Depression has become a second-leading ailment in the world just behind cardiovascular diseases. Science is still baffled with what’s causing people to suffer from it and the question of treating depression is still open.

Doctors prescribe antidepressants that usually work to raise the levels of your serotonin and nor-epinephrine – the neurotransmitters that stabilize your mood. However, antidepressants can cause habituation and a form of psychological addiction or they can, in other cases, deplete your natural sources of serotonin.Other drugs that the Big Pharma deals in are anxiolytics which are used to treat anxiety and disorders that often naturally follow depression. These drugs can cause withdrawal symptoms.

Even without the contraindications, it’s clear that depression can’t be treated with pills. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be the second-leading disorder. Pharmaceuticals are used to ease the symptoms, but the causes of depression are rarely physiological. Physiology is the effect of the psychological, environmental and mainly spiritual pressure that people suffer from.

Our civilization has run off its course and we grew distant from nature. Modern fast-paced society overwhelms people with negative stimuli. Depression is just the effect of living a life we were not biologically, psychologically and spiritually designed for. Pills can’t fix that.Luckily, there are natural remedies that we can use to get back in tune with our own nature and the nature that surrounds us.

Unlike products sold by Pharma, plant medicaments are not expensive, nor are they toxic and the most important part – they work.

Now, as said, depression is not just a physiological imbalance so it’s not enough to just ingest something and feel better, but ingesting certain medicament can give you a decent head start – if you know what you’re ingesting.

Plants can show you the way and kick-start your journey, but it’s wise to consult a shaman and attend a Shamanic Healing Ceremony to offer further guidance on your road to mental and spiritual recovery.

Here are some plants that can help:

Ayahuasca

The queen of plant medicine, Mother Ayahuasca, will do much more than simply heal you. This brew will enlighten you and change your life in ways you can’t imagine, but more on that in the articles to follow.

Ayahuasca is a brew usually made from the shrub of Psychotria Viridis and the stalks of Banisteriopsis Caapi.

Different shamans sometimes put different ingredients in this sacred potion. Ayahuasca, however, is much more than a tea.

It’s a ceremony that calls upon the spirits of nature and your ancestors to aid the spirits of the plant in healing you and taking you on a spiritual journey of self-discovery.

As for the chemical romance, the tea contains DMT and MAOI inhibitors. The first naturally occurs in the body and the latter is prescribed in the treatment of depression by psychiatrists.

This is just to tickle your imagination, but the chemical compounds don’t even begin to cover the healing properties and life-changing effects that Ayahuasca has. Caution is advised as this medicament is to be used under shaman’s supervision only. It’s a force to be reckoned with and not something you should use for fun. Long preparations, meditations, and fasting usually take place before the ceremonies. It’s up to the shaman to prescribe the period of fasting and the way you’ll prepare for the experience. If you are doing any SSRI or SSNRI’s Ayahuasca can kill you, you must stop them 30 days before doing any Aya.

Peyote and San Pedro

Both Peyote and San Pedro are sacred cacti used in ceremonies in indigenous cultures of Mexico and South American tribes.

The psychoactive compound in these plants, Mescaline, is somewhat similar to Ayahuasca and Psilocybin Mushrooms. It’s easier to digest than the first and a bit stronger than Psilocybin. As all other entheogens, Mescaline provides a direct line to the Spirit within and above. You may expect visions and mystic sensations of deep serenity and peace. Aldous Huxley once celebrated Mescaline in his essay “The Doors of Perception” which gave the name to the famous band The Doors. It’s stated that the only thing wrong with the mescaline “trip” is that everything seems so perfect that your desire to act and change things becomes annulled.

It’s good to tap into the Cosmic Flow and realize that there’s no reason for depression whatsoever, except brain injury

By inducing mystic states you become aware that suffering is an illusion caused by your specific disposition in life. By changing your attitude and the way you look at things, the things you look at will change. Of course, that sentence doesn’t mean anything until the state of your mind becomes altered. When you’re able to let in the message of peace that nature bestows upon all living things, the veil of depression will tear – just like that.

