Herbal & Nutritional Supplements for Anxiety & Depression

I don't want to sound like a commercial, but I've found some herbal and nutritional supplements that are helping me with anxiety and depression.

First off, everything I've tried from the company WishGarden Herbs is fantastic. The stuff I use to help me relax for sleep is called Serious Relaxer. It has wood betony, valerian, hops, wild lettuce (a weed many of us have growing in our yards-aka lettuce opium-I saw some growing there today), and some other herbs. This stuff is amazing. It works for muscle stiffness as well as mental relaxation. I can't say enough for this product. The one I use in the daytime (2 or 3 droppers, twice a day) is called Emotional Ally. I've found it to be very effective. I also purchased the one called Deep Stress - the ingredients look very promising, so I'll soon find out how this one works for me also.

I take 8 fish oil capsules a day, which is reputed to aid with depression, although I started taking it for arthritis pain. It seems to be good for my hair and skin too.

Magnesium and calcium seem to be helping as well.

I take liquid B-12 when I need an energy boost.

My naturopath prescribed a supplement called Deproloft, an herbal/nutraceutical antidepressant. It's made by Thorne Research. It seems to be getting the job done during most of the day and evening. My worst symptoms happen when I first wake up, so recently I've tried to eat something right away, and then take the supplements ASAP. This morning I took the Emotional Ally liquid immediately upon awakening. The second most challenging time of the day is late evening, when I become something of an insomniac. That's when I do the Serious Relaxer.

I haven't had much luck with pharmaceutical antidepressants (most of them made me feel worse instead of better) and I am usually not particularly comfortable dealing with mainstream medicine, so I have gone the naturopathic route. I am fortunate to live near a major naturopathic college which offers excellent medical services at low fees.

Mean Bosses

I just ran across an article from "Fast Company" suggesting that "Being A Meaner Boss Will Help Your Company--And Make Your Employees Happy". What kind of weirdo would think that?

Here's the link to this depressing article: http://www.fastcompany.com/1830539/why-being-a-meaner-boss-will-help-your-company-and-make-employees-happy?partner=gnews&google_editors_picks=true

There was part of it that rang true, and that was the research concluding that disagreeable people attained greater success in the workplace (success meaning mainly that they make more money- not my definition of success, but many people in our society equate money and material things with success.)

A Job Where I Could Have Blue Hair

My friend Jamie has beautiful purple hair. It's almost the color of my house, only with slightly more magenta tones.

One day I was talking with Jamie, and I mentioned that I had sometimes considered dyeing my hair a cobalt blue color, or adding a few blue streaks. So Jamie gave me some blue hair dye for my birthday. That was two years ago, and the unopened box awaits me on my bedroom shelf.

Now, it just so happens that the time that Jamie gave me the blue hair dye was right around the time I was starting to get freaked out over the state of my bank savings. And of course, the reason that I was freaked out about my bank savings is that I am afraid to get a Job.

My brain is telling me that "They" (whoever "They" are) might not hire me if I'm older, or fat, or gay, or "overqualified", and "They" definitely won't hire me if I have blue hair! Never mind the fact that I probably won't have the guts to show up at these places anyway, and maybe I wouldn't like Them if I did.

So here is the conclusion I've come to: if I am going to get a Job, it needs to be a job that passes the Blue Hair Test. It should be a place where I could have blue hair. Whether I have blue hair or not.

The color of my hair is not the main issue, but it is a symptom of the problem. I just want to be able to freely be myself, and quit repressing myself, and not care what other people think of me.

Eddie Owens Martin Couldn't Relate to Society

"I built this place to have something to identify with, 'cause there's nothing I see in this society that I identify with or desire to emulate."  - Eddie Owens Martin, Artist, 1908-1986

Eddie Owens Martin (aka St. EOM) of Buena Vista, Georgia, a sharecropper's son with a 6th grade education, made a living as a fortune teller while building Pasaquan, the masterpiece outsider art installment in which he lived. He built his elaborate compound out of cinder blocks, cement, and various reclaimed materials, and painted it with mismixed Sherwin Williams paint from the local hardware store.

I want to go there someday. Here it is:

http://www.amazingsights.net/st-eom.html

Even Nice Dogs Get Insulted

In our society it is considered perfectly acceptable to make rude remarks about fat people. Lately while volunteering at the Humane Society, I've found that many people will also freely comment on fat dogs.

Yesterday I was in the kennel brushing a beautiful Shepherd mix named Sadie Lynn. A woman walked up and said "Isn't it terrible that anyone would let their dog get so fat?" Now, I happen to be fat myself, so perhaps it didn't occur to this woman that a comment like that might make me feel badly, too. In fact, I have a bigger percentage of weight over the accepted ideal than Sadie does!

                                                       "But I'm a good dog!"

I tell people who make these thoughtless remarks (and there have been several) that I walk and exercise Sadie frequently, and that Sadie is getting "in shape" (a phrase that implies that there is a certain kind of shape we should be...hmmm....) much faster than I am.

The other day I was about 25 feet away from a boy of about 7 who looked at Sadie Lynn and said "Look at that fat dog!"

To her credit, the boy's mom said, "Look, you hurt that poor dog's feelings! (Dogs are quite sensitive to human emotions and even if they don't understand all the words, they totally understand the tone of voice.)
And then the little boy said "I'm sorry, Doggie. You're a good Doggie." That moment improved my faith in humanity, at least a little bit anyway.

Dogs also get subjected to canine stereotyping/dog racism. One day I was walking a bully breed mix (probably Lab & Pit Bull) by the name of Sancho. He was the sweetest old dog you could ever hope to meet. One day I was walking Sancho back to his kennel, and Sancho flashed his famous smile at the people nearby, since Sancho loved all people and wanted them to know it. Some kids were delighted by him, and the mom noticed, and pulled the kids out of the way and said in a horrified tone, "Oh no, that's a Pit Bull! We don't want a Pit Bull." Sancho waited for months to be adopted even though he was the nicest dog in the place.

                                             "I Iz a Labrador Retriever I Promises"

Allen Ginsberg Worked for an Ad Agency

Before writing Howl and before Beat Generation fame, poet Allen Ginsberg worked for an advertising agency for five years creating ad campaigns for toothpaste and other consumer products.

During this time he was seeing a psychiatrist for depression. His psychiatrist asked Ginsberg what he thought would make him happy. When Ginsberg told the psychiatrist that writing poetry made him happy, the psychiatrist said, "Go do that, then," and so he did. He quit his job at the ad agency and went to San Francisco. And the rest is history.

Bukowski Worked at the Post Office

"There will always be something to ruin our lives- it all depends on what or which finds us first. We are always ripe and ready to be taken."          -Charles Bukowski

The writer Charles Bukowski worked at the post office as a letter filing clerk for more than a decade. Before that, he worked in a pickle factory. In 1969 Bukowski accepted an offer from Black Sparrow Press publisher John Martin and quit his post office job to dedicate himself to full-time writing. He was then 49 years old. As he explained in a letter at the time, "I have one of two choices – stay in the post office and go crazy ... or stay out here and play at writer and starve. I have decided to starve."

I remember reading his book Factotum and thinking, this guy is a master at describing the banality, inanity, and desperation found in so many modern workplaces.

He also said "If you're losing your soul and you know it, then you've still got a soul left to lose."