Light Therapy

[BigSlim]

This is an interesting topic. I've just recently learned a little bit about this. As my symptoms tend to be very mild they sometimes seem to increase a little in the winter months. I was told by a doctor that part of my disorder may be contributed to the seasons, which he said was quite common. He's recommended that I try Light Therapy. So my question is has anyone ever tried this and if so what are the pros and cons?

[brickyard_red]

I myself have never tried light therepy, but I've known others who have and it has helped them alot. I'd recommend it. :)

Cath :)

[shoe]

That's kinda funny you brought this up, someone just mentioned that to me last night, and it was a bit surprising to me that its being used to treat anxiety. I know traditionally its been used to treat depression, especially the kind related to SAD (seasonal affective disorder), but have never heard of it being used to treat anxiety.

but then, I never heard of ECT (also traditionally used to treat depression) being used to treat OCD either until you mentioned that in another post BigSlim.

I'd be interested in reading up on this.. will have to do some web searches I suppose =)

[Bridgie]

I have heard of light therapy. I always go outside in the summer to try and soak up as much sun as I can when it's nice out. I think sun helps release melatonin or seratonin? Whatever, it helps.

But what is ECT? I've never heard of that one I don't think.

[BigSlim]

Hey Guys, I don't know that light therapy is now being used solely to treat anxiety alone. I think the doctor said that since a lot of these disorders are intertwined with one another, that the different types of treatment such as light therapy may be of benefit. I've never been diagnosed with depression but I have some of the symptoms, some of those symptoms are also related to anxiety. Thus the reason I guess he brought this up.

With respect to ECT. It stands for Electoconvulsive Therapy or more barbaricaly none as electroshock therapy. Commonly used on patients with severe depression, scizophrenia and sometimes but not to often on patients with OCD, such as myself. It's primarily used when other forms of treatment such as medication cease to work. The benefits can be great if it works, like it did for me, but there can be a lot of negative side effects aswell, such as memory loss and severe headaches.

I'm going to try the light therapy, so I should have some feed back for everyone shortly.

Regards,
James

[shoe]

D'oh, I posted a news article about serotonin levels related to light/darkness a while ago, I've got a bad memory! Here's a quick link to the post:
http://www.anxietyforum.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=82

Its becoming more clear I guess that depression-specific and anxiety-specific treatments do probably have an affect on one another.


I have heard of light therapy. I always go outside in the summer to try and soak up as much sun as I can when it's nice out. I think sun helps release melatonin or seratonin? Whatever, it helps.

But what is ECT? I've never heard of that one I don't think.