Posted by Teknohead on June 8, 2004, at 10:08:20
In reply to Please help. St. John's Wort, posted by Emme on June 1, 2004, at 9:42:28
> Hi All,
>
> Day 11 St. John's Wort. I seem to be getting more depressed, apathetic, and really hopeless. Absolutely everything feels like an enourmous effort. And I simultaneously have lots of anxiety. I know that theoretically I haven't been on it nearly long enough yet. So maybe I am being impatient. But I am wondering if anyone has actually started to feel worse on it. I don't know if :
>
> It's neutral at this point and I'm just getting more depressed over highly stressful circumstances and I need to be patient with the SJW.
>
> Or
>
> It's actually making me worse. Everyone in Europe and the U.S. raves about it and some of my friends have had great results, so I know I am not supposed to have any worsening on it. But *anything* is possible, right?
>
> I'm reluctant to change anything or add anything else so that I will be able to tell if the SJW works, but 1 to 2 months is a long time to wait given my need to get moving again on a job search.
>
> I don't know how much I'm taking compared to the standardized capsules exactly because I'm using a tincture, which an herbalist told me woule be more effective. I started with a little less than the bottle recommended, but I'm reducing it some in case it's making me more tired.
>
> And darnit I'm freezing cold like I was on Celexa.
>
> Anecdotal responses or thought much appreciated. I'm going to look for a book on SJW, but I have a sneaky feeling any books might report no other negative effects other than the sun sensitivity or drug interactions.
>
> Thanks,
> Emme
>
>Hi Emma.
Sorry to read of your struggle. I hope you've started to feel some benefit by now.
I have taken St.Johns Wort several times and have now found a brand that WORKS. It's called Kira and is the brand used in many of the trials. But I warn you - it's expensive, especialy to take the real effective dose and not the dose on the pack. Buy the One-a-Day tabs and take 3 of these a day, spread out. After it kicks in, give it a week or two, then try slowly reducing it to a more affordable dose. Personally I prefere to stay on the dose that gets me better.
For me, it kicks in between 4 to 7 days. For a friend of mine who recently took it (he was in very poor shape) it took around 10 days.
As for feeling worse first, I've found this with many synthetic and herbal meds, although I normally put this down to either anxiety caused by impatience, or dissappointment in the beliefe that it wont work.
I must admit that I take Nardil now, simply because the SJW didn't help with my Social Phobia, but it's still a very good antidepressant and also great for GAD.
Of course this wont work for everyone, but I hope you find something that helps soon.
Kev.
poster:Teknohead
thread:352677
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20040418/msgs/354774.html