Herbs for Depression
Recently I had a chance to hang out with a very sweet informed and high being his name is Thomas Easley and he's noted herbalist and he was at the Western Traditions In Herbalism Conference in Cloudcroft, New Mexico, put on by Kiva Rose and Jesse 'Wolf' Hardin. This is a great gathering of herbal teachers held annually. Next years conference will be in June 2017 in southern Colorado.
Thomas was a well received and respected presenter there. I on the other hands was on the periphery at this conference, I was more or less a peddler with a table hawking, selling some of the herbs and plants and tinctures that I had gathered from around my home, my place, my bioregion of The Southwest desert mountains and sky islands of the Arizona New Mexico border.
There was a break one morning and while most of the attendees of the conference were busy learning attending classes from some of the top amazing plant teachers at the conference, the rest of us were down there in the basement talking plant story.
Thomas Easley in his very easy-going relaxed way of being sat down directly on the floor and we proceeded to talk about things like liver stress, acetaminophen, birth control pills, pain relief, sleep, stress and addressing those topics within the framework of our understanding of herbal medicine. I had some plants there that I had wild harvested things like silktassel, oshá, Aralia , monarda and also things and bottles. The topic shifted to good herbs for sleep for producing restful sleep and hops came up, Humulus lupulus. We all came to a loose agreement, a gathering of the minds, sort of consensus that, "yes, some of these herbs would be helpful for a person with insomnia." Then Thomas dropped a bombshell as he does with his matter-of-fact, slight drawl, Alabama born and raised, sweet soft barely detectable southern accent and said, "Hops can help promote sleep, yet in my clinical practice I've never met a person with a hops deficiency."
And it's of course, no one has a hops deficiency. In the sense of someone may have a B12, reduced hemoglobin or protein deficiency, there's no such thing as a hops deficiency. Hops can help a person get to sleep yet there is no such thing as a hops deficiency. So in a sense the purpose of an herbalist is to get some one to a point where they no longer need The herbs that the herbalist provides.
I started out wanting to talk about depression specifically what herbs or herbal treatments may be helpful for a person with depression. A legitimate question would be, "what do you know about depression?", "about treating depression?", "what do you know about herbs?", "what do you know about herbs for depression?"
"Paul, what do you know about anything really?"
For 12 years, 5 days a week 8-16 hours a day, I had an opportunity to meet and greet people in crisis, working in an acute psych facility in America's fifth biggest city. They had decided to jump off a bridge.
They had decided to swallow bottles of pills.They had decided to fire a loaded handgun into parts of their body. They had decided they were going to stop eating, and now were experiencing kidney failure due to their inability to supply their body with the nutrients necessary to support the vital organs. They had decided to lay down on the railroad tracks and sever the limbs of the body, and in a sense they were successful in that now they had one arm rather than two. Most were at the end of their rope both literally and figuratively in that they were helpless hopeless and not wanting to live anymore. The basics like eating drinking water, bathing your body, talking to other people, working, engaging in any type of activity that might produce joy happiness peace, they were no longer interested. All sorts of stories presented themselves to me during these encounters.
Besides the various issues that people presented in this environment there was also the drama of the caregivers. Their own wounded egos presenting themselves. In short it was a powerful place for learning growth, Learning how to grow. And it led me myself to seek out ways of healing myself in a sense of maintaining a neutrality where I could respond to the needs of others yet not be overwhelmed in the process. I had in front of me in the DSM5, a way to see into the minds of people in the sense of an allopathic medicine construct. Yet I also had the learning model and system of the plant person and place- herbs and herbal medicine.
My introduction to herbal medicine occurred in my late teenage years when while still in high school I decided to walk across the state, a northeast deciduous mountain rolling hill state. This backpacking trip was crucial to my development now and then. One of the most important parts of this trip in terms of learning, as a young teenager was that the world that I lived in, the world of schools and friends and family was very much an urban experience. Yet the world just outside my door was in a sense wild and untamed and I made a vow then and there on Sugarloaf Mountain, during a lightning storm that no matter how long it took, no matter what it took, I would learn about the place. I would learn about the plants. And I would learn how to use them.
