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Depression is a common problem today especially in fast moving cities. According to a report at least one out of every 20 Americans gets depressed each year. With new studies, the herb St. John’s wort might be helpful in reducing stress and many other common health problems.

St John’s wort also known as Hypericum perforatum, constitute hypericin, pseudohypericin, dianthrones, flavonoids, xanthones, tannins, and hyperforin. Hyperforin is believed to be the major constituent responsible for antidepressant activity. St John’s wort is also known as Tipton’s Weed, Klamath weed or Goat weed.

It helps in improving mood and ability to carry out daily lives. It also decreases some very commonly seen symptoms like sadness, hopelessness, worthlessness, exhaustion, and poor sleep.

Benefits of St Johns Wort

After giving birth, some mothers experience hormonal imbalance and other physiological changes that cause them to feel lonely, tired, and depressed. This mix of psychological, physical, and emotional distress is known as postpartum depression. A mother with this condition may feel anxious, scared, worthless, fatigued, or restless. She can eventually lose her appetite, have trouble sleeping, and become frantic or paranoid when this kind of depression worsens or becomes more severe. To avoid these complications, depressed mothers should get medical help and therapy to help them recover.

But it is not only mothers who encounter this problem which has been associated with the pressures of childbirth. New research suggest that even new fathers can get depressed after the mother gives birth. According to the study, about fourteen percent of mothers and around ten percent of fathers suffer from moderate to severe postpartum depression. More damaging than the more common form of “baby blues”, postpartum depression is more serious since it leads a person to experience sadness and feelings of emptiness, withdrawal from family and friends, and being sensitive to thoughts of failure. Depressed mothers and fathers may also, in extreme cases, contemplate thoughts of suicide. These emotions begin two to three weeks after birth, and could last up to a year or longer if left untreated. Researchers in this study states that postpartum depression in fathers were strikingly high and more than twice as common than in the general adult male population in the US. As a result, they say that pediatricians must make a greater effort to screen both mothers and fathers for postpartum depression.

Researchers reviewed information on more than five thousand two-parent families with children aged nine months and found out that if both parents get depressed, their babies would less likely to be put to bed lying on their back, get breastfed, and more likely to have been put to sleep with just a bottle of milk. Pediatricians also noted in the study that babies should be put to sleep on their backs in order to prevent cases of sudden infant death syndrome. Depressed mothers were about one and a half times less likely to engage in preventive health behaviors, such as breastfeeding, placing the baby on his back to sleep or more likely to put their babies to bed with a bottle. These mothers were less likely to read to their babies, tell stories, or sing songs if depressed. The study revealed that depressed fathers were less likely to sing or play outside with their child if both parents were depressed. The studies’ results suggest that where daytime interactions are concerned, depressed mothers and fathers engage in less positive interaction with their children, with a particular decrease in the level of enrichment interactions, including reading, telling stories, and singing songs. In seeing that the depressed fathers do not interact with their children, this is critical for them, since it is important to seek the need for interaction with children to develop cognitively and emotionally in a normal way.

While women show signs of sadness when they are depressed, men may be more likely to get irritated easily, be aggressive, and sometimes evena act in a hostile manner when they are depressed. In addition to not interacting with their baby, depressed fathers could be less supportive of the mother. When these signs are present, the best thing to do is to talk to a doctor, counselor, psychiatrist who can make a diagnosis and prescribe appropriate medications to treat depression.

Young women who grow up surrounded by family problems and any form of abuse are at high risk of getting eating disorders like anorexia or bulimia. Unless they get help and support in dealing with their emotional reactions to their problems. According to research studies, family conflict together with other problems, as well as emotional and/or physical abuse, with neglect during childhood, can set the stage for potential eating disorders. For many young girls and ladies, their response to family problems during childhood years, not the family problems themselves, seems to have a strong connection to the development of eating disorders. If a girl has been experiencing family problems that lead to physical and/or emotional abuse and neglect, she would grow up without any emotional support coming from them, a factor that is so important for a young woman’s well-being.

