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Hey there

Robbie - I love that picture too - haven't seen snow like that since January/Frbruary 1982 in north Wales! Your dog is a New Foundland - they are awesome dogs - I have 2 labrador retrievers and a Schnauzer - and they really do seem to fel our pain - there is a special connection between people and dogs and I think thay can have a spiritual side too - there is a Dean Koontz novel that explores this a little - 'The Darkest Evening of the Year'.
Being in the southern hemmisphere, I have summer right now - temps of 34C and 99% humidity - feeling terrible - I hate it! We have summer rainfall, so our winters are great - temps anything from 18C to 28C, but no humidity and endless sunshine. Durban has never had so much as a frost - I have to travel 2 hours to the mountains for real cold - can get to -5C at night with occasional snow - not every year.
How I long for some of that chill factor - red cheeks and cold ears - please send me some!

It sounds like you guys actually have some elements of clinical depression - that feeling disappointed with yourself, lots of sleeping, no energy etc. But we have hit March, so in another month you should see a difference in your weather and I hope it cures what ails you, if not, see a doc!
Lori, wish me some snow, please, my kids have never seen it except on TV!

great pic robbie!

how much vit d3 are people taking regularly? has everyone had their 25hydroxycholecalciferol levels tested during that late winter season, when they are feeling down? also the subject of the pineal gland has been brought up before, and i think even if it's a sunny day out, if you can follow the cat around from window to window thru the day might bring some good feelings and recharge.

so i'm thinking about co-factors in natural (as opposed to fortified) food sources. maybe ppl could try upping their dietary vitamin D3 also??
tinned or cooked salmon, or cooked bluefin tuna both look like pretty excellent sources. herring and trout finish far behind, but even those are both still far better than egg yolk. http://www.bchealthguide.org/healthfile ... .stm#hf004

also the b-complex can give you a little pick me up, especially b6 and b12.[/url]

Can't help you out with the snow-that's why we left Ohio in the first place! Actually, it was the gray, rainy skies that did it. If it would have always snowed but have been sunny I could have dealt with it!
Lori

I've had trouble with being depressed in late winter for he past four years and I was only dxed last year. I get lazy and lethargic as well. I think a lot of people get seasonal depression, MS or not , I've always just toughed it out and took advantage of the nice days when we have them.

Well being that I am in San Diego I guess i will not complain about the weather. It was a brisk 73F today..brrr. The beach was nice yesterday though. I am sorry for gloating, I have to have something to be thankful for...the weather I guess.

Ok that said I can not even take a walk in the dead of summer here due to heat induced crazy symptoms (cross-talk my neuro calls it). I often think of moving somewhere cold to keep from overheating. I do not know how the bone chilling cold would affect me, but I do like semi-cold >40 temps. I hope all of yaw'll find some good weather and relief. I wish I had something like the weather to explain how I feel.

I've found similar problems with the cold weather, and truthfully, I don't think it's seasonal affective disorder...at least in my particular case. I was just diagnosed in December, but I had known for a while that something wasn't quite right. That being said, I've never once had what would be classified as an exacerbation in the warm (or even hot) weather, and I spend a lot of time outside in the summer. Between my job, and my off time working around the house, the heat has historically never been a problem for me. And looking back, the two incidents that I experienced prior to diagnosis were both in the cold weather months.

Conversely, the cold weather seems to hit me like Kryptonite. When I first got out of the hospital, I was walking with a cane for the first week or two, as my exacerbation was mostly related to numbness/ataxia in the left leg. Most times, I was fine as far as getting around the house. However, if I were to walk up the street to pick the kids up from school, or to go to the local skating rink to watch my daughter's skating lessons, I could literally feel the strength being sapped from me. My leg would get tired very quickly, and overall fatigue would set in very quickly.

Even now that all of my symptoms have cleared up, the cold still gets to me from time to time. I can get on the elliptical or treadmill at the gym, and exercise heavily for 30 minutes or more at a time, but every now and then, even a brief walk in the cold weather will still affect me. As far as I'm concerned, spring can't come quickly enough!