Economic circumstances of the times let me away from that deciduous mountain cherry maple forest kingdom to come to the western United States, where I have lived since the 1980s continuing my study on the plants. I was able to work on a mobile drilling rig up and down the continental divide from Libby, Montana down to Silver city, New Mexico. I worked as a sheepherder in the middle of Wyoming. I worked for the park service,and forest service and state parks, often in very pristine beautiful places and during this time I always had my plant books always learning about new plants. I also lived for 14 years on the edge of a wilderness, 30 miles from the nearest gas station, or city of any size, this area which later became a national park on the Arizona Utah border. Again during this 14 years I always had my plant books my wife and family would be wandering around always with the plants. Michael's Moore's books always accompanied me on my journeys and eventually I came to the point where I needed to study and meet with others.
That led me to John Slattery and Michael Cottingham both advanced in herbal ways and willing to take students. I continue on that path even in the present moment informed by their gracious teaching.
Pitfalls on the Medicine Road
Another pitfall is the lure and attraction of the exotic. The idea that because something comes from far away hidden in a remote rain forest or from some country or place that we've never visited, the idea that this is the answer, the fascination with the exotic is the problem. This refers not only to the herbs that we need for healing ourselves but also to the belief systems and thought patterns that can help us make a breakthrough from disease, to health.
I recently had a conversation with a person who was telling me about the therapeutic benefits of dance, and how they were drawn to African dancing, Guinea dancing. When I mentioned that there was a local band playing that night, that would be doing some cowboy two-step dancing, they withdrew from that option, 'the rhythm wasn't right, it wasn't a therapeutic spiritual dance'. They needed to do the African dancing. That was the pathway they were traveling, that was leading them. And that's all well and good, African dancing and cowboy two step dancing are very different yet there was something that I found in that conversation that's very typical of people trapped in a disease process. In the disease state, besides a physical condition, there is a corresponding mental state. There is a closing off all of the world around them so that they don't take part in the immediacy and availability of healing modalities very close at hand. With regard to herbs there is often a seeking of some herb from a remote region of the world, from the Himalayan mountains, from the Bush of Australia, from the rain forest deep in South America, -always something rare, always something that could help them. But it's far away, inaccessible, distant. around the next corner and not available in the present moment.
When seeking something far away there is also within that movement a rejection of what is close at hand, discounting of the obvious in favor of an exotic solution far away. This same pitfall can also manifest in the psychology and belief system of the person trapped in a disease state. There is this movement towards the exotic in belief, some esoteric Hindu or Sufi tradition, deep African spirituality, the idea that a Buddhist Saint from Tibet has much more to say then a Christian Saint.
Self loathing and devaluation often comes in the form of dissing our own roots in the Judeo-Christian backyard in favor of the faraway exotic heady spirituality of some distant place. The strongest healing modality I have found is in the experience of the fundamental goodness of this world and our experience. It requires continual blessing and affirmation of this fundamental goodness in our experience. This is our work to affirm the goodness, the fundamental goodness of experience in all it's forms. This is the interior mental work that we must do on a daily continuous basis in regards to all experience. We have to take seriously the thoughts in our own mind, as thoughts. Working with our own thoughts, as thoughts, is the crucial work that we must do every moment that we experience ourselves as living beings. Our continuous journey requires that we do a kind of subtle work with our thoughts, to see them as thoughts, and not to give in to the drama of despair whether in our bodies, in our hearts, in our relationships, or with the plants that we work. When we experience a hopeless situation, it is important to realize that that is a hopeless thought, and one that we must address. There are no hopeless situations, because the fundamental goodness of life is working at all times to bring balance and homeostasis. That is the fundamental essence of our herbalism.
Negative thought patterns are simply that, they are negative thought patterns. The plants are eating light. The plants are beings of light rooted in the earth. The plants are making their medicine by eating the stuff of stars. Retake that hope and optimism of light into our bodies by relating to the plants.
