Does anyone have any effective depression and insomnia treatments without going to the doctor for priscribed meds.
I've tried Velarian for sleep, double dose that does nothing.
Suggestions greatly appreciated................. I haven't slep properly in about 5 months, I feel........ Well.......... 
. You get the drift.
st johns wort also helps..
melatonin apparently helps too..
b group vitamins can have a calming effect
and so can magnesium - it relaxes muscles and can relax the brain
hope this helps
Thanks so much Brookelea.
At this stage I'll try anything I can to avoid going on anything stronger. Just about all medications have the side effect for me where I gain weight so they are an absolute last resort because then I go on the weight issue depression cycle. I already weigh 105kg which I'm slowly losing. Needless to say I don't really need to go down the weight gain path if I can avoid it.
Cheers
Simplify your life as much as you can. If your life is complicated you may be fighting a losing battle. Also. one on one therapy or group therapy can help if it is done by someone who knows what they are doing. One on one gives a person a chance to get the personal attention they need.
Always consider your needs when making important decisions or changes. Anything that increases your stress will have a stronger effect on you than people who do not have depression.
Put yourself around good caring friends and possibly take up a hobby that you find relaxing and can take your mind off of problems.
If you are having problems in relationships, you might try to learn some new ways of communicating.
It appears you already know about spiritual help. That's good.
Lastly, I hope you have at least one trusted friend or family member who can tell you if they see you are in real trouble and that you will listen to them.
IF you HAVE to go to medication, be sure to find someone truly qualified with mental health. Not just a regular MD. The dosage should start low and not go to high for you. A truly qualified person should know and should be available if you have problems.
but i have been depressed in my life - that's for sure. for sure. for sure.
so what i don't understand is "what changed?"
why/how have my brain chemicals changed - and there have been two moments - for a month or so - when my ADD lifted too and i suddenly felt so capable and confident and clever and together and so on... one in fact pre my taking of percocet which was a mind-opening realisation moment of my ADD (because it took the ADD away entirely - completely mind-blowing!).
how is that possible. why do they change. is it food? is it circumstance?
how can it flux like that? that means what? that my brain is not so much LOW on dopamine (or whatever it is) but is DELIBERATELY withholding it? or has something, some allergy etc. or some wrong cause that BLOCKS the release? because that could have been the case for me (the allergy i mean) because i was away from home - not eating my USUAL foods when i had my very first 'clarity' moment and it lasted about two months but the knock on effect (the KNOWLEDGE of it and of being able to be like that has impacted me, in a positive way, ever since then)... and then it happened again but with even more force when i was put on the percocet.
was it then that the positive situation i was in caused my brain to override that block? or the allergy that got stopped due to eating different foods? i don't know.
which way round is it?
ADD is genetic that much i know. but there is something more there - don't you think? something that the science isn't getting to the root of.... constantly addressing the symptoms but not the cause.
they say the cause is low serotonin levels for example --- but what causes the low serotonin levels. that.
i am sure my brain can pump out exactly the right amount of serotonin levels if it so chooses to do so... i really believe that it can (perhaps it is harder if the food source is an allergen to me but i still believe that it could override that).
so why isn't it? because it is not going to let me relax until i get it exactly where it wants to be... because there is something in my life that needs changing? because it is pushing me to look for God - to search for the spiritual?
what? what? what is it?
it's that that i want to address. i want to be whole. i want to be functioning. but i don't want to be just topping up my low serotonin levels - i want my brain to be pumping out the right amount. because that 'holisticness' would mean that EVERYTHING was working right - not just me supplementing the main problem - externally. although that can do the job - in the end i think the brain will always find a way to circumvent that (hence the need to change the meds - they stop working et al). and i believe that my brain CAN do it - without external supplements.
i do also believe in looking at certain food causes. when i get back to the UK i might do one of those allergy test things. naturopathic doctors. but i KNOW i can be whole. because i HAVE been (if only for three months of my life --- and perhaps the first five years which i don't remember). not perfect, not unflawed but with brain working with me rather than against me - which is the normal state of affairs.
Wow cj - I had to post here after that long and very good question post you left.
I can tell you some things about what you need to know.
First - there's a good reason that pharmas don't like to do studies with women in them. You cycle naturally - your system of hormones cause all sorts of adjustments and emotional flows that it's hard to tell when meds are at fault/helping or when it's your natural biorythym at fault. Adjustments are usually needed often.
