I was speaking with a healthcare practitioner who recommended taking Gaba for my anxiety and depression in order to decrease the prescription meds I am on for this (my choice to do the latter).



Has anyone else heard of this or had any results with alternative therapies and supplements for anxiety or depression?



I've been on zoloft for four years and klonapin for one. I hate the feeling of relying on these things for my mood, and feel its not helping anyways. I do see a therapist and I do yoga on a regular basis....



I just can't seem to find my happy medium...



agh

p.s. I am/have recovered from an ED in the past 6 months. I am back to my normal weight and am healthy, I figured once that happened my depression would ease up but this is not so....

I'd like to know everyone's replies as well. I also suffer from the same ailments and have prescribed abilify which I have been petrified to start taking. Antipsychotics scare me and I'd rather take something natural with no scary side effects.

when i had just come off effexor (and had bad enough discontinuation symptoms to make it hard for me to function) i used st johns wort, in a tincture. it worked really well. it might be worth looking into with your doctor, but it shouldn't be used while you're still on other antidepressants, does interact with some other drugs and can have side effects.



http://www.mind.org.uk/Information/F...perforatum.htm

st johns wart is supposed to be realy good, im considering using it myself. i hope you find something that works for you!

With GABA there seems to be a lot of dispute on if taking it orally even works, as a lot of people/research says it can't cross the BBB (at least not noticiably without a mega-dose). On the other hand, there are some people out there who I've read have had success with it; who know's if it's placebo though.



If you want to try to increase GABA directly you'd have more luck with something like Phenibut, which in effect can cross the BBB and agonizes GABA once across. The problem is it will have withdrawal effects if used everyday/long term. It's compared a lot to benzo's, especially valium (a lot of people say it's like "time release valium"), and works under at least some of the same mechanisms.