non-commercial - not selling anything - yay!

Welcome!

Big news! For returning forum members and new visitors: I have just launched the new forum to replace the aging software on this site. Thanks to people like you, we built a community with 28,865 high quality messages! You are a massive support group, thank-you to everyone to has contributed to this website. The new forum builds on the successes of the old one, and it will be even better! Returning users will still need to create a new Username/Password in the new forum. This is a one-time change - if you have an existing nickname, you can register it again. Geek note: Iif you are a Perl/SQL guru maybe you can help me transfer the old registration info too, so a new registration isn't required. Sooo many new features in this forum that make it easier-to-use, especially if you keep coming back. Check it out!

Introduction

Let's get started. This is a place to share experiences of people who are taking a herbal antidepressant called St. John's Wort. That's probably what you typed into a search engine to find this place. So... in finding this page, you've probably found many other ones out there trying to sell it (and who knows what else) to you, which I think is really sad. My goal has always been to keep this place completely non-commercial (ie., definately not sell SJW or anything).

Way back in 1996 when I started researching St. John's Wort there was very little information about it available -- and I just started taking it, without the precautions that I should have. I guess I was lucky to have found a real (and safe) treatment. So I started these pages to tell the world! Now in 2004, things have changed quite a bit. There are dozens, maybe hundreds of brands on the market, and hundreds of websites trying to sell you something.

DISCLAIMER: I am not a medical doctor! But I've done much research on the subject and have taken SJW longer than most people. As well, there are now many smart people who visit my discussion forum on a daily or weekly basis and know more about SJW and depression than I do. You're welcome to post your questions there after you've gone through the site. If it makes you feel better, you might also want to consult with a doctor -- but this is not required as you can buy SJW over the counter in most countries (except in Germany, where it is prescribed by a doctor only).

I also believe you should do as much personal research as possible on the treatment of your own depression. Contained herein are my experiences and opinions, your mileage may vary. In the discussion forum you'll find many comments and experiences from other people as well. You can go through it later. Let's start with the basics.

What is St. John's Wort?

First of all, St. John's Wort is used as a natural, herbal alternative for the treatment of depression in cases where standard antidepressants (such as Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, and many others) would be prescribed. St. John's Wort itself is a plant (a weed, actually) that grows in the wild and is harvested for its active ingredient, hypericum, and this is the "drug" that actually has an effect on you. New research also suggestions that the level of hyperforin in hypericum perforatum (the latin name for St. John'S Wort) can have a significant impact on the effectiveness of the herb. Occasionally people try to grow it themselves, but due to widely varying qualities you had best stick to a good, quality brand (though even the qualities of these can vary widely, as you'll discover - more about that on the next page).

As there are several different types of antidepressants, the Prozac/Paxil/Zoloft/others are commonly referred to as SSRIs, or Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors. Therefore, St. John's Wort and the SSRIs are best used for depression that ranges from fairly moderate to relatively serious. That doesn't mean SJW is an SSRI; rather, that it is used in similar circumstances. Other antidepressants, such as Wellbutrin, are not an SSRI but can still be quite effective -- albeit with side-effects common to the prescriptions antidepressants. There's actually lots of debate about exactly how the hypericum/hyperforin in St. John's Wort actually works, and right now nobody really knows -- just that it does seem to work.

I certainly do not believe that St. John's is a cure-all, nor is it the best (or only) choice for absoutely everybody who suffers from mild or moderate depression. There are some instances where standard SSRI antidepressants have their place and I hope that in visiting this website you do not get the feeling that I am "promoting" St. John's Wort -- I am not. However, with millions of visitors and countless thousands of emails under my belt, plus nearly 20,000 posts on my discussion forum, there is a great deal of information here.

Extreme cases of depression should still be treated with the help of your doctor or psychiatrist! Please, if you are unsure about what to do or where to turn, read my web pages but! consult your doctor before taking things into your own hands! This is what I did, and after an unsuccessful bout with Paxil I turned to St. John's Wort (more on that below). In addition, be aware that it is not recommended that you take St. John's Wort along with another antidepressant, just as doctors do not normally recommend taking Prozac, Paxil, etc. together. If a doctor recommends combining drugs, they have a specific reason to do so and they should make that call and not you. So there. :-)

Who is this guy?

My name is Kelly, by the way. I suffered from moderate depression for years, and I'm not sure why... sometimes you can have almost everything, loving parents and great friends, a good job and everything else, and still feel sad for no reason... It's like you're in a tunnel, and you'll never reach the end...

It was in late 1996 that I finally said enough-is-enough" and came to the realization that I just wasn't seeing the world as it really is. I went to the doctor and was very quickly prescribed Paxil, in under ten minutes. Getting prescribed a drug immediately was (unfortunately) exactly what I was looking for at the time, having known (somewhere inside of me?) that I suffered from depression. I was just starting to come to grips with this -- and I didn't know what would happen.

Paxil was okay at first, but it didn't take long for side-effects to kick in, and for me they were much worse then the original problems that I faced! Paxil has temporary side-effects that cause dumb sexual dysfunctions for many people (like an inability to orgasm in men), and plus I was completely unable to sleep. It's a terrible prescription drug. I stopped taking Paxil after about seven weeks out of frustration, and went without anything. All of a sudden, my life turned upside down and things got worse than ever before. I didn't know that you're not supposed to stop taking it abruptly, and that I would suffer from withdrawl. Virtually out of panic, I stumbled across a small bit of information on a natural remedy for depression, St. John's Wort, and started taking it after doing as much research as I could (back in 1996, there was much less info available than there is now).

I noticed it starting to take effect within the first week, though it took a couple of weeks to fully take effect. Wow, to feel normal again with a little bit of help from nature! Two months later I was so impressed that I started writing these pages, which grew and grew, and now after millions of visitors and media coverage from all over the world, the rest is history.

I don't take St. John's Wort like I used to any more, but I believe that it changed my life in a major and positive way. It has allowed me to grow and virtually overcome clinical depression. I plan to stop taking it one day soon, and hopefully never look back, having healed forever.

If there is one person out there in need of help that can take comfort in my experiences, and hundreds of others to made it through. I appreciate every single email I receive saying thanks for having created the site. It means so much, even nine years after I created this site. I keep updating it periodically too, and give reasons for people to keep coming back (the message forum - now very popular, and second one just launched!) You are not alone.

This site was difficult for me to create, at first. Depression is such a debilitating and emotional disease! From 1997 through 2004, I included a link going to my personal homepage... but there was never link back. I was embarrased to let my friends and family know that I suffered from anything. For years I kept my depression private, if "millions of strangers" reading about me is "private." You don't know me personally, but we have one thing in common already. Millions of people suffer (or have suffered) from depression, like me, yet for years my family and friends had no idea about this site. Now I am quite proud of what I've built, and the tens of millions of times these pages have been viewed now.

I don't know what causes depression, so I can't give you all the answers. But I can direct you along a path, the same one I took that has lifted the cloud. Don't ever lose hope. Don't ever give up, there is too much in this world to experience! Sometimes you just need a little help along the way.

Keep reading, as there is much more information here for you... and please excuse the construction as I continue to modernize this website. -Kelly April 12, 2006.

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