Natural Anxiety/Depression Supplement

[chainsaw]

I think you may be over doing it. If you are suffering with Anxiety I would focus first and foremost on getting more sleep but with less supplements. If you put too much into the mixing pot you can spoil the stew. You'll also never find out what is working best for you.

As for the 5-HTP, yes at bedtime for a sleep aid and daytime for PAD/GAD but more important is that if you are going to take it to treat the anxiety then pick one or the other, not both. Not bed time and day time as this is taking too much IMHO. Anxiety and panic usually zoom you up pretty good so a little drowsy stuff wont hurt at all. In fact, I always found the calming affect of a good dose of 5-HTP throughout the day when having an attack to be a very nice feeling. Never had drowsy issues that made me feel like I needed a nap. I was too zoomed up from the attacks. If the 5-HTP makes you feel like you need to sleep then most likely the attack wasn't bad enough to warrant taking the 5-HTP.

In more cases than not a "less is better" approach to supplementation is best when trying to figure out what will help you the best.

Nothing works the same for every one but I'm seeing and reading about more and more positive response with less to no sides from people supplementing with 5-HTP vs anything else. It's all I use now if and when I have an issue. If I want a sleep aid at times I use some Melatonin or Valerian root and I save the 5-HTP for when I need it to help me with an attack.

----

BTW, since I learned about treating my attacks with 5-HTP and got them to stop I've been attack free now for months. No issues at all anymore and there has even been way more stress in my life recently than before which usually pushes people like us the other way. I how ever am getting better instead of worse. I truly believe in the effectiveness of this supplement to help and even treat PAD/GAD attacks and symptoms in people who suffer from it. It's a God send for me.

Hg

Thanks, I am have decided to start off small and move my way up. Vit D which is good for health anyways will be taken daily, and the 5-HTP. I am doing more research on SAMe, as this seems promising.

 

[chainsaw]

Well my wife flew off the handle, she was not staying consistent on her meds "Abilifiy and Prozac" She left with my kids and filed a Protection from Abuse order"

I am worried about the side effects of these meds, one this was severe mood swings, she went from leaving love notes in my gym bag to wanting a divorce. I hope there is some way the judge can discern what is going on.

 

[rottie76]

Mmm...happy times! :banana:

I've never had much luck with herbals as far as anxiety/depression go.

Actually, I take that back. One herb has helped me tremendously, and that's no lie. I'm finally happy with my situation concerning anxiety, and I have been off of prescription meds since early July (my own doings, Zoloft was fucking me up badly).

What is this magical herb? Pahahaha, I'll bet you can guess.

 

[cmp007]

Ive been paxil for awhile and it killed most of my anxiety and depression which were both pretty severe. And also didnt make me gain weight like other anti depressants and actually made me lose weight. Just my experience.

 

[Halo1999]

This has already been recommended by some people on this forum. I would take around 300 mg of Valerian root a day. I would take a high level of fish oils containing DHA and EPA in them ,not the cheap fish oils that you can buy from grocery stores. In a study people with ADD experienced a tremendous improvement with their disorder using very high doses of fish oil. Valerian root has been tested and in some studies worked as good as Xanax. Valerian root will also help you with withdraw symptoms for individuals that are trying to get off prescription medication. Valerian root takes some trial and error to find the optimum dose to help with panic attacks or anxiety. A good multi-vitamin, exercise and practicing meditation will also help. Kava Kava can help alot with anxiety, but I have read long use may be a detriment to your health, However I do not know how conclusive this study was on Kava.

 

[as7r080y]

I posted on here a while ago as i am/was a sufferer of anxiety panic attacks.... st johns wort helped me for a course of a few months. The biggest help is accepting the fact what a panic attack is and how to control them. I am a lot better than what i was, i went and saw a psychologist and i pretty muched stopped going after then 3rd time because i learnt nothing new except the fact that you need to overcome your fears, put your body and mind to the test and overcome your anxiety by accepting and overcoming small panic attacks so you condition yourself to not have them anymore. The best thing i read and leart that really helped me was...... A PANIC ATTACK CAN NOT KILL YOU...... everyone who has had one will know that its the worst feeling and that it really does feel like your going to die, but to understand what a panic attack is and that it cannot physically kill you will put your mind at rest if you feel anxious just breath, open the window, turn on the aircon get some fresh air, breath, drink some water, think about other thoughts, listen to some music... they can all help.. it will pass, it always passes...... Hope this helps some sufferrers.

 

[GodofWine]

I've been suffering anxiety now for 3-4 months for sure, I never understood what anxiety was really until I got it for real..its a totally unrelatable illness to people who don't have it.

Mine was brought on probably via a combination of smaller stressors, snow balling into one big mess....me. I was manic, I wanted to leave town, find a new life, drastically change careers, escape....through research on the symptoms of various neurochemicals and their effects when they are depleted, it was obvious my way of thinking was serotonin related...I was probably close to paranoia, and was having fits of despair in the morning, literally lying on the floor, unsure I could get through the day, unreal.

