Leni: Withdrawal from St. John's Wort

[Leni]

Hello together, I have been reading in this forum for a couple of months now. I would like to introduce myself and share my story. 

 

I am 31 years old, female and from Germany. In March 2022 I started to take 900 mg St. John's Wort to treat something that I think was a burnout. I got those pills without a prescription in the pharmacy and the leaflet said that those pills are a natural alternative to antidepressants and that they are not addictive. Therefore you could stop the treatment anytime. If I would have known what happened to me because of those pills I would never have taken them. 

 

Shortly after starting the pills I didn't feel well. I got bad headaches and felt "different". Therefore I stopped taking the pills after 3 or 4 weeks. After quitting the pills I felt even worse. I couldn't sleep, I had brain zaps (didn't know what that is back then) and I had severe psychological symptoms. My boyfriend took me to the hospital (emergency psychiatry) because we didn't understand what was going on with me. The doctor prescribed citalopram which I fortunately never took. 

 

In the next couple of weeks I saw a psychologist and a psychiatrist and started and stopped the st. John's Wort pills at least two more times. Every time I started the pills I got horrible side effects and every time I stopped them I thought I was losing my mind. None of the specialists I saw told me anything about antidepressant withdrawal. 

 

Somehow I came across the term antidepressant withdrawal on the internet and I finally understood what was going on. I pretty much had every symptom on that list. 

 

In the next couple of months I tried to taper the pills. But I think the damage was already done from quitting them cold turkey a couple of times before. Every time I reduced I got horrible withdrawal symptoms. On October 27 I decided to quit completely and I took my last dose of St. John's Wort. 

 

Since the end of October I suffered from various ever changing withdrawal symptoms. Even though I know I am still far from healing I do feel as if things are finally getting a bit better. 

 

My main symptoms right now (month 10 after quitting):

-Hangover feeling in the morning 

-Vertigo

-Weird feelings in my head (I call it withdrawal headaches)

-depersonalization

-loss of appetite

 

Triggers: Stress, a lot of noise or light, working on the computer, coffee, alcohol

 

I do get windows. But I still have symptoms pretty much every day and often withdrawal hits me from one second to the next. I feel like the psychological symptoms like anxiety and chemical depression got a lot better in the last couple of weeks. 

 

Thank you for reading. I will keep you updated. 

 

 

[Altostrata]

Welcome, @Leni

 

We do have a few people here who got withdrawal syndrome from St. John's wort, which is a type of MAOI drug.

 

How has your symptom pattern changed in the last 3 months?

 

Many people find fish oil and magnesium supplements helpful, see

 

https://survivingantidepressants.org/index.php?/topic/36-king-of-supplements-omega-3-fatty-acids-fish-oil/

 

https://survivingantidepressants.org/topic/15483-magnesium-natures-calcium-channel-blocker/

 

You might try a little bit of one at a time to see how it affects you. Please let us know how you’re doing.

[Leni]

@Altostrata Thank you for your reply. I would say over the last 3 months my symptoms got less intense and easier to handle. They are usually worst in the morning and get better throughout the day. The feeling of depersonalization happens less often and I feel more like myself again. My concentration is a lot better. I still get headaches and vertigo a lot and sometimes weird thoughts or anxiety. In the last weeks I also had a dry mouth / weird taste quite a lot. 

 

For the supplements I take 245 mg magnesium and 640 mg vegan Omega-3.

 

 

[Altostrata]

Since you are seeing improvement, if I were you, I'd let my system recover naturally, without adding anything to interfere.

 

Small doses of magnesium throughout the day are more effective. For omega-3, we recommend 3000-4000mg EPA + DHA per day, in divided doses taken at meals.

 

Please let us know how you're doing. 

[Leni]

Hello together, I wanted to give a short update. At the end of August I had some very bad days with severe symptoms. It almost felt as bad as in the beginning. After that I saw some major improvement and for most of September I had no to little symptoms. Today I had quite a bad evening with pretty strong symptoms but I feel as if the waves are getting a lot shorter. 

 

Overall I am quite positive at the moment that healing is happening. I am mostly able to live a normal life these days. 

 

I will keep you updated. 

[modelarz71]

Please don't worry, I'm sure you will recover. For 7 years of natural treatment, I started and stopped using St. John's wort many times spacially in winter (also the German version laif 900 - I think that was its name). I don't remember that it helped much, but it never did any harm. If this happened, you will recover - because the source was a natural substance. I think so. It wasn't until I stopped the SSRI that my neck broke.

[Leni]

Hello together, 

it's been a while and I wanted to give a short update. It's almost 14 months after day 0 now and I'm feeling a lot better than I used to a couple of months ago. 

 

At the end of October me and my boyfriend took a long distance trip for four weeks. I felt very good for most of the trip. After we came back I had a jetlag and I was hit by a strong wave that lasted about a week. 

 

The wave was followed by a window of almost two weeks with no to little symptoms. And now another wave (less strong than before). 

 

I hope things keep improving and will let you know how I'm doing. 

[Leni]

Hi there, 16 months after 0 and I was hit by a very strong wave a couple of days ago. The last couple of months / weeks I saw a lot of improvement and had quite a lot of days without symptoms. About three months ago I got sick (I think it was covid but I didn't do a test because I was traveling at that time).

 

After falling sick my menstrual cycle got out of balance and I developed stronger PMS symptoms than I was used to. The PMS stressed me out a lot and I think it was the PMS / stress that triggered the strong wave a couple of days ago. I couldn't sleep, I lost my appetite for a couple of days, I had racing thoughts and couldn't concentrate. It felt as if I was back to the beginning.

 

Is it normal to be hit by such a strong wave so far into recovery? And do you have any information about recovery and PMS? 

 

Thank you 

[Leni]

Hello together, when I last wrote I was hit by a very strong wave that lasted for about two weeks. The wave was followed by a window of 12 days with almost no symptoms. Starting with my menstruation I got hit by another strong wave that is already lasting for 17 days now. I am suffering from bad insomnia and loss of appetite. This is really frustrating because I already felt a lot better 😢 Is it normal to get such strong waves so far into recovery?