Posted by blueberry on October 4, 2005, at 19:38:09
In reply to *HIGH* Dose St.John's Wort...questions, posted by med_empowered on October 1, 2005, at 11:44:41
For the average Joe without any hint of bipolar characteristics, I think sjw is a fantastic herb. Based on my own experience though, it can indeed induce hypomania followed by a crash and rapid cycling.
I read somewhere that higher doses are actually counterproductive. Supposedly because the GABA reuptake inhibition part of it gets so strong that it over rides all the rest of it, shuts down dopamine release.
Poop out is real common with sjw. There is another site on the web devoted just to folks posting about their experiences with sjw, and poopout is all over the place.
I never felt better in my life than I did on sjw. It's just that it pooped out, made me more depressed than when I started, and higher doses made it even worse. Best dose for me was 900mg Kira brand. Went up as high as 1800mg.
Withdrawing from it was, I swear, exactly like withdrawing from a benzodiazapine. It was hard, it was awful. Again, I think it was the GABA reuptake inhibition that caused that. Or possibly the glutamate reuptake inhibition. Two weeks after I had finally weaned off of it, I had fierce anxiety which I had never had in my life before, and I had intense scary panic attacks that sent me to the hospital.
Sjw is awesome. But it can also be scary. It's just a plant, but it is very powerful in the brain.
poster:blueberry
thread:561589
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20050924/msgs/562880.html