What to drink to relieve depression

Don’t be fooled by the marketing of drinks on the Internet that say “say goodbye to depression in one bite”. Currently, no drinks can directly replace formal intervention methods such as antidepressants and psychological counseling. At most, they can only help relieve some of the accompanying symptoms of mood swings and poor sleep in conjunction with treatment.

I used to accompany Lin Lin, who was just 3 months postpartum in the community, to see a Chinese medicine doctor. During that time, she kept crying for no reason and couldn't eat. The doctor diagnosed her with mild postpartum depression. In addition to asking her to have psychological counseling every week, he also specifically told her to cook some Ganmai and jujube soup as warm water to drink. It is ordinary floating wheat, Zhigancao and 2 red dates. Cook it for 15 minutes. It has a warm jujube aroma and is not sweet or greasy. , she drank it for almost 20 days, and said that she had less of the tendency to wake up at around 3 a.m. and keep her eyes open until dawn, and the frequency of tears she shed for no apparent reason was also lower. However, she also said that it was definitely not the result of this bowl of soup alone. After talking to the consultant every week, she felt much more enlightened. This soup is at most a "plus point", and people with high blood sugar must remove the red dates if they drink it, otherwise it will increase blood sugar and make them uncomfortable.

As for St. John's wort tea, which is more popular among people, the controversy is huge. When I checked the information before, I saw that in some clinical studies on mild depression, its active ingredient hypericin can indeed regulate mood-related neurotransmitters. Many patients with mild to moderate depression in Europe and the United States will use related supplements under the guidance of doctors, but if you just buy hay and drink it, the risk is really high. , it interacts with many commonly used birth control pills, anticoagulants, and even conventional antidepressants. I once saw a patient who drank St. John's wort tea for more than half a month without telling the doctor. This combined with the antidepressants he was taking caused serotonin syndrome. He suffered from dizziness and vomiting and was hospitalized for two days. It was completely worth the loss.

For daily drinks, you can try warm whole milk. When I was at my lowest mood last winter, the doctor told me to drink a small cup half an hour before going to bed every day. The tryptophan in it can help stabilize my mood. When I lie in bed, my mind will not be racing like a horse. Of course, don’t expect to see results after drinking it for two or three days. It took me almost a week to drink it before I gradually felt that falling asleep was not so strenuous. By the way, don’t imitate some people who drink iced Americano or hard liquor when they are in a bad mood. I once had a patient who relied on white wine to suppress his mood. After drinking it, his brain was indeed numb and he would not think randomly. But when he woke up the next day, his mood was even lower. After half a year, his depression score did not drop. Instead, he developed a mild fatty liver, not to mention caffeine. Drinking too much will make the nerves more excited. People who are already prone to insomnia will keep their eyes open until dawn after drinking, which in turn makes them more irritable.

The most important thing to drink is actually the symptomatic medicine prescribed by the doctor. Don't always think that the medicine is poisonous and you secretly stop drinking various "health soups" to cope with it. Drinks are always a supplement. If you really have emotional problems, seek professional evaluation first. It is much more reliable than looking for some "antidepressant drink".