In order to escape her negative emotions, a girl may focus intensely on her physical appearance. Thus, by eating in small proportions or by hardly eating at all, a girl can create a distraction for herself — which then serves as a means of avoiding negative emotions. Somehow, she feels the need to narrow down her focus to something that’s concrete. Another factor that leads to eating disorders like bulimia would be depression. Some girls can experience depression in school, where bullying is at its peak, and when everybody should look better than others. At this point, girls can see and feel depressed whenever they see popular girls with slim waists, and from there they could think of losing weight by means of purging, vomiting, and the like. Other girls get depressed when it comes to relationships, specifically romantic relationships. Of course, girls have the tendency to get jealous whenever her boyfriend looks at another attractive girl. This is normal, but for girls who have low self-esteem, this is pure punishment. They will eventually have thoughts that they are not as good-looking as the other girl, maybe because of her weight. This can possibly get the girl into hazardous eating habits, which can lead to having anorexia or bulimia.

If this is the case, any girl who suffers from any family problems or is dealing with depression should get professional help immediately. A lot of counseling sessions are available for those girls dealing with eating disorders, and this could benefit them by giving them advise on how to handle their emotions and feelings, together with support and help in fighting their eating disorder. Such sessions can open their minds and think of what is healthy and right, and can boost their confidence as well as their self esteem in order to build their true personality. Of course, girls should also be open to healthy diet options so that they can help themselves in getting back to shape in a healthier way. Try to see what options might be available diet-wise, since there are a lot of weight loss programs that cater to different people, depending on what they usually eat everyday. Girls should exercise regularly, like taking brisk walks in the morning or even going to the gym. This can help in maintaining a healthy body and mind, as well as helping oneself from the dangers of eating disorders.

It is said that the true measure of a man is not seen in times of victory, but in moments of great challenge. A hero, in the true sense of the word, is not about accomplishing incredible feats due to strength, power, and authority. Heroism is best exemplified by men and women who strive for accomplishment inspite of overwhelming odds and latent weaknesses. Abraham Lincoln was one such hero.

In his book entitled, The Inner World of Abraham Lincoln, the author Michael Burlingame attempted to explain the roots of the former U.S. president’s depression. Burlingame claims that the death of Lincoln’s mother was the cause and the beginning of Lincoln’s lifelong battle with melancholia. The book also reveals that as a young child, the future president had to endure the pain and grief of losing a newborn brother, a sister, an uncle, and an aunt. These deaths became embedded in the young Lincoln’s psyche, resulting in a series of deep sadness.

Overcoming depression, it can be argued, was Lincoln’s greatest feat as a human being. His long list of failures and defeats would surely overwhelm a lesser man.

In 1832, he lost his job abd was defeated in his first attempt to win a legislative seat. The following year, his business collapsed and he spent the next 17 years paying-off his debt.

In 1835, his fiance died, which then made him suffer from a nervous breakdown.

In 1838, he ran for Speaker of the Illinois State Legislature and lost.

In 1843, he again ran for Congress but failed to get nominated. Four years later, he again tried in vain to run for Congress.

In 1854, Lincoln tried his hand at running for the Senate and, again, he lost. Two years later, he ran for Vice President but failed to convince his partymates to nominate him.

And even when he was elected 1860 as the 16th U.S. President, he faced a country that was being torn by a civil war that claimed more than 600,000 lives.

With all the stress and anxiety that he has gone through, it is no wonder that Abraham Lincoln often looked forlorn, tired, and weak in many of his official photographs. One can only imagine the sheer burden of making decisions that would impact the lives of hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children during a time when America was divided unto itself.

How many sleepless nights did he have almost endlessly pacing his room in deep thought? What kind of torment did he experience just pondering about the thousands of lives that were lost because of the war? As commander-in-chief of the Federal Army, his decisions spelled the difference between life and death for each and every infantryman. Yet somehow, inspite of all the failures and heartaches in his life, Abraham Lincoln was able to pull through and lead a nation. Even in the middle of crippling psychological and emotional upheavals, he was able to win the war and keep the Union together.

During Lincoln’s time, the medical and scientific community still had no name for manic depressive disorder. The psychological disorder was simply called “melancholia.” In those days, there were no psychiatrists, antidepressant prescriptions, counseling, and group therapy available as we know them today.

