I thought I’d talk about what I take for depression. First of all, I have the sort of depression that is caused by a chemical imbalance. I’ve heard this called “Chemical Depression” or “Endogenous Depression”. It runs in my family. My mother and sisters have problems with it too. I believe they take prescription medications for it, though. I’ll go through the list of what I take for it now:
5-HTP
I’ve taken this for almost three years. I started taking it as an appetite suppressant, which it works very well for, but then I kept taking it because it helped with the depression. It works great. I take 50 mg twice a day. In the morning and in the evening. It has a calming effect also. It’s good for anxiety and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, which I also have. It’s probably good for insomnia, though I don’t take it for that. When I take it I can feel the effects within about 20 minutes. It’s a fast working supplement. Other supplements can take days to start to work. It has a side effect, though. It causes nausea. At least in me. I take one 500 mg ginger pill to help with that. One ginger pill a day does the trick. I also skip one dose of 5-HTP per week. One evening per week I won’t take the 5-HTP. It tends to build up in the body and become less effective over time. Some people take a whole week off every few months, but I don’t think I could handle being depressed for a week!
Rhodiola
I take one 500 mg pill of Rhodiola every morning. This one is great. It also helps with anxiety and OCD. It calms me down and gives me energy somehow. And helps with depression. I take it in the morning, because it sort of peps me up and makes it hard to sleep if I take it in the evening. Ironically when I take two pills a day it knocks me out. I can barely keep my eyes open. When I first started taking it I could feel it wear off at about 4 pm every day. When I was still at work! And I’d have some sort of mild panic attack. I started taking garlic every day and that got rid of the mild panic attack. No idea why. I stopped taking garlic and started taking CoQ10 for the same thing (garlic and CoQ10 help lower blood pressure), and it works. No more mini panic attacks. I take Rhodiola every day with no break. It doesn’t seem to have that same build up problem that 5-HTP has.
Flax Seed Oil
I read that this helps with brain chemistry somehow, the essential fatty acids, so I tried it. It made a big difference in my depression. I take 1000 mg every day. At first it gave me a little headache. Now I don’t feel that. If I try to take more than 1000 mg I get the headache again. Not sure why it causes that. I figure it’s something my body needs, so it’s okay to take it. Maybe the headache was my body adjusting.
B Vitamins
These I added recently. I take a B-50 supplement, 50 mg/mcg of all the B Vitamins. I thought I was getting enough from food, but when I added the supplement it helped immensely with my depression. Maybe food doesn’t have as many vitamins and minerals as it should. That’s a whole other topic.
There you have it. That’s what I take for depression. And I feel great. Or normal anyway. I have a down day just like anyone, now and then. But I don’t have DOWN days anymore, and that’s important.
Oh, one more thing. Here is a great website with depression information: Kelly’s St. John’s Wort Pages. There are articles on different natural therapies, and there is a discussion board where people talk about what worked for them. It’s very helpful.
‘Til next time. ~Me.
