St John's Wort

[Mya]

I apologize if this has been discussed before. I would like to know if anyone has tried St John's Wort and if it helped them. My doctor wants me to go on a anti depressant and I am very scared because my cousin tried to kill himself when he began taking meds. My depression is from the anxiety nothing else. I would like to try something natural in the process and was hoping someone had positive experiences with this. I wish my doctor would understand that if my anxiety could be eliminated than that would help with the depression. Thanks for any help.

[guitarpants]

I would recommend against St. John's Wort. Although it is an herbal remedy, it is not relatively safe. It interacts/interferes with a lot of other drugs, and it is potentially harmful. I have heard that it is banned in some countries, but I haven't looked into it enough to confirm that. My own experience with it is not a good one. It may or may not be coincedence, but my dizziness/dull headache/loss of balance that I've had for 3 months now started the day after I started taking St. John's Wort. After that I threw them out.

[Eclipse]

Hi Mya,
Although I'm in the UK, I worked with a lady in her early 60's who'd been taking St John's Wort for many years and swore by it as an anti-depressant and natural pick-me-up but I agree with NinjaXero in so far as it's not suited to everyone.

I found a link which, I think, offers an unbiased opinion if you want to take a look.

http://nccam.nih.gov/health/stjohnsw...depression.htm

It states not only the benefits but the side effects.

I personally have never chosen prescribed meds for depression (or anything) but also believe as above stated, that everybody's different and because things went the way they did with your cousin, doesn't mean they wouldn't work for you.
I would imagine that it depends on not only the obvious but the underlying problems and the medication prescribed.

I think if you can find the time to read through all the posts on here, even the older (and MUCH older) ones, you may find something helpful. That's the beauty of this site.

Whatever you decide, I hope whichever route you chose works for, and helps you.

Good Luck & Best Wishes
Magz
xx

[KK77]

I wouldn't say that SJW is dangerous. Yes, it can have interactions with medications and I don't think it's without SEs either, but a lot of ADs cause far more problems in my experience. For a start you don't have bad withdrawal symptoms like a lot of the SSRIs.

It shouldn't be taken with SSRIs (and check any other meds you are taking too) but a lot of people have had a lot of success with it. I suppose like anything else, it doesn't agree with everyone.

[Mya]

Thank you to all of you for your honest replies! Very much appreciated!

[fishman65]

Hi Mya, I was taking St Johns Wort for quite a while in the late 90s while I was also taking dosulepin 150mg (one of the older tri-cyclics).This period proved to be a very bad time for me in terms of depression,whether it was because the dosulepin wasn't helping or that the st johns wort wasn't either I don't know.However,I since read an article suggesting st johns wort can interfere with the working process of prescribed anti-d's,so perhaps this was the cause?That remains open to debate,but as for myself,I personally would treat st johns wort with caution.But in line with other people's opinions here,its your decision.Perhaps ask your doctor?

Take care now, Fishy