Saturday, April 18, 2009 dave jones

Hi. I to become depressed every spring time or when the sun starts to appear after the winter months which is completely opposite to the normal SAD symptoms.I have taken antidepressants over the years (i am 45) but don't like to become dependent on them just for a few months of the year as it takes a couple of months for them to work and once we go into June i start to feel better anyway so the pills are really of no use.I have noticed that i never feel depressed in the winter months (again totally opposite of SAD) .Over the years of trying loads of different vitamin/herbal/ cures i came across 5HTP which is naturally made in the body using the amino acid tryptophan it is than used by the brain to make serotonin(which can improve moods and can be as effective as antidepressants as certain drugs like Prozac work in a similar way by increasing serotonin).For me i have found taken 5 HTP in a vitamin pill form and increasing my intake of food rich in tryptophan (broccoli,carrots,cauliflower,brussel sprouts,fish,chicken,soya bean, etc) i have found drinking a couple of litres of soya bean milk daily especially seems to lift moods.

I hope this might be of use to other springtime suffers, it seems to work for me ,I'm not saying you will be jumping for joy everyday but i have found it does enough for me to be able to cope till the summer months arrive and i am not taking a drug ,which is a better option if it works for you .I have tried to find any information on this condition but cannot find much it is mostly on the SAD (seasonal affective disorder) which oddly is the lack of sunlight which causes the depression which in my case seems to be the opposite as during the dark days of winter I'm fine but once the sun starts to appear in spring down go my spirits and towards the end of may start of June my spirits lift. Its as if it takes the whole of winter into the start of spring for me to start having SAD symptoms which than makes you blame(wrongly) the sunlight in springtime for the depression,it than takes the sunlight during springtime to start making you feel better so by early summer your mood has lifted.I hope this makes sense,as i have said there doesn't seem to be much research into this type of seasonal depression and i might be totally wrong.Would be very interesting to find out to what extent this condition effects the population.