St Johns Wort and Ginseng

[trodgers5]

I suffered post natal depression and took anti depressants for 6 months until I felt better.  I still have mild depression but do not want to go back on the happy pills - i just feel tired most days and still cry at even mildly sad things.  Has anyone experienced taking St Johns Wort or Ginseng for energy and do they work?  I am not on any other medications so I dont need to consider this factor.

[abfandango]

Ginseng. Awesome. Kicked in after 3 weeks. No 'sagging' mid afternoon. Expensive, but worth it.

There seemed to be some side effects. My mind just felt...different. Hard to explain. It went away when I stopped taking ginseng. Very good stuff though. As is gingko.

And I think studies prove this???

[smudge]

Hi trodger - I do sympathise with you, as I've also been suffering with mild depression lately & I'm not too keen on taking 'happy pills' either.

I had been taking St John's Wort for a few months just to keep me on an even keel, but they didn't have much affect as my GP prescribed me A/P three weeks ago. Hopefully, this should only be for a short time -seeing as summer is on it's way!

I wish you all the best & hope you feel brighter soon -x-

[morg_monster]

St John's Wort has been proved through double-blind placebo controlled randomised clinical trials to be as effective as Seroxat (paroxetine) in treating mild and more recently moderate to severe depression. So it is certainly worth a try, and now accepted by doctors as a valid treatment.

However it has some adverse interactions with other drugs that you do need to be aware of and all doctors will know about this. the contraceptive pill is one in particular. Although it may come from a plant it is not harmless - if it was there would be no point taking it.

However it does have less side effects than standard prescribed anti depression drugs I believe.

Talk to your GP. If you have no contra-indications then it would certainly be worth a try if you don't want to go back on standard anti-depressants.

[inferno]

I used St Johns Wort for mild depression last year - on the advice of my GP. It did seem to be helpful and my depression was alleviated.