Comment · Sun, December 27, 2015 · Ceretropic & Nootropics Depot
Ashwagandha supplementation report (Potential bad psychological reaction)
Original post in this thread
ashwagandha_throwawa · 19 points
Using a throwaway account because I don't want this linked to my main account for purposes that will be obvious shortly.
Background: I am a young male with a history of depression and anxiety (technically I only have medically diagnosed SAD but it's painfully obvious that I have had depression, GAD and SAD). I believe that I no longer meet the criteria for diagnosis of clinical depression nor anxiety now for somewhat more than a year.
Still, I think that I still have somewhat higher than normal anxiety levels. For this reason I started supplementing ashwagandha, in an attempt to decrease my anxiety levels in a safe way.
Dosage schedule: My experiment lasted 25 days. I took one ~500mg capsule with 2.5% withanolides (don't want to mention the brand), every day at 15:00 PM. I took a few alcohol units (no binge drinking) three times during supplementation, cannabis once (the last day before stopping) and caffeine+L-theanine once. No other drug use (incl. nootropics or medications).
Week 1 Observations: After 30 minutes of dosing, I started to feel the effects. It definitely lowered my anxiety and gave me a general "well-being" sensation. Effects were definitely higher…
What they were answering
quadrinitycheck · 1 points
I thought I'd comment and say that I too experienced depressive thoughts that were really hard to link to anything. In the end I discovered that they went away when I stopped taking a supplement that had a large amount of Ashwaganda in it (along with choline, ginseng, and a few other ingredients), and would return within a few days once I started taking the supplement again. I ultimately gave away the remainder of my supply of that supplement, and have not had depressive thoughts since I stopped taking it.
You are onto something very real with your observations. I didn't find much about it online when I was researching Ashwaganda side affects, so I am thankful someone else has posted about it. The episodes I had were very real, and oddly enough I too had no intent to commit self-harm, but the thoughts had a dark vibe to them that was incredibly unwelcoming.
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · Ceretropic & Nootropics Depot
Be careful making connections without much data. Choline supplementation is much more likely to be the cause of depressive symptoms. I get it every time, as do a lot of people.
Results: Orbitofrontal cytosolic choline/creatine (Cho/Cr) ratios (p = .032) and cytosolic choline/N-acetyl aspartate (Cho/NAA) ratios (p = .043) were significantly higher in the depressed subjects than in the control subjects. There were no significant differences between depressed and control subjects in gray or white matter content within the voxel.
Conclusions: These findings suggest that brain cytosolic choline may be increased in depressed adolescents in comparison with control subjects and independent of a corresponding structural change. These results are consistent with similar, previously reported findings in adults and suggest that depression in adolescents is associated with alterations in orbitofrontal metabolism.
RBC and plasma choline levels in control and depressed individuals: A critical evaluation