Best combo of anti-stress/ant-depressant supplements?

I've been on L-Tyrosine, Sensoril, and then Relora. I didn't notice much of a difference while on any. There was one that everyone was recommending but I forgot what it was called and I can't find it. Anyone suggest experimenting with others? Are there any that I should only take on days when I'm feeling really stressed/depressed in addition to daily ones?

Hey,

I'm your man for antianxiety/antidepression (of the natural variety). I suffer from SAD during the winter, which in Scotland is not a great thing to have.

The ones you've tried sound more antianxiety than antidepression. Some things do both, some are more for anxiety, and some are more for depression.

In brief, the things that work well for me during the winter are 1.) SAM-e. This tops up a substance that is already produced in the body and is good for both anxiety and depression. Its not very cheap though. 2.) Rhodiola. More for depression than anxiety, but also has numerous other health benefits. Its cheap to buy. 3.) 5HTP. A precursor to serotonin, an important neurotransmitter. Good for both anxiety and depression and cheap. 4.) Ashwagandha with Rhodiola. With these you get the anti-anxiety of ashwagandha (sensoril is a patented version of this), with the feel good factor of Rhodiola.

To be honest, there are many, many things out there. These are just a few that have worked well for me. As regards hair benefits, I think Ash and Rhod are both good for your hair. The others certainly didn't do mine any harm.

When you find something that works, its important to cycle it - roughly 3 weeks on, 1 week off (or on something else). This will ensure it stays effective for you.

Good luck.

man - my suggestion would be to get something that gives you all the needed neurotransmitters, as you have no f~ing idea which one(s) is causing you the depression. CNS is absolutely a complex world.

My experience was that Dopamine lifted the mood very well. I am not depressed, have never taken anything for it, but I like to experiment with neurotransmitters (NT) to see what effects it may have.

Serotonin, dopamine, and the other 2 NTs are are linked in ways science has not fully uncovered (I am no scientist, but I have read about this extensively to know a little bit).

One option is to replenish both serotonin and dopamine and see what it does. 5-htp + l-tryptophan (for serotonin) and L-Tyrosine + L-Dopa (Mucuna pruiens, or whatever it is called) for Dopamine. You will need to take these empty stomach (dopamine in the AM and Serotonin evening) + the companion B vitamins + L-cysteine for HMC control.

Google neuroassist.com and you can read some good info there as to why SSRI stops working for depression control and what you need to do replenish NTs...

5 HTP and St. John's Wort work fine for me, I wouldn't touch pharma's anti depressant drugs.

SOme of the places you can get a 24 hr urine neurotransmitter test - this can give you some idea which ones are under and which ones are over. That may give you some specific direction on what to try. Generally speaking, it seems if the Methylation cycle is broken (not working as expected) your NT imbalance occurs, fixing methylation cycle is easy as long as you know which part is broken - read the other recent thread on genetics testing, it covers Methylation cycle in detail...

Urine testing of NTs though is a questionable practice. Some think that it is not meaningful to assess the NTs in urine, others think it is valuable -