Thanks Ann! I ordered my sad light and it should be here Wed. I am seeing my regular physician the 3rd. And will address the issue with him. Will post to you when I have used my SAD light for at least a week. Hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving! Mine was good as it gets. Today was wonderful. Tonight I feel the sadness! But then Holidays are terrible for me. My kids tell me no matter how I tried to put on a brave face that they always saw the sadness underneath.

Hi BHS, That is great that you will have your light box soon. You will feel a lot better after a few days, a few weeks. But to keep on feeling better you need to use it everyday even if you feel great or if you don't feel like it.

I am glad that you enjoyed your Thanksgiving! Part of our family celebrated it at an all you can eat restaurant. The buffet was tasty...I hope that you will get high in the celebration of the holidays!

My husband fixed me and him a touching 2 person dinner Thanksgiving, no running here and there, and today we had brunch at 10 at my daughter's house with all the family. I actually enjoyed it tremendously. No trying to balance their in-laws and peace, joy, laughter and Thanks with just our family! A first ! No HOLIDAY
BLUES!

I am glad that you are having a good beginning to the holiday season...I swim and do other exercise which my mental health professionals say helps some mental health symptoms. I swam today. I am less anxious - more relaxed when the healthy energy surges throughout my body.

So happy for you! You are a fighter I can tell. Hope your holidays are better with each day. . If I start my day with Bible Reading and Prayer the day is often better. My faith keeps me going.

Thanks for the well wishes towards the holidays. I start the day with prayer also. I am Catholic. What religion are you? There is a higher power beyond ourselves. My therapist encourages her clients to be religious. Spirituality is precious stuff in most all religions.

I am Baptist. And I agree completely.! Living in a small town makes the selection limited as to therapist. Everyone knows everyone else's business. I went to the next town and lo and behold my therapist is from my town. And I do not trust them not to talk. Maybe not names but enough info people can figure it out. Not that they are bad, just human and everybody talks about work! LOL!

I pray right now that you will get the psychiatric care that you need and that your therapist will keep your words confidential...I live in Madison, Wisconsin. There is a lot of competition between medical providers, because there is a world class teaching university here. When I lived in Stevens Point, Wisconsin there were not many choices for my medical needs.

Hi BHS

A counselor is legally required to keep your information confidential, with the exception of imminent danger you will harm yourself or in some criminal cases.
If you can find a psychologist that is registered with a Federal or State association you can be very certain they will be ethical. Sometimes counselors will belong to a small group of co-counselors to get a perspective on a patient's obstacle but they will not reveal their patients name or any issues other than the specific difficulty in understanding The other counselors are bound by the same confidentiality as your therapist. A counselor that reveals a patients information can be reported to the regulating association he reports to and it is serious as he/she can be banned from practicing.

As you develop trust, you may find you can reveal very painful things and it will help resolve how you *think* about an issue, even those that cannot be changed.
Good Luck!

Thanks Ann,
I think our prayers have been answered. I did not find another counselor within 75 miles but I found an article on "Focus On The Family" that describes so much of what I am going thru. It is called "Living without Constant Guilt" and you might like to read it. The link is http://www.focusonthefamily.com/lifechallenges/emotional_health/living_without_constant_guilt.aspx Another good article on the same thing is True Or False Guilt at this link http://flobe.hubpages.com/hub/Guilty-True-or-False I have ordered the book mentioned on Focus on the family. Both these and the book I think are real answers to prayers. And how is your week?