St John's Wort - ever used it?

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My levels of anxiety and depression have reached levels that are difficult to cope with on a daily basis so I have decided to take St John's Wort to lessen the symptoms - I have researched the potential problems and stopped taking simvastatin and replaced it with reduced alcohol intake and increased cholesterol-busting foods (I am already vegan so not too much of a trial).

Just wondering what the group experience has been?
Good, bad or indifferent I am interested - will also revisit this thread with on-going reports as to efficacy or otherwise to make it useful to everyone...

I tried it for a few weeks...maybe I didn't take it long enough but it didn't seem to do anything at all for me.

I have also tried it. Zero effect of any kind as far as I could tell.

interferes with too many medications

I wanted to try it, but I like was posted- it interfered with too much stuff. So I didn't but I hope it helps you!

Interesting that it gets in the way for people by interfering with other meds - I know the contraceptive pill is a biggie.
I said to my wife I would rather live a shorter but content life than a long and miserable one and she agreed.

I did take a few pills and seemed to work within half an hour - could be placebo effect. But it stopped working when I got really depressed, so I'm on sertraline now, which is good.

It cleared my thinking a bit, like that fresh early day clarity. Helped my focus.

But I had to stop taking it for something else on midwife order.
Never went back.
It has no huge heavenly chorus effect for me. Not likely to help anyone seriously moody or twitchy. it has been found to worsen ADHD and Alzheimer demntia.
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Interested in the ADD comment - got a link gingerpickles?

I'd like to hear more about this too. Or any other herbs or supplements that are known to worsen ADHD.

I don't know why the St. John's Wort didn't do anything for me...could have been too low of a dose? I don't remember how much I was taking. It was made by Sundown Naturals. It just didn't seem to have any affect on me at all. Maybe I should try it again when I'm not taking other supplements.

There is a huge amount of information about dosage and most of it agrees on amounts - the only confusing part is "active" content over tablet strength but even that is fairly quickly sorted out.

As to drugs and ADD - I know that stimulants (amphetamine and cocaine) are reported to enable higher levels of coping (albeit in a transitory and illegal fashion!) and my own experience with Phenobarbitone was excruciating so anything that calms the nervous system may be suspect...

I have used SJW for 12 years and it has done me good. IMO it is important to talk to a doctor about it, not only about the interactions but also the dose. The interactions with SJW can be dangerous.

To the best of knowledge it only works on about 6 out of 10 of people (there have been proper studies done in Germany). Also the quality of SJW is highly important, cheap stuff does not work.

In my case it took about 3 months to take effect, and then nothing spectacular happened, more of a gentle and barely noticeable lessening of misery. The stuff is useless if you are on a proper downer.

Ah, well that probably explains why it didn't work for me. lol

I dont know who john is, i dont want his warts

I know Zombie is kidding

In case you don't know, St John's Wort is a herbal drug.

No, I've never used it.

Rhodiola is much better, except that it acts as a stimulant and thus can raise blood pressure a bit.