Hello Dr. Ballas,

I had SAD [Seasonal Affective Disorder] for close to 15 years without realizing I should've told the psychiatrist about it.  For two hours every night, from the fall until the first day of spring, I would be bawled up in tears on the couch, crying my eyes out.  I suspected I had SAD, but had no idea I could treat it.  I let this continue for close to 15 years.

When the psychiatrist increased the Stelazine from a daily dose of 5 mg to 10 mg each day, as soon as he did that [in September 2003], the SAD stopped cold and I no longer had it.  Now, I'm on the maintenance dose of Geodon, and the Seasonal Affective Disorder hasn't come back.

I've written about this before at the Connection, and wanted to bring it up again as it related to your expert blog about this condition.

Like you, I urge anyone with the seasonal or winter blues to tell their psychiatrist immediately. 

You may ask why I never did, well, I'm a "self-determination" kind of person, and I kept telling myself I was an emotional mess and that something was wrong with me, it was something I was responsible for.  But most likely, I didn't tell the psychiatrist because from October to March iI was immobilized in such a depressed state that I was too busy feeling blue to marshal the strength to even articulate how I felt.

I kid you not, regular like clockwork, on the first day of spring, the SAD would end.  It would reappear like clockwork in October.

Go figure.

And go to your doctor if you're experiencing this, you don't have to spend another minute trampled on by your feelings.  That's because the SAD is also tied in to the schizophrenia (SZ) because the SZ affects our feelings as well as our thoughts.

Regards,

Christina