moving there next year. Narrowing down to somewhere on the Olympic Peninsula. It's a long way from all our family but we have decided to do what makes us happy. We don't have kids so this is perfect time to find weather that suits us.
Seasonal Affective Disorder is the label given to a condition many people experience, when the hours of daylight shorten in the winter. It's a series of more severe depression symptoms than just the usual winter blahs, including fatigue, muscle pain, headaches, yes - sadness and melancholy of course..eye strain, sleeplessness, restlessness - it's physiological as well as psycological. In other words, this particular problem affects the body AND the mind.
The fact that you have never heard of it til now shows ignorance, and misplaced arrogance on your part. The term has been around for over 20 years, it's nothing new.
Perhaps before making fun of something you've never heard of in the future, you might look it up and see if maybe you're about to make fun of something most people know at least -something- about.
Don't mean to take the mickey out of it , but you gotta admit, only todays society could tag a name to anyone who doesn't toe the line with popular opinion, or what's considered the 'norm'.
Sure, I agree some feel decidedly different {I'm one}, but for heavens sake we gotta live with seasonal changes and take them for what they are, appreciate those changes in conditions for life and living. For those who live in a predominantly overcast or rainy climate, they may feel like crap...the same for those who live with that fire ball blazing down most days of the year, but you gotta take the good with the bad...in my case it's that sun which is 'bad' .
Praps someone could tell me what condition one may 'suffer?' from if they enjoy sunshine, clear blue skies, swimming, hiking, skiing or whatever? They obviously must also 'suffer' from this so called SAD thing as well, why aren't THEY tagged with some terminology {or are they?}. Moods and stuff change all the time for one reason or another, but it's nothing to be medicated for for goodness sake. Without those seasonal changes we simply wouldn't be here.
The fact is, only todays academics could consider that anyone who has a preference for cloudy and/or rainy days 'suffer?' from some 'affliction' and have a name tagged to it. It's called 'life', and we gotta live it, I believe we've been doing it for quite a while now...and without a doctors diagnosis.
Those who feel better when it's cloudy or rainy do so cos they have a preference {for one reason or another} for that rather than sunshine. They don't 'suffer' from anything, if they do it's cos they don't appreciate or have trouble accepting those seasonal changes for the life cycle in which they exist.
I don't 'suffer' from anything, those who love the sunshine etc are the one's who suffer from some 'affliction' ...whatever name the academics wanna put to it.
OH, and just in closing, praps people read a tad too much sometimes, cut back on that reading and get involved with life a bit more . And I'm not ignorant or arrogant, just don't subscribe to the inference that anyone should be tagged with some medical terminology for something that is as natural as going to the loo...Life, be in it! Not listen to some quack isolating people with some imaginary belief they are 'suffering?' from something, all they are suffering from is 'life', and we all suffer from that in one way or another.
And no-one has given me a medical terminology for picking my nose or scratching my bum yet? And I ain't gunna look it up either, cos I've no doubt they probly HAVE got some name for it...ROFL again.
Enjoy life while it's there, it's gunna run out soon enough...and you don't get a second shot at it!
If someone enjoys reading, praps they should read this:
"I shall pass through this world but once,
Any good, therefore, that I can show to any human being,
Let me do it now,
Let me not defer nor neglect it,
For I shall not pass this way again."
...Author Stephen Grellet.
Now they should think about those seasonal changes and enjoy them for what they are, instead of thinking {or being told} they 'suffer?' from anything.
As I said, this has nothing to do with preference. Are you not understanding the word physiological?
It's not a matter of what people like or dislike. I love thunderstorms. But I don't experience a physiological change during them, nor do I experience a physiological downswing when there's no storm. It's a matter of personal preference for me. I just really like them. That has nothing to do with suffering, or disorders.
I also experience depression in the winter, and particularly in late January into early March. This is when the days are the shortest in my corner of the country. I get achy, I get migraines (I'm nursing one now) that I don't ever get when I'm exposed to plenty of sunlight. I oversleep, I'm lethargic. I don't know if I have SAD or not, I've never asked for a diagnosis. But those are some of the symptoms of it. People who have it more severely than I often get treated for it with sun lamp exposure. From what I've read about it, it helps.
Mostly though, you really have nothing of value to add to the discussion, other than to make mockery of people who experience something you, in your myopic view of the world, lack the brain function to comprehend.
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, but you gotta admit, only todays society could tag a name to anyone who doesn't toe the line with popular opinion, or what's considered the 'norm'.
.
They obviously must also 'suffer' from this so called SAD thing as well, why aren't THEY tagged with some terminology {or are they?}. Moods and stuff change all the time for one reason or another, but it's nothing to be medicated for for goodness sake. Without those seasonal changes we simply wouldn't be here.
...whatever name the academics wanna put to it.
. And I'm not ignorant or arrogant, just don't subscribe to the inference that anyone should be tagged with some medical terminology for something that is as natural as going to the loo...Life, be in it! Not listen to some quack isolating people with some imaginary belief they are 'suffering?' from something, all they are suffering from is 'life', and we all suffer from that in one way or another.
And I ain't gunna look it up either, cos I've no doubt they probly HAVE got some name for it...ROFL again.
