For many years while living in central Europe, I experienced winter depression. Having grown up in sunny southern California, and
moving to Europe in the mid-19070s, before the "winter blues" was a diagnosable disorder, I couldn’t understand the deep fatigue that
overcame me each Fall and had no idea what to do to overcome it.
It wasn’t until the birth of my forth child (in
September), and the concurrent onset of postpartum depression, that my yearly
SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) turned into full-fledged clinical depression
and I recognized the beast for what it was.
I tried many therapies: massage, meditation and prayer;
medical light; prozac. This was the first and only time I took a pharmaceutical
to alter my mood. The first weeks, I experienced a mental “high,” produced some
of my best writing, felt deeply alive. Then, I felt normal for a while, and
finally, I became lethargic, passive, and I lost my ability to curb my appetite
and began to gain weight. I was very happy when winter was over and I could get
off the drug. When the next year came around, I was loathe to again try an
pharmaceutical, so I began taking St. John’s Wort at what is considered full
therapeutic dosage: the tincture, 30 drops, 3 times a day. The effect was
similar to prozac—a creative, mental high that gradually morphed into lethargy,
passivity, and hunger I had no desire to curb. I again was thankful that winter
was over so I could go off the “drug.”
The next time winter came around I decided to try a
reduced dosage. Instead of 30 drops 3 times a day, I did 15. It worked! I was
not pulled down into the black paralysis of depression. I did feel some mental
elation, but not as much. Best—I did not become lethargic with time.
The following winter, I began to treat myself
earlier—before the first symptoms were apparent—with 10 drops only, before
sleep and on waking. The winter after that, I dared take only 5 drops. And so
on it went, until finally I understood: I could stave off winter depression
entirely by using St. John’s Wort at low dosage for just a few days whenever I
felt myself beginning to become depressive.
To this day, I keep a St. John’s Wort products close at
hand—tincture, pills and tea,and I am convinced that I stave off deeper
depression with this approach: I might use it only three times a year, but what
suffering I am spared!
The best part of this easy treatment strategy is the
empowerment I feel: I am not at the mercy of the seasons; I am not at the mercy
of the pharmaceutical industry. I am managing to treat incipient depression on my own
terms, am countering a malady that is epidemic.
Depression is surely an expression of helplessness. It is the
soul’s way of saying, “I need to re-boot, to be brought down to minimal running
so that I can run through all my deepest programming and figure out what is
wrong.” But what if what is wrong is not personal, but societal? If individual
depression is an expression less of personal problems than of the personal ego
being unable to bear up under untenable living conditions? Life in our day is truly
stressful, chock-full of intellectual and moral contradictions, pressures and strictures that make many feel helpless
in one way or another much of the time. With the continuing economic struggles, more people are feeling helpless and are suffering from depression.
Perhaps in many cases, having someone to talk to, and just more time to come to terms with life will help prevent depression. But as people are more burnt out by high-stress lives, are more socially isolated in general, and as our medical system becomes less willing to spend the time and effort to provide one-on-one consultation, we turn instead to pharmaceuticals for hope, strength, and often, for survival.
Statistics show that most of us, at one time or
another, will suffer from mild to severe depression. And it will change us
forever. For once the brain has experienced true depression, and has embedded the biochemical pattern of depression, it can easily re-emerge.
This is where St. John’s Wort
helps. By altering the brain’s pattern at the first sign of symptoms, by
re-intruducing the “light” for which it is known, I am convinced that it
prevents the brain’s memory of depression from unfolding.
I am publishing this article in October, 2012. A few days
ago, I felt a sudden and crushing weight of depression as the skies turned
gray. After only two days of taking St. John’s Wort, I was fine again.
Winter depression is serious. It is a loss of quality
of life—and in mothers, it equates to a loss of quality for the children as
well.
The proclivity for SAD could be genetic, as my three boys were all
affected. At the end of summer, they would return to school excited, energized,
and eager to tackle the challenges of education.
By the end of September, they
already felt fatigued and foggy-minded. Keeping up with the demands of school
was just too much for them. It was very demoralizing.
I began to give them a few drops of the tincture as well.
It helped, markedly, but there were other factors over which I had no
control—in particular, the rampant consumption of chocolate and cookies,
typical of European festivities from October to New Years. The same is true in the
US, of course, though to a lesser extent, I believe: Halloween, Thanksgiving
and Christmas are each an excuse to indulge in sweet, sugary food that provides a "sugar high" for a while, and then lets us down hard.
