Mind Machines and Seasonal Affective Disorder

I think I stumbled on this mind machine concept on youtube. I have had seasonal affective disorder for over 10 years and have tried all sorts of natural remedies like 5htp, fish oil, light boxes, etc. I had no success with natural stuff. I have always been anti anti-depressives but last winter season (2015) I finally decided to get on meds because I've tried everything and I was sick of feeling sleepy and depressed half of the year. I am currently a university student and saw a psychiartrist at my school. I was initially put on sertraline aka zoloft. I researched prior that for SAD people usually get on wellbutrin but he didn't want to put me that as it was an activating type medication and so had me start with sertraline. after being at the max dose of 200mg of sertraline, we added wellbutrin and I am on 300mg. I got off of sertraline for the summer and started back up in september or october.

To get to my point, I started using initially the DAVID Delight Pro because that was the first mind machine I learned about that recommended mind machines for SAD. I started November 29, 2016. I used that for 2 weeks and decided to get the Kasina so that I can use the NP3 software with it and experience gamma brainwaves since that was not available on the Delight and since that was faster than beta (which is recommended for SAD sufferers), I figured gamma would be worth trying. I went 6 days without the visual component as I returned my DAVID and had to wait for the Kasina so I used the NP3 audio alone in the meantime. Since I began using mind machines, I was able to reduce my sertraline incrementally by 50mg and I completely stopped taking it on December 31, 2016. I saw my doctor today and I was actually a little nervous as to how he would react to my 'experiment' with mind machines. He was quite open to it and classified it as a form of light therapy. I've used light boxes before and got a 10k lux LED light box but that didn't help my SAD so I wonder why a mind machine can help since it uses light as well. How much of a roles does audio play? I know when I was just using audio, the effects of not having the light was noticeable to me. I haven't tried just using the light component so maybe that is something I can experiment on. I said to my doctor that I would like to see if I can reduce my wellbutrin dose so he suggested seeing what it is like to be a month off of sertraline. I'd reduce it by going to 150mg and then to zero if I felt that I was ok.

I've posted information on the SAD groups I am in online as I'd like people to know that there are options besides anti-depressants. Not sure if anyone on these online groups have tried it but this is promising for me. Hopefully I can wean myself off of meds completely. If mind machines no longer help me with SAD, at least I know what meds can help and I can return to that if necessary. I definitely do not want to relapse

Interesting that the light box didn't work - that is really the main thing I recommend to clients with SAD and it has always worked - it really tackles the root cause of the problem. I am using the Philips BluLight for many years now and wouldn't survive Berlin winters without it. I use it 20 minutes each morning while working on email... not quite staring into it (it's located at a slight angle) but almost... plus, it's important to have it really close to you.

A very potent white light box should have the same effect - but as the critical receptors react to the blue wavelength, the Philips BluLight can be much more compact size-wise and still yields fantastic results.

If it's not really SAD but a different kind of dysthymia, you might profit from AVS protocols that provide different frequencies to the left/right hemisphere. The only device I am aware of that can realize this effect visually are from the competitor of our beloved Mindplace folks, MindAlive. I think they have a patent on their glasses which separate left and right visual field for each eye (which is necessary as each single eye feeds into BOTH hemispheres). You can still try pure audio entrainment with those sessions on your Kasina (I think Transparent provide them within their software) and see how that affects you. Do NOT use the Kasina glasses for these sessions, they will interfere with the entrainment as they only separate left and right eye - the entrainment effect would be a bit of a mess, especially as visual entrainment tends to be stronger than auditory entrainment.

You might be able to operate David glasses though - RobinHood provided an extensive explanation on that in one of his replies to you. With those connected to the Kasina (you'll need an adapter), you should be able to run those sessions on the Kasina.

Hope this helps :-)

no it is definitely SAD. I feel much happier and don't feel sleepy in the summer time. I've had this problem for over 10 years and the same pattern occurs, in that it is seasonal. It has gotten worse since I wasn't on meds. It would start earlier and earlier and end later and later.

I searched for posts by RobinHood, so not sure which thread you are referencing

http://www.mindplacesupport.com/foru...ght=#post15581

If you use David/Tru-Vu goggles to seperate left and right visual field, you need to choose AudioStrobe Setting 8.