QUESTION:
Help needed from someone who knows a lot about Traditional Chinese Medicine?
Here’s a little background info that you’d need to answer my question… before you comment, make sure you read all of this and don’t skip over any details, because I don’t feel like dealing with people who don’t take the time to truly “listen”… I’M ONLY LOOKING FOR HELP AND ADVICE FROM PEOPLE WHO KNOW ABOUT TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE. ALL OTHER ANSWERS WILL BE IGNORED OR GIVEN A POOR RATING.
For a while now I’ve been under extreme psychological stress and depression– the significant stress, “ungroundedness”, and instability of my life (which I have little control over) has triggered my depressive tendencies. There’s lots more to tell here… I have a disposition to become depressed due to the environment that I was raised in and the genetic dispositions that I inherited and were nutured within me. I have lots of threatening financial stressors, debts, and home stressors. Furthermore, I come from a very ungrounded background where my parents were very very unstable, inconsistent with their nurturing and emotional states, unpredictable, angry and hormonal/unbalanced mother, emotionally repressed and unavailable father, emotional abuse, my self-esteem was ripped away from me. If it wasn’t for many years of counseling I would have a horrible self-esteem right now– I am still in counseling. My mom had a heart attack at 45 and has diabetes, my dad is hypothyroid and pre-diabetes (my parent’s diabetes is mainly due to their extremely poor diet and lack of exercise). So for years with this upbringing my disposition when under stress has been: depression/irritability, high blood pressure (I’m only 22), feelings of loneliness/emptiness, trouble thinking straight, mild digestive issues (gas/loose stools), trouble getting to sleep, apathy, tension in my shoulders/jaws. Furthermore I even smoked weed for a while and ignorantly took too many yang tonics for over a year and a half like Chinese/korean ginseng, suma, maca, rhodiola, ginger, etc which drained my yin, I have a significantly diminished sense of reality and sense of self. The dreamlike feeling is a very defunct and unsettling feeling. All this has led me to learn more about my condition… I’ve read much literature on ayurvedic medicine, chiropractic medicine, general naturopathic medicine, homeopathic medicine, and last but not least TCM or traditional Chinese medicine; TCM and Chiropractic being most effective so far after having myriads of acupuncture treatments in the past and Chiropractic adjustments on my neck, shoulder, pelvis, back, and hips.
So lately, I’ve gotten more educated on TCM. I’ve found that my body is very drained of yin (in a general sense). My life style and it’s stressors (which I have little control over) drains my yin and results in a rising yang. To support my yin, I have been taking Rehmannia 6 formula. I’ve added to this formula fresh dried goji and schisandra berries with almonds, as well as small amounts of peppermint, lemon balm, and nettle (in capsule form)—this formula is to tonify my liver yin and kidney (jing/yin) as well and to soothe my digestive system. On top of this formula I am eating more yin foods, eating less heavy meats and dairy, and eating a few more sweeter (healthy) foods that will tonify my spleen– I have had some issues with digestion, loose stools, and gas. Likewise to try to better deal with things, I’m getting psychotherapy and am doing light cardio exercise.
The good news here as a result of these dietary/herbal changes is I have already seen: a significant improvement in my levels of irritability and patience; heart rate is 5-6 bpm’s slower; my sex drive is slowly getting back to what it was when I was in highschool (I’m 22 now fyi), my eyes focus better; my tinnitus has lessened (ringing in the ears is something I’ve had all my life); less gas, my physical energy is “cleaner”; my sleep has deepened; I feel more tired in the evenings and get to bed between 8 and 11pm as opposed to before when I wouldn’t feel tired at night and couldn’t really get to sleep until like 5 or 6am… so good improvements here from just taking these herbs and making other dietary changes. I have TCM to thank for these changes that have happened so far. Note: I’m NOT doing acupuncture, qi gong, yoga, or massage because I CANNOT afford these things unfortunately– Right now, all I can afford is herbs (everything else except occasional Chiropractic adjustments is out of my budget). I’m doing what I can while trying to be as smart and educated as possible in my decisions.
What am I getting at here? While there have been some significant improvements in the areas that I mentioned above, my problem is that I haven’t seen an improvement in my mental energy, joy, sense of reality, enthusiasm, zeal, etc (and I still don’t know enough about TCM theory to make the right changes). I don’t feel like taking any uneducated risks without help from people who are educated on this stuff…
My hypothesis is that I’d see an init
My hypothesis is that I’d see an initial change about a week after taking this Rehmannia 6 enhanced formula (which did happen—I don’t think it’s a placebo effect either) BUT wouldn’t see any impact from it on my mood and emotional energy for at least a few months into taking it as it would take a while for my deeper sleep to restore my emotional energy (joy/zeal/enthusiasm) in addition to replenishing my stores of jing and my yin—at least for my specific case.
Is my hypothesis correct that… my deeper sleep and taking the liver/kidney yin formula would slowly build my emotional energy, joy, sense of reality, enthusiasm, etc? OR do I need to consider adding additional herbs for this?
btw, if you read this I greatly appreciate it…
-
ANSWER:
you may need a natural source of vit d to regain you energy. From all that you have described, it is no wonder you are mentally tired and I would guess that you spend much of your time away from the sun (indoors)