Faith , Hope and Charity
I often think that the cornerstone of my working with plants in the herbal medicine road is faith hope and charity. Faith has to do with moving forward. When I encounter a disease state I bring to mind impermanence and flow. Flow is faith. Flow is fact. There is no state or condition which will maintain itself in the way that it is now because all things are moving. Within the concept of diagnosis of a disease state, there is a strong central notion that I am the disease, I am the disease state. I can remember working in the psych hospital and we would often go into that mode where we would identify a person as a disease process. We would say, 'oh yes she is schizophrenic', or 'major depressive disorder there', or 'drug-induced psychosis'. 'Bipolar disorder'. 'Obsessive compulsive disorder.' At the end of the day we would have to gather around a tape machine and record a brief tidbit about the person, for the next shift as part of our report. It would be common to list the person's diagnosis, list their psychiatric diagnosis, name their psychiatric diagnosis and then maybe mention something that was going on in regards to their general health and well-being, may be their insulin resistance, blood sugar levels or some issue with the blood study. For me though in my report that I recorded I rarely gave the patient's diagnosis, I usually would describe rather what the person was doing, what they said, what they told to me, and leave it at that. I didn't want to feed in and solidify that concept that the person would be forever trapped in that diagnosis, till the day they die, I never believed. That never was something that I experienced. For me what I did experience was flow. I experienced growth and this was based on my understanding of faith hope and charity. I never saw a person that didn't change. And I never gave my mental assent to that concept, that the person would forever be trapped in an inner diagnosis, irrespective of conditions.
Recently I had a conversation with a young lady and we were talking about herbs and herbs that would be useful for treating depression and she shared with me what worked best for her in treating her depression. What she said to me was, "the best thing that I found for my depression is sunlight, getting outside in the wind, sun and rain, exercise, staying away from alcohol and caffeine, and making regular trips into nature to meet with the plants.". That is some advice that I would offer anyone in any disease state irrespective of what was going on. Get outside. Go to natural wild places. Look at the plants growing talk to them taste them. Spend time outside moving. Find an herb that works for you, not in an herb store, not from an herbalist, but where it grows, where it thrives, where it lives.
Faith is starting something where there is nothing. With faith you are basically moving blind with your ears and eyes covered yet through some miraculous occurrence you're moving you have decided to take some remedy.
Faith is planting a seed in often inhospitable soil. Hope is nourishing that seed preparing the soil, improving the soil so that new thought pattern of health can begin to take shape.
Faith is planting a seed in often inhospitable soil. Hope is nourishing that seed preparing the soil, improving the soil so that new thought pattern of health can begin to take shape.
Hope is work. Often times someone will come to me and want to take an herb or take a tincture, take a potion and have it magically resolve the situation. Hope is acknowledging that there is a lot of work to be done. And you need to do the work. Work is something that we can't escape. You can't expect to be burning your adrenals on both ends with caffeine and all kinds of stimulants not getting enough sleep, not drinking enough water not getting enough exercise staying up late not taking care of your own personal business of having a body and then taking some milky oat tincture and expect that to somehow resolve things. You have to take some concrete steps to address were all the stress is coming. You're going to have to make some changes. You're going to have to do some adjustment. You may have to add things and you may have to give things up but you're going to have to do things a little bit differently. I'm not talking about drastic sudden surgical heroic medicine changes it may be as simple as eating one quarter pounder rather than two quarter pounder's. That's where you have to start from gradual incremental changes. That's what hope is, it's doing something. Taking a direct action. You're taking some action no matter how small. You're looking at your thoughts from moment to moment and not taking them that seriously. You're not taking yourself that seriously, because how you see the world is the process of seeing. You are describing a version of the world based on your current relation to the world. No one can describe except as through a key hole. Because it doesn't really mean a rats ass difference how you see the world, you are part of this world but this world is much much bigger than you are. Our minds, our thoughts are tools but never mistake the shovel or the hammer for the house. We use tools to build our house. But we don't live in our tools. We live in our house. And thoughts are tools but never mistake your own thinking your own view of the world for the world itself. Because the world self lives outside of you.
We share our thoughts as words, as songs in the world. Those thoughts can become very contagious. Thoughts of hopelessness and negativity can become the predominant motif that spreads like a virus through our human community. Hope is doing the work with our thoughts of processing them in such a way that they are tools for our healing. The best place to do this work for me, is with the plants where they grow, in their medicine gardens. Hope is making the time for this interaction with the plants to take place. No excuses, no absolutes, it doesn't have to be something that you do all the time, it is not an all or nothing proposition, it's beginning the work where you are and be with the plants. Hope is organizing your life in such a way that you can spend time with the plants. You don't need intricate pharmacy or vast knowledge to do this work. The most simple act is to identify a plant, speak your needs to that plant, spend time with that plant, and then simply eat the leaves. The greatest solvent is water. There's nothing better than to take an herb fresh or dry and make a tea then drink the tea. It is as simple as making a cup of tea. This is the hope of tea in terms of our herbal medicine.
