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Move south to blunt seasonal issues?
Hello all,
I have bipolar disorder (among other things) that seems to have a pronounced seasonal aspect. More depression in the winter. Several times now my various doctors/other providers have asked me if I ever thought about moving south (I have always lived in states bordering Canada).
I think they’re partly joking but they also seem kind of serious.
I guess my first question is, has anyone found that their bipolar illness got better or worse with a change in latitude?
My second question is, has anyone else had their docs suggest this? I’m feeling pretty annoyed. I already do so many things to try and manage this illness, and now you’re saying I need to move my entire life and family just “south”? It makes me feel like a failure. It also seems like a pretty big gamble - what if it doesn’t work? Maybe I won’t have a seasonal component but I’ll still have just as many episodes.
Thanks for letting me vent. It’s hard enough doing all the meds, therapy, lifestyle stuff, and then being told to move on top of it.
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Absence of light, long winters, can exacerbate depression. It's seasonal affective disorder.
Waking 5am on a bright morning shuts down melatonin (sleep transmitter pineal gland) and opens seratonin (happy alert and well being transmitter) gates. Maybe also dopamine.
Waking 5am in winter is dark. Melatonin is not re-uptaked- you want to sleep. No spurt of seratonin or dopamine to get you going. Coffee is the stimulant but it's from outside , not endogenous and not natural. Hyper Jittery.
If you have to get up for work, it's a stressor. Runs against your internal seasonal/daily clock. Result may be depression.
Some people move south for more light. It's cheaper to try a light box made for this, instead of moving and finding out it doesn"t help enough.
Think Moscow vs Madrid or "sunny Greece."
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3 ReactionsWe moved from SO. CAL. to the PNW over 30 years ago, and S.A.D. is a very real thing. The lack of sunshine for 6 months at a time up here from October until April makes my depression worse. I had to get up at 4:30 in the morning for my job for almost 17 years, which definitely didn't help either.
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1 Reaction@mrmacabre would you consider moving back to alleviate some of the symptom burden?
Living in California sounds great other than the high cost of living and the wildfires I suppose. I’ve always kind of wanted to move to the PNW, although I do realize that rainy gray skies may not be ideal for the mood
It’s strange that some of the “happiest” countries in the world are the Scandinavian countries, where there is so little light much of the year.
@ashleyharris728 Not a chance, we wouldn't move back to any part of California if they paid us. It's become it's own 3rd world country since we left in '94. Homelessness, corruption, high taxes, high gas prices, plus the fact that it's been run into the ground financially by the morons in charge have made me ashamed to be a native of that state.