This episode shares some common and less common signs of depletion as part of a series on herbal support for depletion and fatigue.

A quick note about fatigue

Fatigue has many possible causes and can sometimes be a sign of an underlying health condition. If you're experiencing new, unexplained, persistent or worsening fatigue, particularly if it's a significant change from your usual baseline or accompanied by other concerning symptoms, please speak to your doctor or healthcare provider.

Herbal support shouldn't replace appropriate medical investigation, and it's important to rule out underlying causes of fatigue before assuming it is related to stress, burnout or depletion.

Links & resources from this episode

• Herbalism, PTSD & Traumatic Stress Course - https://solidarityapothecary.org/herbalismandptsdcourse/
• Course Waiting List - https://mailtrain.solidarityapothecary.org/subscription/tLQUrCkRW

Find them all at solidarityapothecary.org/podcast/

Support the show

Music from Sole & DJ Pain – Battle of Humans | Plant illustrations by @amani_writes | In solidarity, please subscribe, rate & review this podcast wherever you listen.

Welcome to the Frontline Herbalism Podcast with your host, Nicole Rose, from the

Solidarity Apothecary.

This is your place for all things plants and

liberation.

Let's get started.

Hello. Welcome back to the Frontline Herbalism podcast.

Oh, I think I was very sad in the last episode.

My baby boy had just broken his arm.

And don't get me wrong, the first two weeks were ******* horrific.

Or the first week was awful.

Awful in terms of pain and inflammation and

not sleeping properly and, like, adapting to the cast.

Oh, it was grim.

And then, thankfully, I think as the fracture turned a corner, he started kind of putting

weight on it and running around and bouncing around and stuff.

So that was nice.

But,

yeah, had to keep him off nursery and then decided to risk taking him back to nursery

because I was just.

Yeah, he was just basically living his best

life, running around,

like.

And then we talked about it of, like, it

didn't seem too worrying if he fell over, he wasn't in pain, stuff like that.

And then, yeah, within, like, two days of going back to nursery, he had a ******* virus.

Even though he might have caught it at a, like, Ming in soft play Western super mare,

where baby dad's in rehab.

So anyway,

my poor baby was sent off for another week,

getting very bored at home.

And then, yeah, he's finally back at nursery today.

Yeah, because there's a ******* bank holiday.

These bank holidays just kill me.

Like, when you are literally looking after your child on your own most of the time, and

then the nursery's closed.

Like, he only goes in the mornings, like, four days a week.

But it just is so recharging for me to be able to work and do stuff that when that's not

possible, like, oof.

Yeah, it's tough.

I don't know how people are stay at home,

parents, honestly, huge respect to you.

I just.

I don't know if I could do it anyway.

Maybe we'll get easier as he's bigger.

Anyway, he's doing well.

The cast is working off so we can celebrate.

And some exciting things happened this month.

I did a workshop with this weaving remembrance

course, which was ******* dreamy.

What a bunch of babes that were making that

happen and people who participated.

So, yeah, it was called Remedies for Solidarity.

And we looked at examples of herbalism and resistance, like, historically and more

recently.

And, yeah, it was just like, super, super N.

And then PM Press did this big kickstarter for my Herbalism and State Violence book, which

they're republishing.

So that went super well.

There was like, 20 odd thousand like dollars

of people pre ordering, like 400 and something people pre ordered.

So I was like blown away by that.

I mean I did like graft with the Instagram and stuff but like hell man, it, yeah, I don't get

like that much like external feedback sometimes about the impact in the world.

Like I get loads of lush emails from people but like,

yeah, it was nice for me to be like people really ******* connect the dots, you know,

between like herbalism and social struggles and how we can use herbalism in these

different ways beyond like one to one care.

So yeah, that was like super, super nice and thank you so much if you pre ordered the book.

So yeah, I think that's all of the updates.

The PTSD course is coming imminently.

I'm trying very hard to build the waiting list so.

So if you are keen to join the course,

just ******* join the waiting list.

For the sake of my nervous system.

So I'm not anxious that no one's gonna join it.

I'm like this every *******, every time I launch it I just get the jitters of like no

one's gonna join it and then it's always fine.

But I think because it just sustains

everything with the solidarity apothecary.

Like it just,

you know, enables all the care packages, enables all the books for prisoners and now

it's like funding these group programmes and the Black Flag Herbal Clinic.

So it's like, oh, the stakes are really high financially.

