Can a house make you depressed?

Sandstone

How's your lighting? Put some really great lighting (not the cold LED stuff, however enviro-friendly) and it always lifts my mood. I personally tend to over-do it a bit but there's no substitute for the effects of a well-lit room. I really enjoy the "GU10" spotlight lighting, but anything incandescent (with a nice warm lampshade) could work well.

Otherwise, I would be tempted to put it down to bad Feng-Shui and simply move out. If you already think it's the house, the beams, etc., then it's basically what you're already saying, in a different way.

Count yourself lucky that you're only renting, and move someplace else! Some people need the 'buzz' of a city, or that kind of thing.

Let us know how you get on!

ruggedtoast

I agree with the others that what you are describing sounds like CO poisoning.

Otherwise there are a lot of potential pathogens in an old house. You dont say what the age is but if its thatched roof then there is enough detritus in there for about a 1000 years of allergies. Old beams can be treated and coated in god knows what. Nooks and crannies are hard to clean.

Some of my family live in a really ancient cottage. It looks lovely on the outside but the reality is that the thatch roof costs an arm and a leg to maintain, its cold, gloomy and dark all year round, and freezing gloomy and damp in the Winter, every one cracks their heads on the low beams all the time and its hard to keep bugs out.

DiscoCat54

Thank you all for your responses. Hot water and heating are controlled by an AGA that was serviced 2 weeks ago. I was unlucky enough to be hospitalised with CO2 poisoning when I was at Uni, thanks to an unscrupulous LL, and the symptoms are different.

House was built in 1870 and renovated in 1985. It has a mouse and fly problem although I've learned to live with the mice and the flies are only in one room which we don't use so leaving the window open keeps them at bay.

It is surrounded by arable fields so I'm starting to wonder if there may be some validity in the suggestion of pesticides although I'm not sure if that would have the same effect on cats?

DiscoCat54

I forgot to mention that it's very dark... No main light in bedroom (sockets for bedside lamps only) and all of the halogen spotlights literally blow within 3 weeks of fitting them...

Fire_Fox

DiscoCat54 wrote: »

Thank you all for your responses. Hot water and heating are controlled by an AGA that was serviced 2 weeks ago. I was unlucky enough to be hospitalised with CO2 poisoning when I was at Uni, thanks to an unscrupulous LL, and the symptoms are different.

House was built in 1870 and renovated in 1985. It has a mouse and fly problem although I've learned to live with the mice and the flies are only in one room which we don't use so leaving the window open keeps them at bay.

It is surrounded by arable fields so I'm starting to wonder if there may be some validity in the suggestion of pesticides although I'm not sure if that would have the same effect on cats?

Carbon monoxide poisoning will not give the same symptoms to every person nor at every life stage, just like hangover experiences are not universal. Mouse and fly problem why? What is being done about that, you know you can get diseases from vermin waste?

Pesticides are likely to be airborne when spraying the fields, many break down to harmless compounds when it rains or are absorbed into the plant or soil. Many animals run through these fields daily and live to tell the tale. Why are the halogen lights blowing? Have your pets and yourself tested, contact EH, anything we say is a guess but what you describe is a massive red flag.

DiscoCat54

Thanks, Firefox. I'm afraid the mice issue is down to me.. They have been in the walls since day 1 but I am totally against killing them so we have humane traps dotted around the house. They get the ones that venture out in to the rooms although as I type I can hear them scurrying around in the wall between the bedroom and the bathroom.

No explanation for the flies, there is no available food source (although thinking about it, decaying mice might be filling this role) and LL just says to leave window open. He lives next-door and shares our courtyard so we haven't pushed the issue. If we had needed to use the infested room we would probably have handled it differently.

As for the bulbs blowing, the promise of a sparky has faded in to a distant memory...

DiscoCat54

It sounds like I'm just moaning about the house which wasn't really the purpose of my post. It was more to find out whether other people had been negatively affected by their environment and whether your surroundings could be responsible for major mood changes...

Queries

Dear DiscoCat54, This may sound very daft, but my sister believes in the re-balancing of houses. i.e. North - West , South - East etc.. A long time ago, I spent a night down-stairs in a homeless project, the place felt vile. Check on the internet who wlll re-balance a flat, house etc.. A lot of it is donation-based, with a minimum- charge of about £10. You have nothing to lose. good luck. I know this sound New-Ageist, but you have nothing to lose!!

breadlinebetty

The place sounds horrible. Infested with mice and flies.....dark and gloomy....no natual light in the bedroom....no wonder you feel depressed!

Why don't you just move?

anselld

DiscoCat54 wrote: »

Thank you all for your responses. Hot water and heating are controlled by an AGA that was serviced 2 weeks ago. I was unlucky enough to be hospitalised with CO2 poisoning when I was at Uni, thanks to an unscrupulous LL, and the symptoms are different.

House was built in 1870 and renovated in 1985. It has a mouse and fly problem although I've learned to live with the mice and the flies are only in one room which we don't use so leaving the window open keeps them at bay.

It is surrounded by arable fields so I'm starting to wonder if there may be some validity in the suggestion of pesticides although I'm not sure if that would have the same effect on cats?

You didn't answer the question, have you got a CO detector?
Regardless of the possible reasons for any depression you should not rely on your hospitalisation experience to be able to detect the early signs of CO poisoning.