What is the advantage of treating depression with folk remedies? Such drugs help the patient get out of anxiety. They are not addictive and have almost no side effects. The advantages of treating depression with folk remedies should also include the absence of contraindications (except for the individual intolerance of a particular herbal preparation).
Blues or disease?
Before you talk about folk remedies, it is worth understanding what depression is. Unfortunately, most people have a misconception about this disease. Some people think that depression is laziness. Others believe that this is a state of mind caused by some external factors: failures at work, quarrels with loved ones.
Depression is a disease that can overtake any person. Even the most successful, in whose life, it would seem, there is no reason for the blues. It happens that the patient is trying to find the objective cause of his illness. He does not go to the doctor - either he does not take seriously the symptoms of the disease, or is dominated by myths about scary people in white coats.
Not always folk remedies save from depression. Moreover, if a person is really sick, no tinctures and decoctions will help him. But at an early stage of the development of the disease, taking plant-based drugs will bring a positive result.
Signs
Depression is one of the most common mental illnesses. Nevertheless, many believe that destructive, severe apathy and longing are very rare, and mainly among creative people or those who survived the loss of a loved one.
The term mental disorder has long lost weight. The word "depression" is used as a synonym for longing, a gloomy mood. In addition, diagnostic methods are not yet available. The psychiatrist is diagnosed based on patient complaints. Signs of Depression:
- Low mood. This symptom is expressed in different ways. Some experience constant guilt for some act, others are gripped by pessimistic thoughts. But the main sign of a depressed state is a lowered mood, regardless of the circumstances.
- Unpleasant sensations for two or more weeks. If a person is upset and has a dull mood for two to three days, this does not mean that he suffers from depression.
- Somatic manifestations. This disease is caused by biochemical malfunctions in the body. Lack of mood is not a cause, but a consequence of disturbances, as a result of which drowsiness often appears, appetite disappears.
Origin of the disease
Depression is not fully understood. But, according to one theory, the ailment arises from a failure in the exchange of neurotransmitters. What is a neurotransmitter? This is a kind of instruction that a brain cell sends, thereby making the nervous system function.
In depression, a failure occurs between neurons. Serotonin, norepinephrine, and topline are insufficiently delivered to synapses. This explains the lethargy and apathy, in which it is sometimes difficult for a person to do the usual work. It is difficult to understand these processes for a person who does not have a medical education. But the main thing that should be understood: depression is a disease, the occurrence and development of which is often not related to events in human life.
Over the course of several weeks, it is difficult to communicate with loved ones, do simple work, lose weight dramatically or, on the contrary, extra pounds appear as a result of chronic overeating - all these are signs of a mental disorder, in the treatment of which folk remedies are used as additional ones. It is very difficult to get rid of this ailment on your own at home.
With mild apathy, weakness, you can use drugs prepared according to recipes of traditional medicine. But, rather, as a preventative measure.
St. John's wort
This is a very popular and affordable herbal preparation that can be found in every pharmacy. St. John's wort is called a plant from 99 ailments. Treatment of depression with folk remedies is a part of complex therapy. Doctors sometimes recommend drinking a decoction of St. John's wort, but, of course, this method alone will not save you from a mental illness. This remedy helps with mild depression.
Hypericum flowers and leaves are used. Six teaspoons need to be poured with boiling water (500 ml). Leave on for 15 minutes. Take three times a day in a glass for three months. Treatment of depression with folk remedies is carried out as prescribed by the doctor. Hypericum broth is contraindicated in patients who take antidepressants.
Mint and Melissa
Tea with the addition of these herbs soothes, relieves stress. Drugs have a sedative effect, taking them improves sleep. But regular mint tea is a dubious treatment for depression. Folk remedies at home can relieve stress, improve overall health.
And yet, how to prepare a decoction of lemon balm? Twenty grams of dried raw materials need to be poured with boiling water, insisted for an hour. Take this decoction should be three to four times a day, but only on an empty stomach. You can also make a mint drink.
Depression in the elderly is very common. Folk remedies treatment of this ailment should not be carried out independently, but prevention is desirable. True, taking peppermint decoction will not prevent the development of the disease. You need to lead an active lifestyle, more often to be in the fresh air, get enough sleep.
Knotweed
With the help of a decoction of this plant, asthenia is treated. The drug gives strength, improves performance. Its intake is included in the complex treatment of depression with folk remedies. Symptoms in women differ little from signs of the same disease in men. However, it is believed that the fairer sex is more prone to this disease. Due to the fact that women are more attentive to their own health, it is they who are usually interested in recipes for preparing decoctions for treating depression at home.