Indeed, during the nation’s darkest hour, Abraham Lincoln was able to ride above the storms of his life and lead as President. While he was never able to achieve complete emancipation from his psychological problems like the freedom that was won for the Negro slaves, Lincoln heroically faced the obstacles and hardships to become America’s most revered president.

There are layers upon layers upon layers to the thick mat of distress that makes up bipolar disorder. It’s no one thing. It is a cornucopia of ills all heaped together and all interacting synergistically to bring about the ruination of a life. The better you understand what you’re up against either as a sufferer or someone trying to help a sufferer, the better the chance you’ll have to manage or even defeat it.

Let’s take a peek at a couple of these symptoms.

- Multiple mental illness diagnosis. You have a clear set of distinctly individual disorders. I wonder about this one. I really do. From both what I’ve seen and what I’ve lived, I believe that the bulk of this scenario is just shades of the same color. There is one root cause or one root set of causes that if addressed, would stop all your symptoms cold.

People get labeled with OCD, ADD, sleep disorders, BD, depression, ADHD, psychotic; all at the same time! This is common and the symptoms are most definitely present and measurable. But what is also common is that many times, there is indeed a lowest common denominator. If you could find what that was you would not need endless piles of pills for each separate illness.

All those pills taken together then produce a whole new set of problems that only exist because of the pills themselves. In your fight to calm or enliven your mind, you get rewarded with a clinically produced illness thrown into the mix. Cripes, they’ll even give you pills to offset that, too!

In a grossly generalized sense, this is all in your head. What I mean is there is an answer that once applied to one problem can very well wipe out, or at the very least minimize, all the other problems too.

I started out with classic bipolar then experienced almost every variety of it that they have cared to give a name to across an eight year span. In between, I gained sleeping disorders, sexual shutdown and OCD. I got pills for all of that. During this time, I was so miserable I wanted those pills. I wanted them very much! Problem was, no matter how many or what kinds of medications I took, I never got better. I never got relief. Sometimes I would, sure, but it never lasted long. And overall, I was just becoming worse. This situation is what caused me to strike out on my own and learn truths never revealed to me in a doctor’s office.

I found that there most certainly are some root causes to a lot of this mental mess. As I addressed them, my symptoms lost strength and almost entirely vanished in a relatively short amount of time.

- No longer naturally happy. This has two sources. Depression is a huge part of bipolar. Depression is nothing but a lack of joy at its most basic. Happiness is now a distant memory whose face you no longer recognize.

Now add to that the “weirdness” that hits many of us with bipolar. It’s not so much a depression as it is a malfunction. You’re just off in some way or many ways. A big chunk of this is from being dissociative. You’re not in synch with the rest of life. On top of it, your perception of reality is skewed similar to a bad acid trip. Think about how it feels if you consume too much Nyquil or Vicks. You’re out of the loop in every way. You feel it and others can see it on your face although they can’t relate. You’re running on a different frequency and to others it doesn’t look like a happy place to be.

It’s almost like you’re wrapped in cellophane but can still breathe. You can’t feel what others feel while experiencing the same set of input. It wears you down physically and mentally. It makes you very unhappy. It is a Purgatory.

My mom used to be able to see it instantly in my eyes. It’s a close cousin to the “thousand yard stare” that combat veterans have. She’d ask me rhetorically, “Bad day?” She already knew the answer. She knew to not even attempt to talk to me. I wouldn’t respond. I couldn’t. I didn’t know what I was feeling other than the fact that it was bad and that I couldn’t control it.

It’s subtle and low key. You’re not exactly sure what’s real. For that matter, you can’t clearly define what the term “real” even means to you. It doesn’t hurt viciously but it is there, whittling away at your mind. The closest thing I could ever think to call it was “uncomfortably inert”.

On those days, I’d usually sit on the porch chain-smoking Marlboros as I sat and saw nothing. My mind was working frantically but I was not part of that. I was not part of anything. I just was. It felt terrible.

I remember those days and I give thanks frequently that they are now just memories. They’re no longer an active part of my day and haven’t been for a couple of years now as of this writing. If you’re in this fight right now then have hope. There is help to be had. Find me.