Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I've lived with S.A.D. since I was a child and while I love the winter holidays, every year (even when living on the West coast) I would find myself feeling fatigued, irritable, hyper anxious and depressed by the time October rolled around. Some years were worse than others, but every year the winter months were just plain bad for me mentally and physically (weight gain, lethargy, suicidal ideation, aches and pains and generally feeling half dead). When I was in my 40s, a therapist told me about S.A.D. and diagnosed me with it. She suggested getting outside in the morning for at least a half hour every day. Since I was already doing that on the way to work and the sunshine was not doing anything for my glum state of mind, I just figured this was something I was going to have to live with. About 5 years ago, I started reading about light boxes for S.A.D. and stored the information away in the back of my mind to be further investigated "some day." 2016 rolled around and in late August, I started getting severe anxiety for no reason I could fathom. To quell it without using prescription meds, I started taking a supplement, inositol. It was helpful on days I took it, but not a cure all and as the days got shorter, I was finding myself overcome with nervous, free floating anxiety upon arising and a vague feeling of dread in the late afternoon. Since I knew I wasn't mentally ill but that I did have S.A.D. I decided to stop being a cheap skate at the risk of my own well being and bought this light box, although I was not hoping for much. What an amazing surprise I got the first time I used it! I work from home so I get up early in order to enjoy a slow morning before I put in 9 hours at my desk. The first time I used this, I made a pot of tea, opened my laptop, set the Verilux on the table about a foot from my face, turned the light box on and sat next to it for about 30 minutes while I read, drank tea, had breakfast and answered e-mail. I turned it off and put it away and went about my day. At lunch time, I used it for another 30 minutes while I ate and read. I did not get that late afternoon crash and sense of impending doom and I slept better than I had since the summer. Being a skeptic, I figured it was a fluke, but daily use twice a day has afforded me with a lot of very positive mental and physical energy. I do more, I feel more creative and mentally awake and my outlook on life is much more upbeat. I am a lot more productive at my job, my house is cleaner and I find that I am not procrastinating over the simplest things like I had been every fall and winter. I have changed nothing else in my daily routine other than to use this twice a day for 30 minutes at a stretch. If a simple $100 box and light bulb can do this, I feel foolish for all the sad (no pun), slow, depressing fall and winter seasons I've slogged through feeling submerged in gloom for the past 50 some years. Now I feel like I've been given my life back and am not just half a person for half the year. Please-if you have S.A.D. symptoms-BUY ONE! I have no regrets; this was money very well spent.