I'm 23 years old and I believe I have some mild depression and anxiety. My depression and anxiety were a lot worse a few years ago. I've been on Paxil, Prozac, and Cipralex for short periods of time. I am currently not on any antidepressants.
I am at a point in my life where I want to use alternative methods for dealing with depression and anxiety. I don't want to go on antidepressants and I have my reasons, which is why I searched for alternative medicine on Google and came across this website.
My depression and anxiety aren't bad to the point where I have anxiety attacks anymore or have suicidal thoughts, but it almost feels like i'm paralyzed by these problems. I haven't been able to succeed in going to school full time, I lack motivation, I feel hopeless at times. Sometimes I start feeling good but then I fall down quickly and lose hope quickly again.
Does anyone know of any herbs, vitamins, methods, of dealing with mild depression and anxiety?
Hi gs1003, welcome to the forum, happy you found us here! First I must say that I commend you for looking for more natural methods instead of prescription meds, this is a good place to find some answers.
If you're not already taking supplements, I would suggest a B-50 Complex, an Omega 3 fish oil and magnesium. All of these are known to help with both depression and stress.
A few other things that you can research and consider taking are either GABA (Gamma Aminobutyric), 5-HTP, or the amino acid L-Theanine. If you search our forum, you'll find some info about these supplements.
A couple of herbs for anxiety are Skullcap and Passionflower, either of these in liquid tincture may help. Of course, before using any herbs, it's always good to know the side effects and drug interactions if you are on medications for anything.
Also, it sounds corny, but a healthy diet (no soda, diet or regular), limited sugar, processed foods, junk foods, limited alcohol, etc. will all result in a healthier and happier mental and physical state of being, keep in mind that everything is connected. Browse through the mental health forum here for more ideas that might help.
__________________ "We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals." ~Immanual Kant~
I belive diet is they key.. Like kind2creatures said.. cut out all processed foods, no candy, sugar, soda etc. Eat more warm and sweet soothing foods like nice warm veggie soups, oatmeal, etc.. Dont eat too many beans/salad they may increase anxiety.
Your digestive system might be out of wack... from taking pharmaceutical drugs/antibiotics/stress..
Get lots of sunlight and fresh air.. get out into nature!
Your digestive system might be out of wack... from taking pharmaceutical drugs/antibiotics/stress..
This is very true! Here's a great video that might help. I can attest to probiotics working. Of course the product I use also has prebiotics and enzymes in it as well so, not sure if I'm getting extra added benefits. I don't have to worry about having my liver checked every month when taking it, like I did with my other medication!!
Inflammation can be one cause of depression and anxiety, so anything you can take to knock it down, may help.
A couple of basic things to try is Omega three fatty acids such as what is in Krill or Fish Oil. Make sure you are getting enough Magnesium. Magnesium is not directly tied to your symptoms, but will help your body operate as it should. Another herbal option is Rhodiola rosea. If it works for the people of Siberia, it should work for about anyone else.
St John's wort without a doubt I would recommend. Germany uses it for mild depression and especially for young people, it's prescribe there very often.
I personally use St John's wort, not because of depression, but it does make me feel better and I notice a slight improvement in sleeping.
My brother-in-law recently lost his job and had bad anxiety and depression and it did wonders for him, but if you have extreme depression I'm not sure how much it will help, but I would give it a try.
There's some studies with 5-htp really helping people with depression as well.
There is probably a reason that you feel the way you do. The poor diets we mostly have now a days can result in our bodys chemistry being off, sometimes way off. Our mood is affected by our chemistry. I would look into doing a body detox, and then start fresh giving your body what it needs. Sometimes our mood can be an indicator of what is going on in your body. A feeling of anxiety, depresion, and impending doom can be a way of your body telling your mind that it is on a path of deterioration. I can relate to how you feel, because I had the same kind of feelings right before my body broke down. I couldn't see it at the time, but looking back now it makes a lot of sence.
If you really want to fix what is wrong it won't be as simple as taking one pill or a tonic or herb or something. You'll have to do some research, and probably change a few habits in your life. The good news is that you are on the right track, you are young and if you start now, you will have a long, healthy, happy, and energetic life ahead of you.
Here is a link to a little story that I like. If you are new to this whole alternative self medicine thing, it might be a little much, but I think this guy hits a lot of important points. I also found the story written in a manner that seemed geniuine and also gave me a couple chuckles. It is basically the story of a guy that decided to experiment with iodine supplemention in kind of an extreme fashion. https://www.lugol-iodinesupplements.com/
If you have any questions at all feel free to ask. There is a lot of friendly and helpfull people on this forum.
Alot of people on this site tend to over-emphasize diet and nutrition.
I have had similar problems with depression and anxiety. Infact my biggest problem is when I was diagnosed with depression at age 17. Before things were not exactly rosy, but afterward I came to define myself as depressed and felt I had to act the role more and more. It is hard, especially when you start to feel low, but right away you need to ignore the depressive thoughts and just think of something else with your conscious mind.
There many things you can do to improve your mood naturally:
1) Do cardio. 20 min. of vigorous cardio per day will have lasting positive effects on mood up to 12 hrs later.
2) Starting lifting weights again. The program and advice in Starting Strength works. If your improve your body, it will improve your outlook.
3) Start meditating I would advise taking out a book by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche.