Visions that you may experience on mescaline will also do a lot more than merely alleviate symptoms of depression. You will gain important knowledge about yourself and the world that surrounds you and your intuition will enhance. It’s not just the visions though. It’s the emotional and mystic experience that matters too!

Sometimes if people have suppressed fears, traumas, and negative emotions, entheogens can cause them to surface and be expressed through the language of archetypal symbolism. Even though if the trip gets hard, it will be that more significant as the symbolic images and dreamlike visions will pinpoint the places of your spiritual intoxication.

A path for your inner-work will literally be shown to you.

Iboga

Tabernathe iboga or just Iboga is a plant that grows in Central and West African rain forests. It’s traditionally used in healing rituals, tribal ceremonies, and rights of passage. Pygmies were among the first to use it and they later shared their knowledge with the Bantu ethnic groups of Gabon. In small doses, iboga combats fatigue and acts as an aphrodisiac. It’s also used as a stimulant that heightens alertness during hunt.

Ibogaine, one of many psychoactive alkaloids of the plant is a k-opioid agonist which induces hallucinations in larger doses.

It’s used to treat substance abuse disorders, opiate withdrawal symptoms, and depression alike. The root material of the plant causes mild anesthetic sensations and systemic numbness of the skin.  While it’s classified as a schedule 1 controlled substance in the US, there are ibogaine treatment centers all over Mexico, Canada, South Africa, Netherlands, and New Zeland, to treat Heroin addiction

Ibogaine therapy helps people detoxify and view difficult life-experiences from a different perspective so that they can resolve their suppressed emotional conflicts. Many people have reported that ibogaine helped them detach from existential strain and anxiety.

African Dream Root

African Dream root, Silene Capensis or Silene Undulata is an oneirogen used by the Xhosa tribe of Eastern Cape in South Africa. In their native language, (dream root) iindiela zimhlophe means white ways/paths.  Fragrant flowers of the plant open only at night when they emit a hypnotizing aroma. Dream root is used to induce vivid, symbolic and lucid dreaming.  It has been speculated that the psychoactive compounds in the African Dream Root are triterpenoid saponins which would classify the plant as an ACHEI inhibitor.

As the name suggests, psychoactive components are contained in the roots of this flowering plant.Xhosa culture like many tribal cultures sees dreams as ancestral gifts and messages that offer healing guidance and knowledge. 

Dream root is just one of few hundred psychotropic herbs and plants that Xhosa employ for medicinal purposes. It’s one of the most powerful and they consider it a sacred plant. Traditionally it’s used in ceremonies under a fool moon where consumers wash themselves with the foamy dream root mixture.

They try to ingest as much of it as possible as there are no serious side-effects except vomiting in heavy doses. During their 3 days, seclusion initiates abstain from sex, meat, opioids, and alcohol and they ingest dream root on an empty stomach.

They believe it has antiviral properties and that it can enhance cognition and memory as well as treat mental disturbances.

Dreaming

When you think about it, many depressive patients report feeling more alive during dreaming. There are no depressive dreams. That is because when we dream, older parts of our brains (the ones in charge of emotions) are more active. During lucid dreaming, one can easily discover the source of his ailments and work to preserve the dreamlike emotional state in reality. Xhosa compare dreaming to going underwater. It’s a deep dive to discover the source of your suffering and unearth it.

The dried root of the Silene Capensis is rinsed or powdered and put into cold water where it gets churned with a fork to produce foam. The infusion is left to soak for a few hours or even days. The smallest dosage is 250mg of the root. Mind alterations in waking hours are minimal, but the effects in the dream state are profound. The alkaloids travel slowly through the blood and they don’t get excreted during the day so it’s safe to take the brew in the morning.

Focus on the question you’d like an answer to before sleep and watch the magic happen. Small doses over several days will affect even the most resilient people so there’s no need to take a large amount. On the other hand, there’s no reason not to.