Charity is the space and time where you made a plan directly. Charity is giving. When you meet a plant it is important to know that the plant is meeting you. In my spiritual tradition the essence of charity is when Mary the mother of Jesus Christ went to meet her cousin Elizabeth in that meeting was charity. Jesus was already growing inside the womb of Mary and when Mary met Elizabeth she also met Jesus the Christ. Jesus inside the womb of Mary also met John the Baptist inside the womb of Elizabeth. This for me is the archetypal description of meeting a plant. Mary had to travel to meet Elizabeth. Often in our herbal journeys there are trips that we have to make traveling that we have to do to meet the plant sometime is not a long distance, sometimes it can just be walking outside of our door to an open field where some weeds are growing. When we meet a plant it's important to know like Mary the mother of Jesus, we are carrying within our own woumbs, within our own being that healing and intuitive knowledge of the plants. The plant has something for us, and we have something for the plant, meeting is charity, and that giving is interaction. When we make the journey of faith to the plants, and do the work which is our hope, there is a mutual giving back and forth between the plant person and place which is charity. One aspect of charity which the plant gives to us is its essence as an eater of starlight, it is bringing this light in to our world. Jesus is the light of the world. John spoke of Jesus as the logos or the first thought of the universe expressing itself and that is the light, and that is what the plants draw from the sun and give back to us on our medicine Road. We can get into lengthy specifics later, the first work is to take that first step to the plants to meet and engage with them directly.
One of the amazing developments of Christianity was the idea that a person, any person, in any place or time, could go directly to Jesus to find answers, to find the light. There is no need for a mediator between a person and this Christ which is the light of the world. In my plant medicine journey I've also found that this is an empowering reality that we can experience. We can go directly to the plants to find our medicine for our diseased hearts minds and bodies. As we get stronger in our faith hope and charity we can bring this healing light to others with our plant medicines. I think that that is all that anyone in our tradition has ever done, they've gone to the plants they got a kind of healing, and now they want to share that good news with others. You can become much more complex than that yet at its essence our herbal medicine tradition involves going to the plants, going to the place, and bringing back for others this helming relationship. A plant is a healing relationship. A plant is the other, that's needed to take us to the next level. When we return with medicine we share that gift. We share according to needs and understanding in order to give something back so that others suffering can be mitigated and hopefully resolved in such a way that they can continue their journey in a more hopeful positive way.
I started out talking about herbs and depression and I did want to maybe mention some of the herbs that I found helpful. However on that most basic of levels the first step is to bless, be blessed. and bless others. I don't have any explanation for what causes blessing. I don't have a way of explaining that blessing can occur. And I don't know how to evaluate blessing versus non-blessing. I do know that if you have been drawn to herbal medicine, and the herbal medicine Road, drawn to the plants themselves then in someway you have stepped on the path and are now blessed. Obviously there is a lot of work to do after acknowledging and understanding the uniqueness of your own gift and that often manifests as gratefulness. I don't know why some people have been blessed in the way that they can come to the herbs and work out their own healing and then give it back to others. I do suspect that it has to do mostly with being a alive. By definition if you were alive you were dealing with the plants. Even if you're just wearing a cotton T-shirt. That plant is covering your body. Or if you just had a salad or even had a big quarter pounder with a pickle on there, that pickle is a plant. That pickle was reaching out to you and is part of your being. That is just how we live our lives, we are continuously working with plants as part of being alive. If you get in your car, turn the key and start the engine, you're relating to plants. Fossil plants power your car. That evil, evil gasoline, that oil, that petroleum that everyone curses, kills, fights and struggles for, that is a plant. Gasoline is a plant energy. Oil is a plant energy. If you're moving in a vehicle, riding the bus, whatever, you're still relating to that reality of the plants to sustain our life. Plants are the foundation of our existence and while I hope that you never get personally involved a disease state that overwhelms you, sometimes I think that all diseases are just ways to get us closer to these plants, to relate and engage with them in such a way that we can truly acknowledge what it means to be a alive.
Oh and as far as herbs or herbal remedies for depression,? I have not the slightest clue.
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