4) Work on your social skills and establishing a meaningful social circle. Try following the advice in the book How to Make People Like You in 90 Seconds or Less.
5) If there is a wooded area try to go there for walks, to meditate, to mountain bike, to hike, etc. Many trees release lots of natural chemcials and drugs that improve your mood. I felt real shitty today after waking up because it was birthday and I am still a failure in life at an advanced age. I couldn't even eat so I took food and walked to a local park and ate there. I felt much better afterward. I learned about this from the author, Diana Beresford-Kroeger.
6) Supplement with Theanine and Vitamin D.
Most of all realize that attempting conscious change and talking to therapists/psychologists is will have no avail. Talking to a therapist is no more beneficial than talking to a friend(of course people don't really tend to have friends that they can talk to about serious subjects...) about the same issue. Also psychotropic drugs are another fraud. The drug companies that make them get to fund any number of studies they want, and only present the most favorable ones to the FDA for approval, hiding the numerous studies that show they are ineffective. Further they compare the drugs to a placebo, if they compared to 40 minutes of vigorous exercise daily, taking Theanine, 10 min. of meditation daily, etc., the likely results would be beyond embarrassing. What you really have to do is stop getting caught in negative thoughts frequently because chronic negative thoughts will become an unconscious habit, which is what is called incorrectly as depression. Whenever you learn something, guitar, driving, how to type on a keyboard, it is at first exceedingly difficult to do because you have to do with it only using your conscious mind which is very weak. It becomes easy when it is an ingrained habit that is executed by the unconscious. It is the same thing with depression, you need to abandon it as a unconscious proclivity by changing your habit, lots of mindfulness meditation, super learning, hypnosis, regularly taking supplements, regular exercise for a long enough period.
Last edited by Thrasymachus; 04-11-2011 at 09:42 PM.
By sheer luck, I had the opportunity to test out Rhodiola rosea and its effects on depression and anxiety. This plant has been used in Siberia for its effect of relieving depression that is often suffered by people in this harsh climate.
I have had depression in the past, but it was a direct result of inflammation. I resolved that problem a few years ago by reducing chronic inflammation from Crohn's disease.
I was not able to test Rhodiola rosea myself, but my son and two of his friends were staying at my house, and all of them suffer from both depression and anxiety.
Two of them suffer from deep depression episodes, and the third one has it to a lesser degree. I gave my son the bottle and told him to try it out, as it is a far safer alternative to Prozac or other depression medications that he has tried. He also hated the side effects of these drugs, and they never were all that effective to begin with. He was one of those people that did make a half hearted suicide attempt as a result of using these drugs, as a teenager. Totallaly out of character for him.
All three ended up using the product, and they all agree that it helped immediately with depression and increased energy levels to a noticeable degree. They also agreed that it helped little for anxiety.
Given that all three had good results concerning depression and were able to tell it did not help with anxiety make me think they actually did notice the difference, and it is likely not a placebo effect.
It also worked very quickly, which surprised me. Often these type of treatments are subtle, and take time to work. This worked within hours of taking it.
My son was the first one to work this morning, and he is quite often late as a result of the depression making it hard to even get out of bed. This is a pretty dramatic result if you know his normal habits.
I think if anyone suffers from depression, this product would be a worth a try. it certainly is a much safer treatment than most.
It did not help much, if any, concerning anxiety. At least half of the problem is solved.
I used to suffer from the same exact problem. I was always depressed, and there is a history of depression in my family. Anyhow, when I was 19, I started taking melatonin for jet lag because I was traveling abroad a lot (4x year) and to my pleasant surprise discovered that if I take doses of 10mg, it completely cured my depression.
I also have a friend who suffered from depression and suicidal thoughts after taking zoloft and I introduced melatonin to him, and now he only takes melatonin daily just like I do. It has completely cured him of his depression as well.
Typical SSRI anti-depressants deprive you of REM sleep, which is why there are so many cases of teens/adults attempting to commit suicide on them. Melatonin increases your brain activity and prolongs your REM sleep, which is why after taking it you feel invincible, happy, good-natured- as if it were the YOU you were meant to be if you didn't feel so depressed.
Anyhow, I have a few theories about why my family has a history of depression- and mainly I think it is biological- somehow, our bodies do not secrete enough melatonin (supposedly children secrete the most and as we age, we secrete less melatonin). We can get depressed about the simplest most inconsequential things and give up easily but with melatonin, we just feel "normal" and can handle even the toughest challenges.
I highly recommend it. Most people prefer 5mg or 10mg. For me personally 10mg works for me. 1-3mg does absolutely nothing for me however.
For some people though, melatonin makes them drowsy during the day even if they take it at night- and the people who have told me this were mainly men, not women. For them, the supplement L-tryptophan works better.
Surprised that melatonin would have that effect. have you tried lower dosage? Posted via mobile
To answer your question, melatonin seems to have no effect on me if it's less than 5mg. When I was 19, I started off with 3mg- then slowly moved up to 18mg, which seems like a lot, but I think because of my particular body chemistry, that was the correct dosage at the time. However, I found 10mg works great now, although I've noticed that taking Vitamin e countereffects the melatonin.
Melatonin is correlated to the production of serotonin, so naturally it would make sense that it has a mood elevating effect.
Natural ways of dealing with depression/anxiety?
Hybrid Mode
