Experiences with St. John's Wort? Good, bad, or indifferent?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’ve been feeling pretty blah lately (read: for about a year). I’m tired, I’m bitchy, I’ve gained about 20 lbs since Christmas; I don’t seem to want to do anything that requires actual movement. I mean, I try to keep up with the housework, and everybody gets fed and everything, but it wears me out. And the other day my 6 year old asked my hubby how come Mommy is mad all the time. So. Time to fix this.

While I could, I suppose, phone my doctor up and ask him to prescribe me something (all I’d have to do is tell him where I work; almost everyone down there is on a no-kill pill of some kind or another) I don’t feel my symptoms warrant massive chemical warfare. I’m not suicidal or self-destructive, I don’t miss work because of it or lock myself in a dark bedroom and cry for hours at a time. (Although there’s times that last idea sounds reeeeaaaally tempting.) I just find myself thinking, “Fuck it. Why bother?” when faced with things like dishes, or vacuuming, or bellydancing (which I used to really enjoy), or leaving the house when I don’t have to. And my family…oy veh, I love them dearly, but their very voices have become an extreme irritation. I know I’m Mom, but for the love of Pete, can’t they ever help each other out instead of coming to me?

This site and this site agree that yeah, it seems to work, but don’t ask us how. I picked up a bottle of the stuff yesterday, capsule form; so far the only effect I’ve noticed is that pesky little diarrhea side effect, which fortunately seems to have abated; it does me no good to be happy if I’m stuck on the crapper. Have any Dopers tried this kind of therapy? Did you feel like it helped at all?

2

It didn’t help me, but my problems were quite a bit more severe than yours sound.

3

Good stuff. I love it. :slight_smile: :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

I don’t suffer from clinical depression. It just allows my naturally sunny nature to shine better.

A couple times, I tried SSRIs for non-depression related issues. I found that SSRIs override your own natural disposition and substitute something that feels artificial, while it gets you through the day. I never felt I owned the me constructed by SSRI override. Hypericum*, on the contrary, feels perfectly natural, totally me. All it does is clear the clouds out of the way and let my good nature just be its own happy self.

4

I believe it helps me. I find though that it doesn’t “kick in” until I’ve been taking it for about 6 weeks. Some might say that my case of mild depression passed on its own in that time. But I find it worth taking.

5

The US medical community has done research that says St. John’s Wort doesn’t work, but it’s very popular outside the US, specifically Germany, I understand. It didn’t have any affect on me, but it’s supposed to be very mild, so it’s tough to say for certain. I think in some cases the placebo effect may be in play.

I just read an article from the Mayo Clinic about herbs/supplements that said SJW might interfere with prescription or OTC meds such as:

·Blood pressure medications
·Blood thinners (anticoagulants, anti-platelt agents
·Non steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs
·aspirin, ibuprofen or naproxen
·Diabetes medications
·Drugs that affect the liver
·Heart medications
·Monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs)

(Other problematic substances were: Black cohosh, Dong quai, Ephedra, Feverfew, Garlic, Ginger, Ginkgo, Ginseng, Goldenseal, Kava, Milk thistle and Scotch broom. Some of these substances have other names.)

The FDA is just beginning to look at these kinds of substances. The quality, purity and strength vary wildly and sometimes the ingredients list is inaccurate or incomplete. (This may be why the results vary so much, eh?)

Just yesterday I saw a clip of Dick Cavat describing depression something like, “If there was a magic wand on a table across the room that would fix everything and make you completely happy, it would be too much trouble to get out of bed to go get it.”

Even if you don’t need major help, I suggest seeing a psychiatrist and discussing the matter. There are many meds, many strengths, but part of the deal is doing other things the meds. It can’t hurt to learn what the professionals know.

This is very, *very * common, so it’s nothing to get bummed about!

All the best,*
Myself

*Except for what I use.

6

I am not an advocate of the “Weed O The Week Club”, but I have C.D. & St. John’s has a very real & noticable effect on my mood, especially during the long dark winters.

7

I tried St. John’s wort once years ago, and it did absolutely nothing for me.

YMMV. I’ve been on an SSRI for about a year and a half, and have never felt anything like this.

One thing to watch out for with St. John’s wort is that it can interact with birth control pills and make them less effective in preventing pregnancy.

8

Thanks for the input, y’all. I’m not on any other kinds of meds, so that’s not a concern; I was just curious as to whether people felt the stuff helped them. I’d rather not go to the doctor; I find that unless I want a prescription for something or other, our local doctors are pretty much useless. I haven’t been to one in 6 years.

I do feel a little chirpier today (I even wanted to have sex with my husband, which is another thing that generally feels too much like work to bother with), but that probably has more to do with the fact that I was off work last night, and therefore I got a full eight hours sleep, than anything else. Or it could be a placebo effect. Or maybe the darn things are actually working, who knows?

sigh I wonder if I can get work to pay for a therapist…

9

I found that SJW helped me with mild to moderate depression. Came a time, though, when it was not enough. I was getting severe depression and panic attacks. My doctor prescribed Paxil, but I had to go a while without the SJW first and get it out of my system. Paxil has been a godsend. I have felt normal for three and a half years now. It does NOT feel “artificial” to me. It just feels like the black cloud is gone, and the various techniques to deal with moods and stressful events now works. My doctor pointed out that one problem with herbal supplements is that you can’t always trust the dosage to be what it claims to be, or to be consistent. Obviously, these are just my own observations, IANAD, YMMV, etc.

10

Tried it years ago. I turned into a scary evil witch. I am usually VERY happy go lucky. I was just a little blue at the time over marital problems.

I don’t know why it had that effect on me but I did not like the person it turned me into. After I stopped taking it I was fine agian. YMMV.

11

You hear this repeated and repeated and repeated ad nauseam, but it’s ignorant. It leaves out the fact that reputable herb companies are producing standardized extracts in which the quantities of the active compound are precisely regulated in milligrams. Solgar is IMO the most reliable herb company of all that produces standardized extracts. Knowing this, it gets really tired to keep repeating “you don’t know what dosage you’re getting with herbs.” Excuse me. Some of us do know what we’re getting.

12

Well, I’m only going by what my doctor told me. I think what we have to keep in mind is that we have ONLY our trust and faith in the company to assure us that what’s in the herbals is actually what they say. There is no independent lab or agency double-checking them. If you have faith in Solgar, fine. I (and my doctor) didn’t say you could NEVER be sure what was in the herbal supplement, only that you can’t ALWAYS trust them. Perhaps you’ve seen some independent testing of the purity and content of that particular company and are satisfied. Heck, as I said, I took SJW myself for a few years.

13

I tried SJW back when I was a graduate student, and I was feeling kinda down. It didn’t do anything for me. Then again, my depression was caused by the fact that the research project I was stuck on was a dead end, and my professor couldn’t be bothered to help me, and I felt that I was wasting my life. My depression went away when I finally said “screw this,” went home, and got a job with my bachelors degree. Maybe I just had the wrong type of depression or something.

14

I wasn’t on it very long, but I didn’t have any problems with it (now I’m taking Zoloft). My mother takes it regularly, and she says it does well.