Allergies can cause seasonal drops in effectiveness with meds. So can SAD - during winter watch all the bipolars go into deep depression (my ex was very bad for SAD). We get it too - I feel my emotions dip but I'm so up that it's noticable only to me and a choice few around me now.
You may want to talk to your MD about upping your dose during the times you notice a dip - rather than add anti-depressants to the mix. You aren't sad - you're feeling a downslide but that's different. With an adjustment you can likely stop it before it gets worse.
St. Johns has been proven less than helpful sadly in a number of tests in Europe where it's most popular (as was ginko biloba and other herbal treatments). Melatonin however has been shown to work as well as low-dose non-narcotic remedies in helping sleep cycles to work better. It doesn't make one sleepy per se but causes the part of the brain that regulates sleep to shift into a new gear and be ready for it when darkness hits. You need dark and melatonin to make the combo work.
They just did a study that found that women are better at driving in complex situations and have a theory that estrogen works on the frontal lobes and makes the decisions easier to make on the fly. Hmmm... that's the same area as our ADHD - wow! I'd say that perhaps you are feeling natural rythyms that are conflicting with your meds. Do ask your MD - I bet if they keep up with new technology that they are aware they must keep rythyms in mind when diagnosing and medicating women over men.
Best of luck cj - I hope I didn't overstep my bounds I usually don't post here as I depend on my meds but I do a lot of research and that's what I've discovered.
Oh - L-tryptophan and lactic acid (milk and turkey for the L-tryp) can help sleep too - a turkey sandwich or glass of warm milk truly does help!
My ex had me try valerian for months - liquid drops. GAG - that stuff tastes like sucking on rusty nails! Didnt' work for me anyway - the tests on valerian showed they found no reliable connection with medical help and the herb as it was used.
L-tryptophan, melatonin and light therapy work for many though. Ex is bipolar and during winter months I've helped her rent a full-spectrum light and so far she's sleeping better with less depression so she tells me.
glen - i am not on meds. (if you were talking to me - which i think you were right?)i took percocet after an operation for one week. if that is where you confusion has come from. the percocet (which is an opiate) worked perfectly on clearing my ADD for that week but that was at least a year ago now. it is a pain-killer.
but pre-that even. on NO meds, never having been on meds - weirdly i had a month of complete 'release' from ADD symptoms so i know for ME i can be whole and without ADD without medication. i know it is possible. i just don't know what was the trigger for that month long clear up of ADD - that's all.
especially as i have previously had a good 20 odd years of non-stop ADD without ever having a proper 'clarity' although, of course, there were times when the symptoms are less severe and one feels as though one has more control over ones life.
yes cj - was talking to you and I didn't honestly know you were totally without meds (guess I could have followed old threads huh?).
That goes where the researchers are having trouble testing women. With women having natural hormonal swings every 28 days or so - how do you judge when it's the body, the ADHD or something else? That has to be torture to a long research study!
As I didn't know if you have meds or not (I'll remember I promise to try), do you take therapy? Maybe since you notice a rythym a therapist could maybe help you be prepared with new coping strategies to work around your bodies' natural rythyms and the ADHD's doing the same (I find that my ADHD actually flows on a 3 month and longer 2 year cycle going good to bad and back). Complicated but not unstoppable.
I know that many have used just therapy to learn new ways to deal. Once you can say "wait - that's anxiety coming" - you can use all sorts of tools to either get it removed or to work through it.
Just trying to help - hope I didn't overstep any boundaries. That's never my intent.
no it wasn't a hormonal thing. when i say i was clear for a month. i mean i was clear for THAT full month, one entire month and then some out of 27 odd-years of never having been clear.i didn't mean that i am clear every third tuesday of the month just three days before my period or anything like that.
i had a one off BLOCK of clarity. nothing to do with hormones as far as i can work out because i was clear a whole month.
no need to flog the subject to the death. but no, i think somehow we got out wires crossed as far as i can see it was absolutel nothing to do with cyclical hormonal menstrual changes. it wasn't as though i missed my period that month or got pregnant or had anything peculiar on a hormonal level at all. my ADD just cleared up for a month and i don't know why, i am at a loss to know what the trigger was ---
but it was that that made me realise i had ADD in the first place because i suddenly found what it was NOT to have it. and also realised that everyone else went through their life without this constant brain struggle!
