St. John's Wort

[Hoping4Recovery]

I have recently started taking St. John's Wort for depression. Does it actually work? How long does it take to start to work? Anyone with any experiences with it on here?

[Wednesday]

Hi welcome to the forum!

On the BB website I found an article that talks about ST John's Wort, try pasting this link into your browser.

http://resources.beyondblue.org.au/prism/file?token=BL/0556

However, I'm wondering why you would try St John's Wort for depression? Being something of a hippie myself I get that you want to try natural products. Could I suggest that rather than mess around with your bodies chemistry with out medical supervision you see your doctor instead?

Using some of the natural products can have side effects such as interacting poorly with other medications. Depression can have a number of medical causes for example some auto immune diseases can make you act odly and be depressed, but the treatment may not be an anti depressant.

Do you have a doctor you like you could a have a chat with and maybe even discuss St John's Wort with?

Just some thoughts, good luck. x

[Hoping4Recovery]

Yes I do I am doing this in consultation with my GP.

I was just looking for some more knowledge on SJW.

Thankyou very much for the reply it was very helpful.

[geoff]

hello HR, well SJW can be used for mild sadness but it doesn't have what an antidepressant (AD) has to get you out from any type of depression, it's a natural formula, and it will not be able to do the work that an AD does.
I asked my doctor a long time ago about taking it and she said that I couldn't take it with any AD as there would be an adverse affect on me, and if you go to your pharmacy they too will ask if you are taking SJW, because if you are taking an AD then they will give it to you.
If I can say that a doctor wouldn't try and cover up the wound from open heart surgery with a bandaid, that would be pointless, so SJW won't help you with major depression.
If and when you are given AD you might have to try a few before you find the right one that helps you, but once you have one then you will notice a huge difference, but can I also suggest that you see a psychologist as well, they both go hand in hand and normally one won't work without the other. Geoff.