Posted by Hombre on November 21, 2010, at 23:31:44
In reply to Re: morgan: How is St. John's Wort Working Out? » Hombre, posted by BetweenDreams81 on November 21, 2010, at 18:56:42
I will also look into the lithium. She has expressed that she can get a little too excited, but it only happens a few days per month, probably right after her period is done. She does have a lot of anxiety, so maybe something like lithium could help.
If I am reading correctly, it seems like anxiety, worry, lack of motivation, depression and sleep problems are your main symptoms.
Do you feel tired after you eat? Does your diet seem to affect your energy and mood?
The thing with anxiety, at least from my experience, is that it is both physical and psychological. My mind can really psyche me out, but if I push past the initial uneasiness I almost always feel better having done whatever it is I wanted/needed to get done. Getting into the habit of confronting my fears is probably what I need to do more than anything.
Anyway, I've rediscovered that I need to boost my kidneys according to Chinese medical theory. Whether it's my meds or my constitution, I need to take herbs that tonify and nourish the kidneys, which helps a lot with motivation and energy. These herbs tend to help basic kidney function, like draining dampness/water, but they also seem to help at a hormonal level.
The trick is figuring out if your sympathetic or parasympathetic nervous system tends to dominate. If it's the former, you'll tend to be hyper-aroused and hyper-metabolic, running "hot" and feeling keyed up and tired at the same time. If it's the latter, you'll tend to run "cold", be apathetic, have low motivation, low libido, and generally feel kind of spacey or too chilled out. These are generalizations, of course, but that's the beauty of Chinese medicine, at least at the basic level - you can trust your feelings and use them to guide you.
So, for sympathetic dominance, I'd suggest Liu Wei Di Huang Wan, 6 flavor rehmannia pills. For parasympathetic dominance, Jin Gui Shen Qi Wan, Golden Cabinet Kidney Pills. The two formulas are almost the same, but the latter adds two heating herbs that stimulate metabolism and increases your mojo. They both nourish kidney yin and liver yin, but the warming herbs nourish kidney yang.
In fact, I'm taking both in various ratios according to how I feel, and that seems to work. I got the idea of taking both from a book on Chinese herbs.
For overall fatigue, tiredness after eating, abdominal bloating, Bu Zhong Yi Qi Wan is a tonic formula par excellence. It helps with digestion, and raises your energy up, as in if you feel like it's hard to stand up straight, this formula somehow supplements that energy. It also has a couple of herbs that detox and smooth out liver energy. It is a very famous and common formula.
One thing I've learned is that dosage is key. The dosage on most bottles of "teapills", the little black pills that usually come in bottles of 200, tend to be on the low end. I weigh about 165lbs, but I feel like I do better taking 1.5x the standard dose, or 12 pills at a time, 3x a day (they are small pills). Just keep in mind that you can play with the dosage a little, up or down, within reason. Sometimes you want to take a little more at first to get an effect sooner, then back off to a maintenance dosage once you've gotten out of the hole. Just don't give up on the herbs until you've adjusted the dosage and given them some time to work. Tonic herb therapy can take a long time to undo what surely took a while to happen in the first place.
I hope that helps.
poster:Hombre
thread:966033
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20100930/msgs/970980.html