Depression treated with herbal medicine



Depression is defined as a mood disorder, characterized by a series of physical, behavioral and psychological symptoms which, taken together, are able to decrease mood, debilitating the person and undermining his ability to adapt . It may present as a disorder in its own right or an additional symptom of other diseases. We see the various herbal remedies to treat it.

For the treatment of depression in herbal medicine we use herbs or medicinal plants, Bach flower remedies, essential oils and minerals that help to counteract this mood disorder, following a holistic approach . The holistic view places the patient in front of all those aspects of his life, which can somehow be the cause of depression; intervening with care and natural remedies both physically and psychically.

Depression can have causes that can be biological, related to "brain chemistry", or psychological, connected with the person's individual history and life events. Sleep disturbances, eating disorders and sexual disorders may occur, combined with difficulty concentrating, making decisions or indifference to what once interested or impassioned.

In fact, depending on the duration, the cyclical nature and the severity of the disease we speak of reactive depression, when it is caused by a known and particularly dramatic event; major depression, which affects about 5% of the population every year and which, unlike a normal feeling of sadness or a passenger with a bad mood, presents characteristics of chronicity, to the point of drastically interfering with emotional states and physical health.

When there are no real causes, physical or psychological, that justify its presence, we speak instead of endogenous depression ( Seasonal Affective Disturb - SAD).

Herbs and medicinal plants in case of depression

Among the officinal plants with antidepressant action we find

  • The Hypericum : ( Hypericum Perforatum ) known since the Middle Ages, even then it was considered an excellent remedy for the treatment of anxiety, melancholy, insomnia and nervous restlessness . These properties are mainly attributed to flavonoids, in particular to hypericin, which performs an antidepressant action, in the event of changes in mood, mild depressions, menopausal disorders, states of nervous exhaustion, and seasonal depressions.
  • Rhodiola : ( Rhodiola Rosea) the adaptogenic action of this drug has long been known among the Nordic peoples, as it increases the plasma levels of beta endorphins, which helps to attenuate the hormonal changes that occur during psycho-stress physical. It also appears that the plant inhibits the catechol-O-methyl-transferase enzyme (COMT), which catabolizes serotonin and dopamine to inactive substances, thereby increasing the intracerebral levels of these neurotransmitters with antidepressant and psychostimulant action .
  • Griffonia ( Griffonia simplicifolia ) woody plant belonging to tropical and wet African areas. Its seeds contain 5-hydroxy-tryptophan (5-HTP), a precursor of serotonin, the "wellness hormone", which in our body is involved in various physiological functions, including mood, sleep, appetite. By raising serotonin levels, griffonia is able to improve mood, sexuality and sleep quality ; promotes pain threshold control; and helps to regularize the sleep-wake cycle, body thermoregulation, appetite, thus eliminating anxiety and depression.

Discover also how natural antidepressants work!

Bach flowers

The Bach flowers for depression have been identified by Edward Bach, to alleviate the sense of profound sadness that accuses the person subject to what is now called the "dark evil". child of our times.

  • Gentian : it is for reactive depression motivated by precise and known events that lead to pessimism and self-limitation, giving rise in the person to the feeling that fighting is useless.
  • Sweet Chestnut : it is for the acute depression, originated from bad experiences of every type: who suffers from it experiences the dark night of the soul, a transitory state of extreme despair, imminent defeat, unbearable anguish, acute desolation, extreme, to the limits of the survival.
  • Gorse : for chronic depression, caused by long-lasting physical illnesses and made harder by continuous pain, serious debilitating diseases of one's own or others, a personal situation seriously compromised by situations that induce the individual in a state of profound physical and moral prostration . The insomniacs suffer, the patients in the terminal phase . People live their condition in a desperate way and abandon all hope, they resign themselves to resign and give rise to chronic depression and despair.
  • Mustard for endogenous type depression . It serves those who suffer from periodic and erratic crisis of sadness, despair and melancholy, for an unknown, unmotivated cause, without a clear origin, which suddenly arrives for days, weeks, or even months, until just as suddenly, disappears, without cause apparent.
  • Wild Rose for major depression . Apathy is adopted as an emotional state so as not to feel pain anymore. Those who have lost the motivation, the interest, suffer from disappointed expectations, and renounce the struggle for life suffer.

Essential oils to treat depression

In Aromatherapy thin the essential oils with antidepressant action are many, we therefore recommend an essential oil for each note

  • Essential oil of Bergamott or: top note, acts as a soothing on the nervous system, counteracting stress and insomnia, reducing states of agitation, anxiety, confusion, depression and fear. If inhaled, it induces a joyful and dynamic mood, eliminates psychological blocks, bringing back optimism and serenity. It makes us capable of giving and receiving love, of radiating happiness around ourselves and caring for others.
  • Neroli essential oil : heart note, rebalancing on the nervous system, it is indicated after mental fatigue and psychic tensions, against fear, anxiety disorders, depression, hypertension, tachycardia, stress. Calm your thoughts in moments of confusion, bringing peace back to your heart, joy and comforting optimism . In afflictions it helps us to alleviate its weight. It strengthens us in situations where we see no way out.
  • Cinnamon essential oil : warms the heart and gives an enveloping sensation of "home", helps in cases of inner coldness, depression, loneliness and fear. Thanks to its invigorating properties it helps against tiredness and fatigue, because it accelerates breathing and heart rate.

Minerals against depression

Antidepressant remedies are also used in oligotherapy, among which we can find the following minerals

  • Magnesium : stimulates the production of serotonin, an endorphine that acts on specific receptors of the brain, and which plays an analgesic, antidepressant and mood-stabilizing action. Stress tends to deplete the reserves of magnesium, because the body uses it for its calming capacity. In fact its deficiency produces depression, nervousness, anxiety, nervous tics and insomnia. Even in pre-menstrual syndrome and in menopause, due to hormonal imbalances, considerable decreases in magnesium levels have been found, with a consequent sense of inadequate mood disorders and irritability .
  • Manganese-Cobalt and Copper-gold-silver : these diathesis are defined " old " precisely because they are characterized by the lack of vitality of the organism. As regards the alteration of the psycho-motor state, with the first (Manganese-Cobalt) we act on forms of general asthenia, abulia, desire for solitude and suicidal ideas . With the second (Copper-Gold-Silver), action is taken on fatigue, psychic and physical fatigue, loss of sexual desire, progressive loss of intellectual capacity, of a tendency to the depressive state , led by states of isolation and by a general attitude of renunciation .

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