St. Johns Wort

I've heard before that St. John's Wort is a good natural remedy for depression. Has anyone tried it? Did you have good or bad effects? Is there a danger with taking St. John's Wort? Anything I should know before I try it?

[Hensley258]

I tried it many years ago for about three months. This was before I had ever taken medication for my depression.

To be honest it didn't hardly put a dent in the symptoms of my depression and anxiety.

It may have helped a tiny bit, but I don't think so.

It was at that time that I stopped it and started taking an SSRI.
I asked my Psychiatrist why the St. John Wort didn't help me. He told me that the Wort seldom works for anything but very mild forms of depression.

It may work for you. Perhaps the level of my depression was just too great for the st johns wort to work for me.

Also very important: Don't take the Wort along with ANY antidepressant medication.
Doing that can be VERY dangerous.

[Ocnfish4]

Thanks. I had never heard details about it, just heard it mentioned. I was on Zoloft for a while, and it seemed to help. I plan to get back on that, just wondered about what might be a cheaper help. Thanks for your comments!

[Karl1000]

I have taken it for a couple of years now. I still have depression however. I probably should be on a drug. Afrid of side effects though.

[Hensley258]

Yea, It's been a long time and I think the Wort helped a little. I would say it maybe took care of about 20% of my depressive and anxiety symptoms.

I needed 100% effectiveness, which is why from the Wort I switched to Zoloft and it was much more effective, (Of course the Zoloft had more side effects)

I would imagine some people might get better results with the Wort than I did, simply because I do have a very high tolerence (resistance) to even powerful medication.
(12 med changes in 16 years) I build up tolerance to AD's fast.

So maybe for some one that has a more sensitive system, the Wort would work better.

At this point I have difficulty even finding a powerful tri-cyclic med that will help with my symptoms so I know for sure that now the Wort wouldn't do a thing for me.

Can't hurt to try it first and see. You never know it may work for you.