so you see. i have had one month and bit in my life free from ADD. so now i know what it is to be ADD free - but i had that naturally. i took no meds - it just 'happened' and i don't know why. but it means i KNOW i can be ADD free without the meds. (i can also be ADD free with the meds and could take Adderall and get the same result but i have issues with being ADD free anyways...)
but it brought up some questions for me - seeing as it seemed to be a changeable thing - as to WHAT was causing it on a deeper level. that's all. and i have always been interested into looking into that rather than just suppressing the symptoms.
i guess i am looking for the cure. although whether i will want to take it if/when i find it is a different thing. a little like annidagostini's book. a cure --- by all accounts but are we sure we want it.
on that level the meds are almost better than a cure - because they are a temporary thing and similar to wearing glasses - when you have had enough clarity and feel like going back to your blurry, relaxed, unsharp and unfocused way of looking at things you can just take off the glasses.....
a bit like choosing glasses over laser eye surgery. one way you still have the option of both types of vision.
and as a glasses wearer - i do love that choice of looking at the world through unfocused lenses, so much more relaxing... way too much clarity and stimuli sometimes with my glasses on!
Sleepytime herbal tea. Chamomile/lavendar lotoions. Classical music. 1 if not all 3 should help.
OK.... Well, I've hit the point where I think medical intervention is inevitable. I have crashed so far that I just want to drop off the face of the earth, life seems pretty useless and my moods are effecting everyone around me.
Everything I usually love, I hate and I can't stop crying much less sleep still. I just can't seem to pull myself out of this one.
My mum actually told me the other day that she honestly believes I had severe post natal depression with our last child ( now 6 ) and because I never received treatment I have never fully recovered. I was quite shocked because mum is very careful about saying such things but I think it is a posibility.
I've tried double doeses of Valarien and still don't sleep, St Johns, vitamin B complex and that Ginko stuff.
While I do suffer hormonal cycles emotionally this isn't that because this has been a constandt for months.
Hubby is supportive and yes as far as spiritually I hang on to God for dear life because without Him in my life and the knowledge that he has a greater purpose for me than this I think I would have given up on life along time ago.
So....... The battle for a good night sleep continues 
Gym Rose -- Please see a doctor pronto. The St John's Wort may work with mild depression but yours is not in that category. You have experienced a crisis point that you didn't recover from and will probably be more prone to depression from now on than the average person.
If you don't get help soon you may experience a major depressive episode and then for sure be vulnerable to depression for the rest of your life.
This is serious. Please get help.
Thanks Cynthia, I think you are right with this one.
I'm making an appointment for early next week and I'll see where it goes from there.
Hubby had to go interstate this weekend and it has hit hard so... Yup I think you are correct.
Gym Rose - I feel relieved that you are going. Hang on. I know you will due to your faith. There have been times I've been there, and prayer was the only thing that kept me going. He cares and you are worth it.Thanks so much Cynthia.
You know I think it is that healthy fear of God and the knowledge that you can't give up on life or you suffer the consiquenses that keeps me plodding along.
Gym Rose - He wants you here or you wouldn't be here. I am sure there's a very good reason. Take care.I'm going to follow your Siggy Cynthia, I'm learnign very slowly to allow my heart to be free to be who I am..... I'm just starting to gain the courage to follow it.
I know you are getting help already.
You'll be pleased to know Cynthia that I saw my Doctor today who has prescribed Sertraline for me which he says should help wth anxiety as well as the depression. So we'll see where it all goes from here.
He spoke to me about the fact it is an illness and I don't need to take on board any guilt or judgement and that I also need to talk to our kids about it and not push myself so hard on off days.
Thank you for your encouragement Cynthia.
GymRoseYou are right - I am pleased to hear this news and so glad you have an understanding doctor. He gave you such good advise. I will add to that - that if you feel like you need a nap during the day, don't feel guilty about taking one. It will help you meet whatever you have on your plate. Treat yourself gently, just as God would treat you. I believe God understands our illnesses whatever they are.
It should not be long before you can tell a difference. Hope all goes well.
Take care - Cynthia
Sleepy time tea with honey. I do 2 bags per pot
Chamomile/lavendar lotions rubed on bottom of the feet.
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