Feel like my outgoings are like bigger than ever because I have an amazing dispensing

assistant now because I just couldn't keep on top of it.

And I'm also paying like £500amonth extra for extra childcare.

So yeah, and that's only like 6 hours extra support a week, which I need but like to just

stop myself having a breakdown.

But yeah, it's just a lot.

So yeah, I always have this kind of like pre course jitters.

So if you want to join it, please join the waiting list because that would mean a lot to

me.

When you join the waiting list, you get

emailed the solidarity code and you get emailed the 10 disco discount code.

If you are someone that is going to join at the like standard or salt, you know, or

resource rate,

all this sliding scale stuff is on the page.

But so yeah, I am doing a little series all

about herbalism for depletion and probably ironic because I'm feeling very depleted

actually.

Am I feeling.

Yeah, I think nervous system wise.

It's just been really full on the last like six Weeks because of Lee's breaking his arm

and everything else and being a single mom and all the things.

But it's just something I see all the ******* time in my clinical practise when I'm

supporting people.

And yeah, I just also just see it everywhere in the world of how people are just running on

empty and yeah, I wanna, I wanna talk about it.

So I've been feeling quite passionate about it recently.

I've been writing a lot of Instagram captions and yeah, I'm gonn a little podcast series.

So this episode today is about kind of like signs of depletion.

So when you feel like your body is running on empty.

And then I'm going to do an episode about yeah, specific herbal support for fatigue.

And then we're going to look at the role of stimulating herbs and when they are

appropriate and definitely not appropriate.

And then we're going to look at nerve tonics and how do we sort of, yeah, support ourselves

and then like yeah, nourishing herbs for recovery from states of depletion.

And then I'm going to do a shiny crafting herbal protocols for fatigue.

So I'm going to go talk through like how I would put together a protocol for someone who

was experiencing this kind of level of depletion.

And I think I'm.

I was really nervous of promising I shouldn't

have promised all those podcast episodes because I'll probably jinx it now and then I

won't be able to do it and then I'll have to come on here with the tail between my legs and

apologise.

But I'm going to do my ******* best.

So let's just see how we get on.

Like I mentioned in the last episode, the podcast, it just has to come at the bottom of

the.

Which is so sad but that's because my clients have.

Well, my child has to come first.

But then, you know, my clinical practise is

really supporting like humans going through it.

So I try and give that as much attention as possible.

And then all the other sold out apothecary things are yeah, very demanding as well.

So. But anyway, I'm going to stop talking and I hope you enjoy this.

Yeah, this episode about signs of depletion,

I guess just,

just covering my bases here.

Like this **** is ******* complicated and

there's like a million and one causes of someone being depleted.

And I guess this podcast is for people who are mostly listening to the show like in the so

called UK or the so called us.

Like obviously if like you are *******, you Know,

a refugee in France or living in ******* Sudan or living in Gaza.

Like, of course you are going to be depleted when there is like literal like famine that is

like, you know, structurally created by Israel.

But like, I'm just trying to say that, like, yeah, this, I guess the kind of like tone

around depletion is for people,

you know, like living in like, yeah, like I said, the UK or the US or Western Europe or

whatever who are like primarily the people that listen to this podcast.

But yeah, I just want to name that, like, depletion is like a driving force of

capitalism and people are experiencing that harm in much more like severe and dramatic

ways than, you know, someone here.

But I also want to acknowledge like the, yeah, the ******* life changing, horrendous effects

of chronic illness and.

Yeah, and states of depletion for any human,

wherever they are.

Does that make sense? Anyway, okay, I'm going to stop talking.

Yeah, have a listen, let me know your thoughts.

And yeah, please sign up to the waiting list if you get a moment.

Okay, goodbye.

Hello.

All right, so let's get stuck in to signs of depletion.

And I guess I just want to say that like, depletion isn't a kind of like diagnosis.

Like, it's not like there is a metric of, okay, your vitamin D levels are like this low,

therefore you are depleted.

Do you know what I mean? Like, it's more of a kind of like,

I guess a cultural phase phrase to kind of describe an experience which I think is a very

******* human experience.

But it's something I see like over and over

and over again in my kind of clinical practise, but also just like in the spaces I'm

in.

Whether that's like mums, especially single mums or whether that's, you know, organiser

types, carers.

Like there is this kind of like feeling of

being depleted.