I quickly bought a bottle of 5-htp and took 50mg, then 50mg more 30 minutes later, it felt like my brain got warm in an odd way, like I could feel again...totally salvaged me. I have been using it from 50mg to 150mg daily now for a few weeks, and I can function normally, eat again, lift again (missed 7 weeks of workouts cause of axiety and the depression it brought on).

I still have anxiety though, but I think its getting better. I am now getting 7-8 hours of sleep, instead of 5-6 also, which may be allowing my poor brain time to recoup its sanity.

I have added St John's Wort to the mix this week, hoping to reduce my 5-htp to 50mg a day, and get by on SJW...if it comes back and is not naturally treatable, I'll seek medication, I couldn't live like that for ever...I almost cried in the card store buying my wife an anniversary card when I saw they actually have cards dedicated to "Hard Years", and thought that is the card Im going to get her next year cause my relationship will be nearly over by then...no longer feeling that way.

Also use Chamomile Tea in the afternoon before my 20min walk (get up from your desks, and go outside!), it puts me in this nice chill mood and I can really just enjoy being outside and listening to music.

Like all other anxiety sufferers, I am a work in progress, and part of the anxiety, is the fear of it coming back which may never leave me...but as long as my wife can stand me, and my daughter still thinks Im superman, and I can eat and lift and get through the work day, I think thats pretty cool.

Focus on the good, release the bad...its hard to do, but thats the goal.

 

[lonewolf0420]

been using SJW for a little while now. Good stuff. It actually help me kick cigarettes, among other things...

I recently ordered some L-tryptophan, feeling like I might be serotonin deficient. I'm always kinda in a depressed, agitated, anxious mood, and its really wearing on me. I've been doing some research and found that sometimes you can be serotonin deficient, and firing strong with dopamine, causing an imbalance. Giving you the feeling of above described.

Right now Phenibut is helping me get through my days, but its worn off by the evening. On days that I do not take it, I'm agitiated from the beginning.

I'll take some xanex sometimes in the evening, but that just makes me tired and lethargic.

 

[TeamT10]

want an honest opinion

go hit a punching bag, go out for a midnight run with some angry music

i went through the most difficult year of my life entirely alone, changed my life, my perspective, my look, my weight, everything, and this was shortly after being hospitalized from a sever anxiety attack which actually resulted in my body shutting down and i stopped breathing, they tried to get me to take some stuff but i wanted to see if i could fix it elsewhere

so i started running, bear in mind i fukin hate cardio but i was also overweight

you need to find a TRUE outlet, go paint, go run, go beat something up, go take up jujitsu, im a firm beleiver emotion and mind can not be controlled by any supplement, only our will to make it better

there is nothing in life worth destroying yourself over mentally, because when it does and your brought to the brink of an end, trust me realize REALLY quickly life is alot better without taking everything as if it were life ending

but i do hear phenibut is useful....just my two cents

 

[GodofWine]

im a firm beleiver emotion and mind can not be controlled by any supplement, only our will to make it better

While I agree with your post in general...if you are out of serotonin and not making enough, there is not a lot you can do to 'will' it back...but besides that I totally agree that curling up into a ball, eating less, and not lifting was the total opposite of what I needed...but without that outside source of serotonin, I was weeks away from the crazy farm.

@lonewolf, My first attempt to brighten my mood was through Mucuna for L-dopa, and it worked for about a week, and then I CRASHED hard...the initial dopa increase must have smashed my poor serotonin to smitherines and thats when I thought I was in deep trouble of really needing to lock myself in my house for a month and be insane...then the irrational thoughts of losing my job / money / house / family crept in....luckily, 5-htp wiped it out 90%l, and whats left is probably pretty normal in today's world of nervous people.

Like I said, its such a weird irrational illness, until you are torn up by it, you simply cannot relate, I have a new respect for those people with it and those who live with it, and even understand those who couldn't bare to live with it anymore, I can see what they were thinking unfortunately.

Like I said, If I ever find myself on the floor in the morning wimpering again, its to the doctors for some serious SSRI action.

 

[giantbrandon]

I'll take some xanex sometimes in the evening, but that just makes me tired and lethargic.

how do you find the xanex, i sometimes take some valuim when i go out to loosen up and not get anxious, i dont use it all teh time once or twice a month

 

[kingdong]

God I hope I learn something here and find something soon because I am headed down a slippery slope right now.

Weed is the best thing if your having an emergency. Im not talking about being high all day eather. I find that if I smoke a real small amount where people don't know Im high, it really helps. In fact, I get things done quicker without that constant feeling of tension in my life. just the fact that I can show up to school, and get along with people better is such a gift it makes me wanna cry.

On top of that, lower caffeine. It throws off you seratonin, dopamin ratios in the long run.

I will say that I find White Flood to be the best PW in terms of how I feel when I come off. I only use PW's twice a weak, and Jack3d is starting to **** with my head.

A lot of people believe in vitamin D. I say you might as well.

