Hanuveda

Please don't, and we will not advise it. Stopping psychiatric medication abruptly causes discontinuation symptoms, relapse, and — with lithium and benzodiazepines specifically — dangerous outcomes including rebound mania and seizures. If you want to reduce your medication, that is a reasonable goal, and the route to it is a planned reduction with your psychiatrist. We will help you have that conversation and we will support you through it.

It is widely sold, which is not the same as harmless. Ashwagandha has been associated with drug-induced liver injury, including cases that progressed to liver transplantation, and with precipitating thyrotoxicosis in people with thyroid disease. It is immunostimulant and a poor choice in autoimmune disease. It should not be taken in pregnancy. We prescribe it by indication with liver function monitoring where appropriate, and we would rather you took it under supervision than bought it online.

Many patients find it helps, and small studies show reductions in anxiety scores. Those studies are unblinded and have no credible sham comparator, so we cannot separate a specific effect of the oil from the effect of 40 minutes of calm, warm, undisturbed attention. We offer it because the experience appears to be useful; we don't describe it as a pharmacological treatment for depression.

Call Tele-MANAS on 14416 now, or 112, or go to the nearest hospital emergency department. Tell someone you are with. This is an emergency and it is treatable. Please do not wait for an appointment with us — and please do come to us afterwards, because we will work with whoever treats you.

Your consultation is confidential. The exception, which we state at the start rather than spring on you later, is risk to your life or someone else's — in that situation we will involve the people who can keep you safe, and we will tell you we are doing it. We will not disclose your diagnosis to relatives who ask without your consent, and we will not treat you on someone else's instruction against your wishes.

Depression is an illness with a biological, psychological and social basis, and it responds to treatment. It is not a measure of your character, discipline or devotion. If your faith is a source of strength, it can help you through this, and plenty of people find it does. It is not a substitute for treatment, and nothing in your care here depends on what you believe.

The first thing we do is check whether they are. Thyroid disease, B12 deficiency, anaemia, diabetes and sleep apnoea all produce exactly these symptoms and all are missed routinely. We run that panel before we treat. A meaningful number of people told they had anxiety for years turn out to have something measurable and treatable.

No. Panchakarma is used selectively in this department and many patients do well without it. It is not the entry point, it is not done during an acute episode, and it is not done at all if your medication regimen has changed in the last month. Anyone presenting Panchakarma as the necessary treatment for depression is overselling it.

We do not claim to treat either, and claims that Ayurveda cures them are not supportable. We will not treat a child for a mental health condition without a qualified child and adolescent specialist involved. If you have been promised a cure for these conditions, we would ask you to be very careful.

Not abruptly, and not on your own, if you are drinking heavily and daily — alcohol withdrawal can cause seizures and can be fatal. Tell us honestly how much you drink. If you need supervised withdrawal we will arrange it. Alcohol is also one of the main reasons sleep and anxiety treatment fails, so this is one of the most useful things you can be honest about.

For mild stress, anxiety or sleep problems, often not. For moderate-to-severe depression, any history of mania, psychosis, or any current suicidal thinking, yes — and we will say so and help arrange it, rather than leaving it to you to work out.