timetohealguy

Hi szam,

I have been taking St Johns Wort daily for about 4 years.

I suffer from anxiety and had separately tried a tricyclic anti-depressant and Prozac, and neither of them agreed with me. I had awful nausea on Prozac. The tricyclic made me feel like a zombie and I was very tired all the time and I had weird body jolts in my sleep. So since neither Prozac or the tricyclic agreed with me, I stopped taking them.

So that led me to St John's Wort. Overall I am very happy with it. I have minimal side effects from it.

The side effects I have noticed since I started taking it are:

1. Eyes more sensitive to light - not a major problem - I just wear sunglasses whenever I am outside, even on cloudy days.

2. Skin more sensitive to sunlight - I find if I am out in the sun, I get sunburnt more easily than before I started taking St John's Wort - so I make sure to use sunscreen if I am in direct sunlight.

3. A bit of dehydration - my mouth tended to be a bit dry when I first started taking it (but nothing like as dry as it was on the big pharma meds). I also was a bit constipated for the first 2 or 3 weeks, but after my body got used to the St Johns Wort, that went away. Now I just make sure to eat plenty of fiber in my diet and drink plenty of water.

I find it definitely takes the edge off anxiety symptoms, but I don't feel that zombie-like feeling of being heavily medicated.

The St Johns Wort tablets I take say on the label that they contain hypericin 1mg.

I take half a St Johns Wort tablet in the morning, and the other half of the tablet at night. I used to take just one tablet at night but figured spreading the dose so I take it in two stages during the day may make the levels in my blood more consistent during the day.