Depressed/Insomniac GF?

AJW91 · May 15, 2011

I'm looking for some good mood boosting and sleep aid supplements for my girlfriend, here are the details:

So my girl is going to grad school AND working two jobs... in short, she's a workaholic. In between school and work she cannot develop a regular sleeping schedule and, like every other chick I know, she just doesn't eat right.

She has started to feel really shitty and told me she's depressed... I think it's because she has poor eating and sleeping habits, and she works too much.

I'm working on improving her diet, trying to cook more meals that we can both eat (not just bland bodybuilding food), etc. I quite enjoy learning how to cook healthy, tasty meals.

For now, her sleeping habits can't really improve because her work schedule is too erratic: she works as a manager at McDonald's and at a hotel; some days she "opens" at McDonald's at 4am, other days she "closes" at McDonald's till 2am, and yet other days she works overnight shifts at the hotel. She's on track to being promoted at McD's so she won't be working the ridiculous shifts anymore and she's about to get a job as at the school she's going to, so she won't be working overnight shifts anymore. But this isn't for at least a few more months.

In the meantime, are there any supplements I should give to her to try?

I already told her to start taking my cod liver oil and vitamin d. I'm a big believer in Vit. D and in between the CLO and Vit. D she's taking 5,000IUs daily. I don't think that's too much, as she's dark-skinned (sexy Indian girl) and she usually sleeps during the day, so she doesn't get much sunlight.

I'm thinking about getting 5 HTP for her, since it supposedly improves mood and helps with sleep. And if I get it for her, I'll probably try it myself, lol. Is there anything else I should get her to try? Like Valerian root or St. John's wort? Thing is, I don't want her taking too many pills at once. So if there's one supplement that contains a mix of these (TP maybe?), that would be cool. Any advice?

Thanks guys.

OuchThatHurts · May 16, 2011

AJW91 said:
In the meantime, are there any supplements I should give to her to try?

In short, no. You are already doing a lot and should be commended for the effort but there is no substitute for proper rest and diet (I wish there was!). That very much sounds like the problem. Do you really need the money that bad? I only ask because she can avoid total shutdown only for a finite amount of time before her body will crash beyond her (or your) control to protect itself. This may come in the form of a major depressive episode or a health condition/illness. But it will come.

terryd5150 · May 17, 2011

OuchThatHurts said:
In short, no. You are already doing a lot and should be commended for the effort but there is no substitute for proper rest and diet (I wish there was!). That very much sounds like the problem. Do you really need the money that bad? I only ask because she can avoid total shutdown only for a finite amount of time before her body will crash beyond her (or your) control to protect itself. This may come in the form of a major depressive episode or a health condition/illness. But it will come.

AWJ91, if I'm not mistaken this is OTH's area of specialty as a profession- you would do well to heed his advice.

From my own personal experience, I ran way too hard for way too long in my personal/professional life and it did catch up with me.

It wasn't pretty. It sabotaged the career I was working so hard on in the first place, ended my climb up the ladder with the company I was with.

It took another couple years and switching employers to get me back on track.

OuchThatHurts · May 17, 2011

terryd5150 said:
From my own personal experience, I ran way too hard for way too long in my personal/professional life and it did catch up with me.

It wasn't pretty. It sabotaged the career I was working so hard on in the first place, ended my climb up the ladder with the company I was with.

It took another couple years and switching employers to get me back on track.

Yup. I've always agreed that motivation can be your worst enemy. It is the cause of all overtraining, overworking, over-everything. The joke of it is that your mind and body are smarter than you are. So while you're saying go, go, go... your body will take the abuse only so long until it just lays you up. One way or another, it will shut you down. The key is to make this forced shutdown minor and not something tragic like an illness - heart disease, cancer, etc. I've seen men go to their grave at 50 working 100-hour weeks. Had the stress manifested itself in the form of fatigue or fibromyalgia, he'd still be alive. Unfortunately the stress manifested itself in the form of a clogged coronary artery which ended his life.