One aspect of Winter Depression is in fact the craving for
carbs, and some experts believe it may be therapeutic to eat pasta, bread and
potatoes when we feel SAD. But the extreme blood-sugar highs and
lows that result from a high-carb diet, especially in those of us who are
insulin resistant, have the opposite effect: they make us irritable, fatigued,
and ultimately, depressed. Weightgain is also not helpful for our self-esteem.
After trying to “be good” all Spring and Summer, putting on 10 – 15 lbs in
winter leaves us feeling we were “bad” and that we let ourselves down, had no self-discipline, etc.
Not only my sons, but my husband, too, felt the down
pulling effect of SAD. When September came around he would develop a prickly
hide and become irritable, irrationally angry, and snappy. It took some
convincing on my part, but he, too, (much to my relief) eventually gave in and
took a few drops of St. John’s Wort tincture each day—and was immediately his old loving
self again. After a week or two, he would invariably say that St. John’s Wort
slowed his reflexes while driving, and stop taking it. Fortunately, even that
short span of low dosage treatment was enough to get him over the hump of the
changing season.
Getting
over the hump—that
expression describes very well my subjective sense of how St. John’s Wort
works. In the Fall, the brain must transition from a summer of long, light days
to a winter of darkness, and it appears to be the transition that is tricky. It’s much like
going from a light-filled room into a dark room: until the eyes adjust to the change
one might feel dizzy, unsure of one’s footing, but once the eyes and the brain
have transitioned, we get our balance back. It is just as dark as before, but
we are used to it, so we function well.
It’s the transitional period that is
awkward and risky, a time when the brain can slip into the chemistry of
depression. And St. John’s Wort appears to make that transition an easy one.
The ability for the eyes and the skin to react to sunlight
is called “photosensitivity,” and St. John’s Wort actually increases
photosensitivity. That means, one’s eyes and skin literally respond to light more
sensitively—it is as if we are able to absorb more sunlight. On the package,
you may read a warning that you are at increased risk for sunburn while on St.
John’s Wort, and it is clear that persons who have sun allergy should not use
it.
St. John’s Wort’s blooms on the summer solstice, at which time the herb is
collected and dried, tinctured or processed into capsules or pills. Poetically,
the herb actually contains the imprint of the longest, sunniest days of the
year. The flower itself looks like a small, radiant sun.
Herbalists who believe that nature presents itself to us
with visual and metaphoric keys to its use absolutely love St. John’s Wort, with its luminous color, its appropriate time of
blooming, and calming effect on the nerves and psychie.
If you are thinking of trying St. John's Wort, do your research to be sure that there are no interactions with any drugs you are presently taking.
Testimonial
When I
hit 50 years old I found that I could barely get out of bed in the mornings
when it started to get dark in the winter. I had read about St John's Wort
being used for SAD sufferers and I started a course over the winter months.
Within 6 days of taking the tablets I found an immense improvement on my mood
and was able to get up for work absolutely no problem during winter. I take a
6-month course starting at the end of September and finish it at the beginning
of March with the light mornings. That's all I need to help me through the
winter months. This works for me each year now and I wouldn't be without them.
Just one tablet a day made all the difference.
- Brian Wallace , Birmingham, UK, 26/10/2010
12:56
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/st-johns-wort/NS_patient-stjohnswort
The
Mayo Clinic says: Extracts of Hypericum perforatum L. (St. John's
wort) have been recommended traditionally for a wide range of medical
conditions. The most common modern-day use of St. John's wort is the treatment
of depression. Numerous studies report St. John's wort to be more effective
than placebo and equally effective as tricyclic antidepressant drugs in the
short-term treatment of mild-to-moderate major depression (1-3 months). It is
not clear if St. John's wort is as effective as selective serotonin reuptake
inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants such as sertraline (Zoloft®).
Recently,
controversy has been raised by two high-quality trials of St. John's wort for
major depression that did not show any benefits. However, due to problems with
the designs of these studies, they cannot be considered definitive. Overall,
the scientific evidence supports the effectiveness of St. John's wort in
mild-to-moderate major depression. The evidence in severe major depression
remains unclear.
St.
John's wort can cause many serious interactions with prescription drugs, herbs,
or supplements. Therefore, people using any medications should consult their
healthcare providers including their pharmacist prior to starting therapy.
