Evening Primrose

I have suffered from anxiety and depression my whole life, and so when my garden offered me up a huge bounty of evening primrose, I couldn't deny God's little nudge to take responsiblity for some of the greater amounts of angst I have been holding since the looming closing of the Community House Network as an official 501c3.

The plant is biannual, and pretty much everything on it is edible and medicinal.  I have another post on the plant that will give more information, but this one I want to share the latest efforts I have made to utilize this natural alternative to anti-depressants.

I am highly resistant to the idea of taking any pharmaceuticals, after having spent my first career studying neuropharmacology and the effects of these ubiquitous drugs.  So I have utilized meditation, instead of medication.  It does work, but these days I seem to need a little boost.  I am usually not depressed until October, and so when the depression started to close in in May, well that was not good.

I have known about alternatives like evening primrose oil and st. John's Wort for years.  But it is only recently that I have been interested in growing these things and foraging medicinal herbs.  After the incredible success of the wild lettuce curing my life-long insomnia, I am ready to take personal responsibility for my mental health.  

So I started with making a tincture.  I harvested some of the young shoots, primarily because I had to weed them out of my garden. Herbalists have done research on which phase of the plant development has the best medicinal properties, but I guess I will just experiment and see what happens.

The most wonderful thing about the process was seeing how brilliantly green the tincture became after only 2 days.  The leaves of the young plant were already turning white, and so I decided to strain it and give it a try.

I put one half tablespoon into a cup of strong tea, and started that way.  It is intersting because I started to feel a little better.  With the success of that small amount, I started a regiment of 3 cups of tea a day with 1/2 table spoon of tincture in each cup.

I have to admit, maybe it is a placebo effect, but I am starting to feel like there is a slight possibility that I won't feel like each day is a complete chore.  

I will give you updates as the time goes on.