 

[Flaw]

Mine was brought on probably via a combination of smaller stressors, snow balling into one big mess....me. I was manic, I wanted to leave town, find a new life, drastically change careers, escape....through research on the symptoms of various neurochemicals and their effects when they are depleted, it was obvious my way of thinking was serotonin related...I was probably close to paranoia, and was having fits of despair in the morning, literally lying on the floor, unsure I could get through the day, unreal.

Like all other anxiety sufferers, I am a work in progress, and part of the anxiety, is the fear of it coming back which may never leave me...but as long as my wife can stand me, and my daughter still thinks Im superman, and I can eat and lift and get through the work day, I think thats pretty cool.

Focus on the good, release the bad...its hard to do, but thats the goal.

Man, You hit the nail on the head "Mine was brought on probably via a combination of smaller stressors, snow balling into one big mess....me"
The mistake I made was never getting the help I needed when the stressors were smaller. If I would have done that it would not have got to the mess that it is today. I messed with supplements for years. Temporarily covering up the problem. They worked for some time but the stress of life never got any smaller. The supplements eventually stopped working the way they used to. Anything I took just wasn't cutting it anymore. 5-htp don't work at all anymore. My insomnia has got to a level that I cannot sleep if I don't take trazodone. It's the only thing that works right now. I fear the day when that no longer works. Well with all that said.. I'm finally getting help. Seeing a pychotherapist/behavior specialist and trying to minimize the damage that has happend to me. Hopefully some how turn back time but the problem is that many times I feel that the damage that was done is too great to recover from. I feel strongly that I'll never be who I was before this all began. I noticed that I started to feel General anxiety in my late teens but I didn't understand what it was till years later.

You said " I wanted to leave town, find a new life, drastically change careers, escape."

I did that almost 5 years ago. I made a drastic move to florida and escaped and thought the "grass would be greener on the otherside". I realize now that I made that move cause of the anxiety. If I would have realized that then maybe I would have got help and not moved. Well the grass wasn't greener on the other side. Florida sucked and my depression and anxiety hit it's ultimate high. At times I had the feeling of a panic attack for a week straight. I guess I always thought I could tough it out. Mind over matter. But it's not all about that. You can't fix everything with attitude. The people that say you can haven't felt the way we have. If your mind is truly out of balance you have to find a way to get it back to balance and you need direction. You need real help and not just supplements or medication alone.
I moved back HOME to philly and my depression is much much less but my anxiety is still here. I'm getting help for that now.. I hope that I can get better but only time will tell. Atleast now, I know I'm in the right place.

 

[T H E O R E M]

obviously this is lesser a supplement, but Kratom (if you can manage the nausea associated with it) is pretty potent opioid. Pretty great in moderation, obviously though considering its similarity to opiates has a possibility for addiction for those prone to such things. Must be careful

 

[GodofWine]

I moved back HOME to philly

I grew up in Philly (hell, spent 29 years in Philly)...Far Northeast section. Now Im a Jersey dweller for the last few years...thats what probably got me bad

 

[CHAPS]

Man, You hit the nail on the head "Mine was brought on probably via a combination of smaller stressors, snow balling into one big mess....me"
The mistake I made was never getting the help I needed when the stressors were smaller. If I would have done that it would not have got to the mess that it is today. I messed with supplements for years. Temporarily covering up the problem. They worked for some time but the stress of life never got any smaller. The supplements eventually stopped working the way they used to. Anything I took just wasn't cutting it anymore. 5-htp don't work at all anymore. My insomnia has got to a level that I cannot sleep if I don't take trazodone. It's the only thing that works right now. I fear the day when that no longer works. Well with all that said.. I'm finally getting help. Seeing a pychotherapist/behavior specialist and trying to minimize the damage that has happend to me. Hopefully some how turn back time but the problem is that many times I feel that the damage that was done is too great to recover from. I feel strongly that I'll never be who I was before this all began. I noticed that I started to feel General anxiety in my late teens but I didn't understand what it was till years later.

You said " I wanted to leave town, find a new life, drastically change careers, escape."

I did that almost 5 years ago. I made a drastic move to florida and escaped and thought the "grass would be greener on the otherside". I realize now that I made that move cause of the anxiety. If I would have realized that then maybe I would have got help and not moved. Well the grass wasn't greener on the other side. Florida sucked and my depression and anxiety hit it's ultimate high. At times I had the feeling of a panic attack for a week straight. I guess I always thought I could tough it out. Mind over matter. But it's not all about that. You can't fix everything with attitude. The people that say you can haven't felt the way we have. If your mind is truly out of balance you have to find a way to get it back to balance and you need direction. You need real help and not just supplements or medication alone.
I moved back HOME to philly and my depression is much much less but my anxiety is still here. I'm getting help for that now.. I hope that I can get better but only time will tell. Atleast now, I know I'm in the right place.

Magnesium glycinate! Google magnesium and depression i've been on paxil for 8 years and have lowered my dose considerably now that i take 2g's magnesium glycinate everyday. My mood is better, no more silly worries, my thinking is clearer, memory and sleep is better, i also find i learn faster.

 

[freezito]

Going to try this

 

[CHAPS]

http://george-eby-research.com/html/depression-anxiety.html