I was reading a book on common brain disorders {ADD, Autism, etc.} and Seasonal Affective Disorder is one of them. On it's little checklist of symptoms I noticed "cravings for very starchy and suray food." To my knowledge I don't have SEASONAL affective disorder, but I've had pretty severe depression since the age of 12 and an anxiety disorder on top of that. I've always wondered about my craving for very sugary and strchy foods. It goes well beyond "oOoh I'm on my period, I want some chocolate and a bag of chips." No. I always crave something very sugar based and very sodium based together. When I was in middle school and didn't give a rats ass about my diet or what it would do to my body I used to eat a single serve bag of potato chips and a tastycake/chocolate cuocake something or other.
I always thought that craving may have had something to do with a hormoanal imbalance. Now I'm wondering if it correlates to strange chemicals in the brain, which lead to the depression/anxiety.{ie serratonin imbalances}
Well, my question is this: If there are any of you KRers with S.A.D., do you have this starch/sugar craving thing happening? Has any doctor told you about this or asked you about it? I'm suprised that throughout all the doctors, psychologists, and therapists I've seen about my own mental problems in the past 11 years that this symptom was never found until now.
{Oh, and by the way,yes I am being treated for these problems and I don't pour salt and chocolate fudge onto everything I eat!}

I don't know that I have SAD but I am seasonally "sensitive" if that makes sense. Getting extra sun has a tremendous effect on my mood -- laying out one day will make me feel happier and energized for days afterwards. I've read about people being addicted to tanning because of the chemicals released after the UV exposure and while I've never been in a tanning bed I identify with this with real sun. I'm depressed generally year round but it's always worst in winter -- I don't know if that's because it's the middle of the school year or because of the lack of sun. When I stay inside for days on end (which happened a lot before I started working, especially since I keep really late hours so by the time I got ready to go to the grocery store or something it was usually dark anyways) I would wind up feeling really tired and lethargic despite sleeping 10 hours or so at night and taking naps. I also usually have a period of slight hypomania in spring, which I've heard is a symptom. Recently it hasn't been near what bipolar people go through, I never approach full mania, but I'll spend winter too tired/depressed to get ouf of bed much and then in spring have periods where I'm doing so much I don't bother to sleep or get all these ideas and feel the need to do stuff and accomplish stuff, and I sleep a lot less and focus a lot better and exercise a lot more. It does change my food cravings to get a lot of sun, I start wanting fruit and fish and fresh stuff in general. The sweet/starchy cravings are because during periods of decreased sunlight, seasonal affective people don't produce enough serotonin in winter and simple carbs like sugars and starches stimulate the release of serotonin.

I don't think that food cravings alone are near enough to diagnose a person with SAD, which is probably why no doctor has ever mentioned it. Lots of people have sugar and starch cravings that aren't necessarily related to SAD. If your depression isn't intensely seasonal then there's really no need to worry about your having SAD. Since the cravings are related to the serotonin imbalances then maybe they have to do with your general depression. Seasonal affectives just notice them more because they crave sugars/starches so much more in winter -- there's a noticeable difference in appetite and food cravings, rather than just really strong food cravings that may be a symptom of something or may just be your personal appetite.

I'm not necesarily worried that I have S.A.D. It was just a curiosity. I was actually thinking about going to the doctor to talk about a hormaonal imbalance. {I orignally thought the cravings played into this} I do notice when Spring comes I get the saem thing you do. It's like a buzz. I'm giddily happy for no reason at all. Though I don't get that way in the summer.

sometimes i wonder if i have sad