St. John's Wort for AVPD?

I read somewhere that St. John's Wort has helped others with AVPD. I was wondering if anyone here has tried it and if it helped them at all?

I'm healthy and don't take any other medications. I don't take birth control. So I don't have to worry about any of the medication interactions that are problematic when taking St. John's Wort.

I have read about all the undesirable side effects of the commonly prescribed medications for AVPD such as weight gain, loss of libido, etc... and I'd rather avoid those entirely.

On Friday I started taking at timed release version of St. John's Wort (900 mg) and take it once a day. No effect yet of course since it takes 4-6 weeks to kick in.

So have you tried St. John's Wort? How long did you take it for and what were your results?

Never tried it. I always presumed it was a placebo type drug though.

Things like St. John's Wort will probably work best if you combine them with a balanced diet and regular exercise. I've read that these things usually help with many mental health issues.

St. John's Wort is one of the more popular herbal remedies, but since it is a herbal remedy is shouldn't be confused with an actual pharmaceutical drug.

Herbal medicine is great for someone who struggles with adverse side-effects from conventional medicine, but I would always say conventional medicine should be tried first. After all, herbal remedies which consistently prove effective are then turned into actual medicine.

This is not to say that herbal remedies don't work, some do and some are beginning to be prescribed by doctors. St. John's Wort is quite popular and I've had a lot of people tell me it helped with depression, usually with dealing with stress and feeling overwhelmed. I don't know about it for anxiety or AvPD specifically, but the most common response was that it helped them not to feel overwhelmed or have their feelings spiral out of control when bad or stressful things happened.

Its most common side-effect is that it can cause photo sensitivity, particularly in anyone who is already very fair.

I used to work for a large company who sold herbal remedies, and spent a fair few years absorbing the literature on them and speaking to the people who bought them.