Folk remedies, as already mentioned, do not relieve mental disorder. But for prevention or with mild apathy, which often visits, especially in the spring, it is worth taking a decoction from knotweed. Of course, if there are no contraindications. The tool is prepared as follows: three tablespoons of the plant are poured with boiling water (250 ml) and the hour is infused. Take a tablespoon three times a day.
Ginseng
The drug, prepared at home, is used as an additional tool. It is often recommended by doctors for asthenic conditions. What do those who have cured say? There are many reviews of the treatment of depression with folk remedies, most of them positive. True, people who do not even have superficial knowledge in psychiatry often misunderstand many medical terms.
What is depression? There is an opinion that this is not a disease, but a state of mind, spleen, melancholy, melancholy. In fact, this is an ailment that can hardly be forgotten after a course of treatment with folk remedies. Symptoms of depression should not be confused with a lack of mood. At the same time, one cannot turn a blind eye to apathy, which lasts more than three months and reduces the quality of life.
Ginseng is a tonic. Suitable for those who work hard, often experiencing weakness, malaise. How to prepare such a drug at home? Ten grams of raw materials need to be poured with boiling water (100 ml). Insist for four hours. Drink a tablespoon three times a day.
Both men and women use alcohol-based drugs to treat depression with folk remedies. To prepare the tincture, you need ten grams of roots and leaves. Pour raw materials into 100 ml of alcohol, insist for three weeks. Take a teaspoon three times a day.
Tincture of Eleutherococcus
This drug can be purchased at a pharmacy without a prescription. However, like all the others described above. According to reviews, the treatment of depression with folk remedies is effective. But then again, when it comes to the first stage of the disease, a slight malaise: weakness, apathy, chronic fatigue.
It makes sense to take tincture of Eleutherococcus if depression is caused by a violation of metabolic processes, a decrease in immunity. The drug belongs to natural adaptogens. It is prescribed in autumn and winter so that the body can more easily tolerate reduced daylight hours and a lack of fresh fruits and vegetables. Reception of tincture of Eleutherococcus helps increase the stability of the immune system by the causative agent of acute respiratory viral infections and acute respiratory infections. Side effects are sleep disturbance. Tincture should be taken twenty drops in the morning.
If the depressive state is caused by pathologies in the nervous system, the drug will not help. There are no components that affect the central nervous system.
Mental disorders after childbirth
Many young mothers are familiar with the symptoms of postpartum depression. Treatment with folk remedies in this case gives results. But not always. One woman after childbirth is quickly recovering. Another falls into a prolonged depression.
If a young mother does not manage to normalize her mental state for several months, she should consult a specialist. The notorious spleen may turn out to be nothing more than a mental disorder requiring medical treatment. Signs of postpartum depression apathy:
- indifference;
- irritation caused by childhood cry;
- sharp mood swings;
- decreased self-esteem;
- sleep disturbance;
- rejection of intimacy;
- impaired appetite.
Treatment of neurotic depression with folk remedies can take a long time. Such drugs help get rid of the disease, but act very slowly. Young mothers suffering from depression are recommended to brew tea from mint leaves, motherwort two or three times a day. It is advisable to take baths with sea salt and herbal decoctions. Soothing properties are possessed by herbal preparations such as lavender, linden, rosemary.
Myths About Depression
The main misconception about this common mental illness: the patient must certainly look miserable. A person familiar with the disease firsthand is sure that depression has visible signs. But many people suffering from it do not outwardly differ from healthy ones. They do not periodically fall into hysteria, do not complain incessantly about failures in life. Signs of depression are not negative emotions, but rather their complete absence: emptiness, zero, fading of all sensations.
Disease of the poor and rich
Another misconception regarding this very common disease is that it affects exclusively people with a high level of affluence. A person who does not have to think every day about how to make a piece of bread really has time to think about his state of mind. But this does not mean that there is a connection between the material situation and the tendency to depression. The thing is different. A person who is below the poverty line does not have money to visit a paid psychiatrist, and public hospitals do not enjoy the best reputation.
Antidepressants
The prescription of pills for mental disorders by many in our country is perceived as a sentence. That is why patients often self-medicate, buying in the pharmacy tinctures and herbs that do not help with prolonged depression.
There are also several myths about antidepressants. The most common is associated with personality changes that allegedly occur after taking the pills. According to the results of studies conducted not so long ago, such medications have no effect on a healthy person. Side effects of antidepressants are exaggerated. But to use them without a doctor’s prescription, like most other drugs, is not worth it. For preventive purposes, as already mentioned, it is better to use preparations based on plant components.