Plants Over Pills

I’ve suffered my entire life from depression and anxiety. I’ve been diagnose with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and General Anxiety Disorder (GAD) and have had significant ups-and-downs in my 41 years of life. Like a lot of people, I didn’t realize I had an issue because waking up in darkness and heaviness was my norm (since as far back as I can remember). I was raised in a legalistic religious environment, which produced immense amounts of shame and guilt. On top of that, I was bullied from 5-8th grades and have a family history of mental health issues. With all those contributing factors stacked against me as a child, I thought feelings of deep loss, a sense of doom, the desire to end my life was all normal. Took me many, many years to realize that humans don’t typically live in that state of mind chronically. 

On top of childhood baggage, in my adult life, I’ve raised a child with special needs, lost her at 3 years old, had my marriage fall apart, my 13-year old son diagnosed with Leukemia and financial hardship pile up against my fragile mental state. I found myself in a psyche ward just a little over a year ago with a strong desire to end it all. 

During the last few years, I’ve been on 8 different psyche meds and have been in weekly therapy, to find some relief and very unfortunate side effects to some of those meds. Out of all the meds I’ve been on, only one has provided some relief. Then I researched each of the meds I tried and discovered some disturbing research, pointing to long-term effects of those meds. I started to question the legitimacy of medication for mental illness. Now, hear me out - I completely believe that psyche meds are necessary for millions of people around the world, and that people should take whatever is needed to provide mental stability and a rewarding quality of life. I’m not against psyche meds. Please read that line again. 

For me, I found myself messing with my brain chemistry and either feeling numbed out, sleepy, fidgety or straight-up unmotivated to do anything. I slowly realized that this could not be the way for me. There had to be another, more effective way to support my brain and mental health. 

Enter, plants. 

I slowly started eating a whole, plant-based diet, taking supplements to stabilize some of my body chemistry and researching particular plants that have been used in unconventional medicine for thousands of years. Without naming the plants, I was completely surprised that these plants provided the greatest relief for my chronic depression and anxiety. I’m still surprised that they work so well. Which got me thinking… should we question our current standardized healthcare approach to mental health? Are pharmaceuticals THE answer to all our mental and physical aliments? 

Don’t get me wrong - do I think everyone should ditch meat and become a wide-eyed vegan advocate… uh, no. What I do think is that getting in-tune with your body and how it effects your emotional state, is essential. I think a more wholistic approach to mental health care is one of the most important issues in the medical community. My hope is that over the next decade, the FDA and DEA spend their time and money pouring into research related to supplements, herbal remedies and other natural options that are currently seen as “fringe” or “nonsense.” 

I’m very early on this journey away from pills and towards plants, so I don’t claim to have the answers. More questions than conclusions at this point. If you’ve had a similar experience, leave me some comments with your journey and let’s learn together. I’m convinced that plants are better than pills.