r/herbalism

So I did Kratom for 12 years. Almost destroyed my life. November 2. The day my mother died I quit. Been off nearly ten months.
It has been hard. It has been a rough road. Three months ago I was in gas station. Lady showed me a pack of cat claw buzzers. I read it said no Kratom. I thought ok I can have this. It turned into an addiction. Spending lots of money. Taking six packs or more a day. 22 days ago I had six packs. I threw them in trash. Worst five to seven days ever. Worse than kratom acute.
I’m still very sluggish and sleep isn’t perfect.
I feel kinda ok in the evening.
Doc put me on Wellbutrin and Zoloft. I can’t tell if they help. Been on Wellbutrin four months. Zoloft two. Can’t tell nothing.
Hoping and praying to be back to normal one day. The struggle is real.

i’m curious how people here approach sourcing their herbs. growing your own seems like the ideal option when you have the space, but it also means learning about soil, harvesting, drying and storage.

buying them is obviously easier, but then you have to think about quality and where they came from

for those who have been doing this for a while, do you mostly grow your own, forage, buy them, or use a combination?

I’ve heard lavender is excellent for all skin ailments. If I add essential lavender oil to a carrier like coconut oil, will this help with vulvar irritation (itching, dryness)? Or is that skin too delicate?

maybe i brewed it for too long but i will not be drinking this because it has too much of a pungent flower taste😭 wondering if theres anything else i can do with it like put it in my hair or something because i dont wanna waste it lol

I've been thinking about how difficult it can be to judge an unfamiliar botanical when you haven't worked with it before.

Beyond simply trusting what a seller says, what do you personally look for?

Origin and sourcing? How it's processed? Botanical name? Appearance or smell? Testing? Knowing who grew or harvested it?

And are there any immediate red flags that make you avoid something?

Would be really interested to hear how people with more experience in herbalism approach this.

I got two elderberry bushes from Costco this spring and I just harvested my first batch to make syrup. Why does nobody want you how much this stuff stinks? Is this normal?
I can’t quite describe what the smell is.

Does someone take this long term?

I had a tonsillectomy and uvulopalatopharyngoplasty today and the stitching on my uvula is horribly painful. Does anyone have any good tea recommendationss? I can't have anything hot, so I'm planning on making hot tea and just letting it cool, then drinking. I keep an array of flavors, and have nettles, white willow bark, and a few other loose leaf ingredients. Besides Chamomile (which I'm currently drinking like crazy) does anyone have any recommendations on their favorite soothing and gentle teas? No acidity at all please and thank you 🥹

I’ve looked through this subreddit dozens of times, and every time I see a “herbs for high” post, it’s simply just weed alternatives or something for sleep.

I don’t want to come off as rude and please please do not take it this way! But for me personally, if I wanna smoke weed, imma smoke weed, and I’m kinda looking for some herbs that give me kinda fun and different highs for when I’m bored or just wanna simply have fun (no sleep aids please)

Again, I love this subreddit so much, so PLEASE help me out, thank you!!

I've recently heard about Astragalus Root and how it helps with the immune system. As someone that is prone to allergies, asthma, and getting sick easily, I wanted to try it out and see if it helps. I was doing some research and I saw that you have to implement it everyday for it to work. The recommendation was to drink 2-3 cups of Astragalus Root tea a day. I'm completely fine with doing that as I like to drink tea, but I was just wondering what yalls thoughts were on drinking tea vs taking Astragalus pills. Which one do you think is better, or does it not matter?

Note: I'm new to the herbalist community and this is what I wanted to start with since my immune system is not the best. If you have any other herbalist recommendations for immune health, I would love to hear them 🙏🏾

So I currently use the following:

1. Weed
2. Kanna
3. Kava (Heady Kava)
4. Blue Lotus
5. Damiana
6. Wild Dagga

The only thing is I want to shrink this list down to 5 (Just because I feel like 6 is to much).

My main goal is to have a roster of herbs that cover all different situations and also get me a buzz/high (since I’m using these 6 purely for recreational uses)

If you can help me, I would really appreciate it!! Again I love this subreddit and it’s done so much for me and I always thank you all!!

I am in the UK and recently had to visit A&E (ER for my American folk) for an unwell family member (they are okay now thankfully).

As we were waiting to be seen (6 hour wait time!), we were feeling agitated, anxious and hot. I remembered I had a Rose pulse-point spray in my bag and without thinking too much about it I applied it to myself and offered it to the 2 people I was with just as a little aromatherapy support for the stressful moment we were in.

I then started to read my book and I was already feeling calm and noticed the familiar gentle presence/atmosphere that I associate with Rose. Around 15 minutes later though I began to notice some disturbing intrusive thoughts start to appear out of nowhere. I felt a lot of disgust, panic and resistance and I was doing a lot internally to remain present and not spiral. I should mention at this point that intrusive thoughts aren't a new experience for me, I started to experience them last year during a difficult period and noticed it was during moments when I might be feeling disarmed sometimes at the start of a meditation for example. It hasn't bothered me for a long time, at least half a year, thankfully, so having them come up again has been really distressing.

I guess I am now trying to understand the experience without jumping to conclusions as to why it happened. Part of me has wondered whether there could have been some connection with me using rose and this worries me. One way I could describe it is like I felt quite open energetically and it felt like that softening made me less defended and then disturbing psychological material surfaced after that I couldn't reconcile. And because of the environment I was in I couldn't easily distract or soothe myself - I could have tried more rose but at the time I was worried that it had caused it in some way? So dealing with paranoia and helplessness I guess.

As I'm learning more about herbs and trying to figure out how to have a respectful relationship with plants I don't want a) to misjudge the appropriate times to reach for them for support or b) to assume that a traditional association with a plant will always affect me or someone else in the same way.

So I am really curious about how practising herbalists would think about this.

Is it possible that me using Rose at that time could have caused this? Do herbs when used in this way sometimes produce unexpected experiences? Like in this case it was the opposite of anxiety reducing!

I'm particularly interested in perspectives of people who work with the energetic side of plants but I'm open to other interpretations

I have a few herbs in my kitchen that I barely touch, but there are always one or two that I end up reaching for.

What herb do you use the most? I’m just wondering what everyone else actually keeps using.

I have some catnip growing wild in my garden and I would like to harvest it and utilize it for tea or tincture.

I was wondering those of you who have experience with this herb how you like to use it/harvest it best?

Also how does it compare with other herbs like lemon balm and tulsi that are used for calming or anti-anxiety properties?

What herbs do you recommend to replace morning coffee for waking up?

I started smoking again after quitting, and now I'm quitting again. Ugh. Had a bad day and without a second thought bought a pack. I'm about to throw it away. In the meantime, my nasal passages are irritated. No. It's not a sinus infection, just some stuffiness that subsides after stopping. Is there any herb that can help with this.

I am a beginner and i love dem herbs? Any suggestion..