StrokeSurvivorBlog

The thought of winter and the early onset of cold weather in Wisconsin has been the source of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) in my husband, a stroke survivor. He’s been having a lot of depression in the last year, but coupled with SAD, it’s taking its toll on him and he dreads the long winter months ahead.

I’ve been trying to find things to keep him interested in living, in spite of the gloomy days. Today we took a one-day coach bus trip to Door County to take in the Fall colors. In the past we made that trek many times by ourselves, but not since his stroke. Surprisingly, Steve really enjoyed himself even though the day started out rainy. It was just good for him to be with other people, even though he was the only man on the bus with 35 women. He laughed and cut jokes with the bus driver, and he had some good conversation with other passengers.

Planned fun activities seem to be an important key to take his mind off the weather, and hopefully they will help keep the Seasonal Affective Disorder at bay. Now I understand why Steve always wanted to take a vacation every winter to a warm sunny location. I’ll have to do some creative thinking to come up with some more outings that we can enjoy together, something that will be appropriate for a handicapped person.

Lately it’s been hard to encourage Steve when he’s depressed. The struggle is hard for him and he seems to have lost interest and motivation for getting better. Negative thinking  has replaced hope, so today it was so encouraging to see him in a good mood with something as simple as that outing.

According to some other research I’ve done, I’ve found that another treatment for SAD is using a light box, but we haven’t purchased one yet. If anyone has one, please let me know if it was effective for you in treating Seasonal Affective Disorder.