Am looking at ways to help get out of my current "funk". (Unmotivated, down, laundry and bills and "life" piling up, anxious etc.). The research I have done points to a depression of sorts. Could go to Doctor but don't want to if I can avoid it. I noticed that many of you are taking St. John's Wort and have a few questions.<P>1. Why (symptoms) are you taking it?<BR>2. For how long have you been taking it?<BR>3. How many mg per day do you take?<BR>4. What brand? Have you tried others? Why the switch?<BR>5. Have you noticed benefits since taking it? What are these benefits? How long did it take before you noticed these benfits? <P>Thanks in advance to all who respond.<P>Cheers!<BR>Lisa

Hi Lisa,<P>Both my H and I take it daily, my MIL (a widow) too.<P>We live in Canada and winters seen pretty long, a touch of seasonal affective disorder. We take it daily during the winter, my MIL is lonely and takes it year round.<P>I just buy whatever brand is on sale and use whatever the standard dose is.<P>The effects are subtle, you won't get immediate relief. Think of it as more a prophylactic than a cure. So far as I know it can't hurt you and over a period of time,<BR>at least a month, it may help.<P>I'm sure there is a lot better info on the web, but I hope this helps.

LisaM,<P>I'v been taking St. John's Wort, Jameson's brand, for about 2 weeks now. It's hard to say if it's helping. Right now my life is pretty depressing as it is. Maybe I would feel alot worse if I weren't on it? I guess I'm taking it on faith. Definately use a good brand that is standardized (of known strength).<P>How depressed are you? If you find it hard to concentrate or to get out of bed, insomnia, eating too much or too little, then you really ought to see your doc. It's no big deal. <P>If you can still get through your day, but you're just feeling blue, then try St. John's Wort. Better yet, give yourself a treat! Go see a movie, or go for a skate on the canal, (I see that you live in Ottawa).<P>Good luck,<BR>Kenneth<BR>

Hi,<P>I started taking a combination of ST Johns Wort, Ginseng and Kava Kava. I started it Monday and I felt good . I felt good yesterday too. Then I got served with divorce papers . I figured NOTHING in the world is going to help me now so I discontinued for a while.<P>The brand is Your Life. It was 5.99 for a 14 day supply at the supermarket. It is taken once a day.Some bottles indicated taking it at every meal. I don't have time so I went with this one.<P>It was called Healthy Mood Pak. According to the box, these herbs together will lead to a feeling of mood elevation, improve mental focus, increase resistance in stressful situations, and kava kava promotes relaxation without losing one's focus.<P>Sounded good to me, so I bought it. I felt good for 2 days. I figure, might as well take some time before I try it though. Not much can help these days.<P>I don't know, but you may want to ask pharmacist if this stuff interferes with other vitamins, Rx , etc before taking. <P>Good luck<BR>

I took St John's Wort for the first few months after discovery and attempted reconciliation. With the holidays, I decided to go to the Dr and get on something stronger. I had noticed that I was irritable and losing my patience with the kids and knew the holidays and thats why I got the Rx.<P>I didn't notice any side effects except running to the bathroom alot at first. It takes about two weeks to kick in. I didn't feel any different other than my concentration started to return and my sleep habits started to improve also.<P>------------------<BR>"You can't always get what you want! But if you try real hard,you might just find, you get what you need!"<BR>Mick Jagger

It helped me after a few weeks. I felt less irritable, and my emotions seemed to stay in check. I didn't have the disgusted feeling like I usually did, like a had something rumbling in my stomach from the emotional hurt. But still have my bad days, but deal with it better.

I'm not taking it, but there was a very good article in the paper (TO Star) a couple of weeks ago. Apparently, because herbals are not "drugs" they are not under the federal drug controls. They tested different brands of the same herbals, and although all claimed the same amount of herbal ingredient (ie. 200 mg) they came up with varying amounts of actual herbs contained in the pills. Some had as little as 5% of the claimed amount. The article listed the ones with the most accurate labels and the ones to stay away from. As our drug (Cdn.) control body is much tougher than the US, I don't know if this applies to the states or not.

I was taking Harmonex brand for a while...it was the highest dosage I could find 450mg plus 90mg of Siberian Ginseng. I can't say that it really worked...although I didn't take it religioiusly.<P>You might also want to try Sam-E...it's also over the counter...but, much more expensive than St. Johns Wort. It's supposed to kick in a lot faster and be more potent. I was taking it for a little while...but, I found that it was all mental anyway...mind over matter.

WARNING!!!! I took St. John's wort for about 3 months and I had had some problems in the past with kidney stones, have to tell you that I had a reoccurance of kidney stones and told the Dr. what I had been doing. The doc told me that I need to be careful, at least with my system, with taking certain herbs and that St. John's was known to increase the likelyhood of kidney stones in some people. This is very painful and not worth the trouble I went through. I would suggest just a phone call to the doctor's office and ask wheather or not they believe it would be helpful in your circumstances. I would hate to have anyone go through the pain that I did! God Bless!<P>------------------<BR>Chick's <BR>Bren<P>You won't see things until your ready to not be blind!

Please be very careful taking Herbs of any kind.<BR>They are unregulated and there are so many <BR>brands on the market you can't be sure how<BR> much of the real herb is in it.<BR>STJW takes at least 8 wks of continual use to be effective, and should be used in only in mild cases of depression.<BR>The capsule form is more effective than pill form but can cause indigestion. As with any herb you must take it with a full glass of water, even if it is a liquid. Also it will make you sun senstive(burn easily).<P>Sam-E is a good one for mild depression but as someone else said it is very expensive, Wal-Mart was the cheapest I found.<P>I had to go back on Paxil for my depression because I couldn't function well at all.<P>Also find out what drugs can cause an adverse<BR>reaction with Herbs.<P>Now I hope I haven't scared you away from Herbs, they can be helpful, do your research, go to a natural food store(altho they are alittle biased) they have lots of literature. <P>------------------<BR>Peg