Natural treatments for Depression/Anxiety/OCD

CS/others--In an attempt to save my suffering hair, besides doing top 6 and other pro-hair supps, I've dumped the SSRI I was on a few months back (lexapro) and have been on 5HTP for about 5 or 6 weeks--very recently upping the dose to 200 mg 2 x day from 100 mg 2 x a day. I have also been taking lithium orotate 120 mg 2 x day and recently added inositol, but understand that lithium may work by reducing inositol in the body???? My question is: do I really have to choose one or the other--lithium or inositol--do they really work against eachother? If that is the case, I am leaning toward stopping the lithium and just taking the inositol (trying to achieve 12 g a day) as I have read many times that besides helping with depression, anxiety and OCD that it can help with hairloss--especially if you are deficient in it by way of being a heavy coffee drinker, of which I have always been but have managed to somewhat curb in the last several months. Thoughts? I feel like I am just keeping my head above water in terms of depression and anxiety. Lexapro was seemingly a great med for me in terms of regulating my mood and keeping anxiety under wraps--if it wasn't implicated in causing hypothyroidism/hairloss, I'd probably be taking it now. I am not the same person off of it, but am trying to find the right hair-friendly combo of natural antidepressants to get me there.

Hi there,

This is something I know a bit about. There are many natural anti-depressants out there, some of which also help with hair.

The first one that springs to mind is ALCAR (Acetyl-L-Carnitine). This has a host of health benefits including lifting mood and is also in CS's hair-loss regimen.

Secondly, have you tried SAM-e? It can be a little expensive but works very well as anti-depressant. Lots of science behind it as an alternative to SSRI's.

Thirdly, there are a number of other herbs etc. that can help with mood. Some folk swear by Rhodiola (again, boosts serotonin), many like ashwagandha (again, in CS's regimen). Curcumin can apparently lift mood in some people. And there are the usual things like B vitamins and fish oil. And of course you will have heard of St. John's Wort, which acts in a similar way to SSRI's.

Hope this helps.

I suffered suicidal depression for five years, as soon as two months after I dumped gluten I was back to my old self. Check into my most recent topic (Manganese, Cobalt, etc colloidal elements) there's a few mentions there by Prague about depression and anxiety.
Hope that helps!

I have used GABA with some success for anxiety, low dose for general consumption, higher doses for more acute occurrences.

ataman wrote:Hi there,

This is something I know a bit about. There are many natural anti-depressants out there, some of which also help with hair.

The first one that springs to mind is ALCAR (Acetyl-L-Carnitine). This has a host of health benefits including lifting mood and is also in CS's hair-loss regimen.

Secondly, have you tried SAM-e? It can be a little expensive but works very well as anti-depressant. Lots of science behind it as an alternative to SSRI's.

Thirdly, there are a number of other herbs etc. that can help with mood. Some folk swear by Rhodiola (again, boosts serotonin), many like ashwagandha (again, in CS's regimen). Curcumin can apparently lift mood in some people. And there are the usual things like B vitamins and fish oil. And of course you will have heard of St. John's Wort, which acts in a similar way to SSRI's.

Hope this helps.

Thanks ataman--I do take Acetyl-L-Carnitine but I haven't been good about taking it 3 xs a day as I am supposed to, so I guess I'd better get with the program on that. I also take an adrenal complex that has rhodiola, ashwaganda and I also take curcumin, b vitamins and fish oil. I may end up trying St. John's Wort or sam-e if what I am doing now isn't enough. I realized that it may take some time before my brain responds to the 5-htp and inositol, especially since I only recently upped the dose of 5-htp and then added the inositol only a couple of weeks ago. On the insert that comes with prescription SSRIs, it states that it can take up to 4 weeks to feel better, so I am guessing that too can be the case with the natural supplements. If in another couple weeks I'm still not where I'd like to be in terms of depression/anxiety, I may have to add or switch some things and I will add your suggestions to my list of possibilities. I appreciate your input. Thank you!

action<reaction wrote:I suffered suicidal depression for five years, as soon as two months after I dumped gluten I was back to my old self. Check into my most recent topic (Manganese, Cobalt, etc colloidal elements) there's a few mentions there by Prague about depression and anxiety.
Hope that helps!

Wow, glad you hear going off gluten made you feel so much better. I have been off gluten for two years but it didn't do that for me--I only wish. Interesting thread about the manganese, etc. I will be checking the label my hair multi to see the manganese content. Thank you

TheFunkyStumpfighter wrote:I have used GABA with some success for anxiety, low dose for general consumption, higher doses for more acute occurrences.

Thanks F-Stumpfighter--I have been thinking about GABA too as it would be complementary to what I am currently taking. My initial list of supps that I thought i wanted to try to tackle depression/anxiety included Inositol, 5 HTP, lithium orotate and GABA. I am taking a load of inositol daily and 5 htp and I'm feeling better than when I wrote my initial post--haven't had an episode of panic and am currently not depressed, so there's a possibility it's kicking in. I appreciate your input

JosephineMarie wrote:

action<reaction wrote:I suffered suicidal depression for five years, as soon as two months after I dumped gluten I was back to my old self. Check into my most recent topic (Manganese, Cobalt, etc colloidal elements) there's a few mentions there by Prague about depression and anxiety.
Hope that helps!

Wow, glad you hear going off gluten made you feel so much better. I have been off gluten for two years but it didn't do that for me--I only wish. Interesting thread about the manganese, etc. I will be checking the label my hair multi to see the manganese content. Thank you

Manganese content in the multi might definitely not be of any real help, check out the sublingual usage research.
Can't guarantee that it will yield results that you want but it's definitely worth a shot.

What's with the sudden increase in spammers recently?

I know that Acetyl L-Carn / ALA combo in the morning has been boasted by some well respected paleo bloggers.

I have tried Phosphatidyl serine - Along with other things this dissolved cortisol 30-70% (cant find study but)