Cam,

I just want to thank you for sharing your knowledge with us here. Even when the question isn't mine, I look forward to reading your answers and have been able to understand things a lot better than I did before because of the way you explain it. You really have a gift for explaining complicated concepts in a way that makes them understandable, and you do it without oversimplifying or leaving out important information. Thank-you for sharing your talent with us.

This answer to Serenity I think helps me understand not only how taking SJW helps me (since it works in much the same way as other antidepressants), but also why I am so susceptible to getting depressed again after stopping the SJW. Even though I've gotten by for all these years without even using herbal remedies, now that I have been using SJW, my brain would have adjusted to the increased levels of serotonin caused by taking SJW by increasing production of other neuotransmitters and downregulated receptors for serotonin. So if I stop taking the SJW it would probably take some time to compensate again for low levels of serotonin. Right?

I talked about this with my T today, and that we don't know whether the low serotonin levels are a result or a cause of depression. Since I'm a psychology student, he keeps telling me it's my job to find the answers to questions like that. I'm not sure there is any more answer to that than there is to the chicken or the egg question, but it's interesting to think about it. I even find myself being interested in my own symptoms even during my depressive episodes, but even more so afterwards. It's strange, but it fascinates me in a way.

Anyway, you are appreciated probably much more than you know. Thanks for all that you have taught me so far, and I look forward to learning more from you.
Wendy

p.s. My husband is left handed and also has always been interested in history, so we just had a discussion on the word 'sinister.' He says that sinister is just the Greek word for left, and it became associated with sneakiness and evil gradually over at least the last 4000 years as the majority of people are right handed and people don't trust those who are different. Being left handed gives someone the element of surprise and can be a real advantage in situations like combat since fighting a left handed opponent requires different strategies that most people just were not used to. Also, a left-handed person could hide a weapon on their right side, as most people carried their weapons on the left and only the left side was usually searched. Left handed people could use their advantages to be very skilled as assassins. So "sinister" always meant "left" but because of the talents and advantages that being left-handed brought, and some of the ways in which those advantages were used, the word acquired the meaning that it now has.

<font color=green>"Loneliness does not come from having no people about one, but from being unable to communicate the things that seem important to oneself, or from holding certain views which others find inadmissible" Carl Jung</font color=green>