Seasonal Affective Disorder/Seasonal Depression/SAD and TMS

[sunshyne]

Hello all,

I'm wondering if anyone has read anything related Seasonal Affective Disorder with TMS? After dealing for six+ months multiple health issues, including a pain issue in my foot that began to spread to my knee, I read The Great Pain Deception. I saw myself in the book, and realized what was going on, and those issues have since gone away. I'm running again, building mileage without fear, and I keep getting better and better. When/if I feel any twinge of pain, I focus on another body part that feels good, and reflect on what is bothering me. To me if the pain or other various symptoms show up, it appears to be a sign that something is irritating me that I am not expressing.

Last year I had serious, disabling torso pain, which the doctors labeled endometriosis, gave me a dismal prognosis and said I'd have to get surgery to remove errant tissue forming in my body. I instead tried acupuncture, which helped, and to which the practitioner said that my liver and spleen were out of balance. I found it in a way unsurprising then what I read in the Great Pain Deception. According to Eastern Medicine the liver gets out of balance and causes blockages in blood flow/qi circulation if the person is repressing emotions - especially anger (of course at the time, I though, "But I'm not angry"... LOL). The spleen gets out of balance if the person is thinking too much, also discussed in the book. I released the emotions through resuming my running again on a serious level and just letting them go as they came out, and the pain went away and has not returned. No surgery.

Back to my question, I've had serious problems with Seasonal Affective Disorder especially since my father died in 2012. Reflecting, I think I have had problems with it on and off for the past twenty years. However, after reading the Great Pain Deception, I feel it could be related to TMS. It seems it could be the body's conditioned response to a stimulus and, it does work to distract the person through obsessing about it, having them getting tired/depressed/anxious and causing other issues with other symptoms. It is also worsened by stress, and things such as massage and meditation have been shown to help.

I have not found any links but am wondering if others have read anything about it. I was slated to move away due to this problem (causing more internal anger, I realized), and it would be great for me to stay or move on my own accord and not out of fear of another medical condition.

Thank you!

 

[Birdie]

Hi sunshyne,
I guess nearly everything can be TMS-related. Never the less some people might react to the darker times of the years stronger than other people. Using a light box in the winter months for about half an hour every day in the morning would be worth a try (10.000 lux are recommended).
Research on this topics reveal low cortisol/serotonine levels in people with SAD. Low cortisol levels are linked to stress-intolerance, pain, fatigue, PTBS and even atypical depression and SAD. BUT the most important thing: chronic low cortisol is nearly always a consequence of chronic long term stress. The HPA-axis gets depleted . I guess lots of TMS sufferes have this "feature". Can be reversed by emotional work and stress reduction.
So if you feel you need some more help additionally to the TMS work try a bright light box to naturally raise your serotonine-levels. It also activates the HPA axis and can correct disturbed sleep-wake-cycles.
I do not suffer from SAD but used a light box in the winter months and feelt more refreshed in these times.
I guess moving away is not the answer. If it's tms-related then the symptom imperative will kick in soon.

 

[sunshyne]

Thanks. I've already used medical lights, plenty of them. I just see links when I read the literature. Moving to a sunnier location is a well documented answer, if it is not tms related.

I think it is, though.

 

[Walt Oleksy (RIP 2021)]

Doctors say we should get enough sunshine. In winter or on cludy days we may not get enough sunshine, even if we're outdoors, but many of us work so we are indoors when the sun is out. My doctor recommended I take a daily supplement of sunshine in the form of a Vitamin D tablet. I think it helps.

But Vit. B is not supposed to be as good as getting actual sunshine.

 

[sunshyne]

I think getting sunshine is healthy. But there is a difference between someone going out and getting sunshine, and someone whose life is disabled because of severe SAD. That is what I am talking about. Disabling SAD being TMS. I had disabling SAD and my Vitamin D, Vitamin B levels were lab tested to be too high...

 

[Gigalos]

I think there is also a huge soothing factor when it comes to sunshine... In winter there is less soothing to enjoy, so the probability of running into mindbody symptoms is higher than in summer.
In my view mindbody symptoms are often exaggerated (conditioned) reactions of the mindbody to certain triggers. If this is because the mind develops distractions to prevent unconscious emotions jumping to conscious or because being in stressmode for a long time simply leads to physically and mentally unbalance doesn't matter much... the result is the same: exaggerated (conditioned) physical and/or mental reactions to certain triggers.
So if people in general lack vitamins in winter (don't know if this is the case) and are a little bit down, TMS-sufferers show a greater lack and get seriously depressed. If people in general tend to get a bit sneezy when the grass pollens become airborne in spring, TMS-sufferers develop runny noses, puffy eyes and produce gallons of snot. To extend this to pain, if people in general get a little sore from working in the garden, TMS-sufferers get spasmed, painful muscles for weeks or months on end.
A nice example I heard lately was a guy who complained about his upper back getting worse in winter. a) he was convinced (conditioned) it would happen and b) in winter he misses the soothing factor of the sun... a double whammy. I don't know what the unconscious trigger connected to winter is in his case, but I am pretty sure there is one. Maybe he hates being confined more to his house, having to deal with his wife with whom he has a difficult relationship.... Maybe he got lost in the snow once when he was four years old.... who knows...
In my case it also works the other way around, I have issues when it comes to summer vacations because most social activities come to a temporarily stop. I miss the soothing factor (distractions) of those activities. No need to get in further detail, but I tend to get more mindbody symptoms when summer is approaching.

 

[sunshyne]

I used to also have reverse SAD symptoms in the summer along with winter. The predominant symptom was severe insomnia with some anxiety. That went away after finding about TMS. I am hopeful, and fairly sure, that my winter symptoms will go away too... how freeing that will be.