Light Boxes.... Do they work?

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Does any one own a Light Box?
If so: Do they work well?
Are they any good?
What I mean by Light Box:
Those light box things that you can sit in fornt of.

i know someone who owns one and says it helps quite a bit with her SAD. i don't own one myself but might consider it as i like both frivolous experiments and potential miracle cures. although i don't think i particularly have SAD, i'm just sad in general.

I bought a BriteBox 4 years ago now, I always seemed to get much worse every winter, though looking back I was majorly depressed all the time due to not knowing what the hell was up with me (I still don't really know, but at least my condition is on the radar I guess), I tried it every morning for 30 minutes or was it an hour? while I ate breakfast. Unfortunately it had no effect on me whatsoever apart from giving me a slight bad head & sore eyes, I sent it back after a month or so & got a full refund with no problems, they are about £70 more expensive now though eesh.

I also had a Lumie Light wake up Alarm thingy at the time which actually seemed to help me wake up better in the Winter, but that was about it, I still felt very depressed & tired all the time, I guess it helped me get to places on time more often though, which was something. Last winter I don't think I had much trouble getting up most days (can't remember too well), but I felt like I was in hibernation mode, others joke I am every winter. Maybe you could try one out with a money back guarantee like I did, or you could try a cheap one off Ebay to see if it has any effect, if not just sell it on.

Some people have success supplementing with Vitamin D3, I tried it one winter at 5,000 iu every few days, it's hard to describe how it made me feel, I would sweat somewhat because it would give me this urge to start shaking my legs constantly, I can't recall the headspace but it certainly seemed to give me more energy for sure, be very carefull though because last time I tried it I felt really ill for a few days, so that was the end of that. Do you have depression at other times or just the winter?

Just go outside. Nothing will be as good as the real deal.

My boss swears by his light box. I've never used one, but have found D3 to help tremendously.

I wish I had one of these years ago when I was working the Night Shift. I was starting to feel fatigued and I think essentially developing a form of SAD from lack of sunlight.

I had a light box when I lived in England and it helped enormously. My mother has SAD and lives near the Canadian border in Washington, and swears by her lightbox. After moving from England to Ireland and spending many years struggling with SAD, now I find it is much better to just figure out how to never live in dark, northern climates again, and instead live in sunny places where you can walk outside all the year round. That's what I do now, and I will never, repeat NEVER, go back to living in dark climates again.

When I lived in Finland in the early 90's, my SAD was so bad I had serious plans of self-harm to the ultimate degree. In fact, I was only staying alive because I was saving money to send to my parents to pay for my funeral! It wasn't until spring came and my mood changed dramatically once I'd spent twenty minutes out in the sunshine that I figured out I had SAD (this is when there really wasn't much known about it). I asked to be transferred out of Finland immediately!