So, yeah, there isn't kind of like one definition but you know, it is very much often

associated with our feelings, like our subjective feelings of like, energy.

So, you know, we might use words like exhausted or burnt out,

but it doesn't necessarily mean depletion.

But I think they are obviously like very, very

connected.

And I guess before I dive into all of these examples, I think what is interesting about

depletion is that you can still be like extremely quote unquote, like high

functioning.

Like you can be someone who is doing a ******* PhD, who's running a massive campaign, who's

looking after six kids.

You can be someone that hasn't hit that point

of collapse or chronic illness or disease and still be really operating from a place of

depletion.

And I think in our kind of like, capitalist society, we've also, like normalised states of

depletion because it feels like a ******* luxury to stop, right?

And a lot of the time it is a serious luxury.

Like, there is a massive level of privilege there in terms of being able to actually

attune to our body's needs of like,

hey, I,

you know, don't need to ******* sell my labour to survive today.

Like, not many people are in that position.

So.

Yeah, so I. But I just want to say before I give these examples, like, not everyone has

this, like,

intense expression of like, debilitating chronic illness.

Like, sometimes people are operating in a way that is like coming from this really deep,

deep, deep sense of depletion.

Even though they're still kind of like,

yeah, I hate the word functioning, but you know what I mean?

Like, they're still somehow participating in this society in this kind of often very

unsustainable way.

Mostly out of necessity.

Yeah. So, okay, so I guess that comes to the first point, which is, yeah, like, energy.

And I think the relationship between depletion and energy often shows up as kind of like a

pattern of often, like, crashes.

So someone doesn't have the kind of like,

stamina or endurance to kind of maintain like some level of like, energetic exertion that

they could perhaps previously.

So,

for example, it might be that back in the day you could organise some sort of event and,

you know, the next day get up and go to work.

And now you might organise the same event.

You know, you might be cooking something nice at the social centre or whatever, but the next

day you're like, absolutely smashed and you don't have the energy to do anything likewise,

for example, you might do like a work call or some sort of organising call, and then

afterwards be like completely, like cognitively drained and socially depleted.

Whereas before you could do like three of these calls, like back to back of an

afternoon.

Do you know what I mean? So it's like something about our bandwidth has

changed and there is often this kind of crashing pattern as well.

Or you start to.

You start to really get nervous about managing your energy.

Like in kind of disability justice world, there's this concept of spoons which I'm sure

a lot of people listening will have heard of.

But it's like you only have so many spoons a day, so it's like take, you know, having a

friend visit might take like two of your spoons, which means you don't have the energy

to then cook dinner or have a shower.

Does that make sense? So, yeah, you start to kind of like, ration

your capacity.

And I think that's where a lot of, like,

fatigue becomes protective.

Like, I was drafting a.

Drafting an Instagram caption the other day about this, but, like,

I might have already published it anyway.

I've got, like a fancy scheduler tool now, so

I'm like, not even aware of, like, when I post things anymore.

But.

So, yeah, when we don't have the kind of

energy or sort of like,

nervous system capacity to cope with something,

the body will kind of like trigger all these protective mechanisms to keep itself safe.

And I think one of them is like,

you know, for example, around, like, socialising, like when you find it difficult

being around other humans because they sort of.

They feel like threatening to your nervous system,

we might then develop social anxiety so that we're not encountering that kind of, like,

trigger as much, if that makes sense.

But not just the anxiety, we might also develop fatigue.

So then it's like, I can't actually go out and like,

socialise or go to that event because my body has such limited reserves.

It's like protecting itself and it's like creating all these other mechanisms to do

that.

Does that make any sense at all?

But yeah, basically, maybe I'm going off point, but I just wanted to say that, like, I

think fatigue is a really big sign of depletion and sometimes when we address the

other causes of fatigue, that we maybe have a little bit more control over, like nutritional

deficiencies or the kind of functioning of our mitochondria,

other things that we think are not connected might lift.

Like, we might feel more socially resourced to go out, to hang out with people, to socialise

at work or whatever.

And I think that's like, yeah, kind of like one of the interesting things about herbalism

is, like, how,

yeah, everything is, like, really connected.

And you think,

right, I'm just like, severely depressed, so therefore I can't do X, Y and Z. But then it's

like you have vacuum vitamin B12.

And then actually it's like, oh, I don't have

actually feel depressed.

Like, I actually have the energy to, like, organise or whatever.

And again, I know depression is like a massive thing and we could have,

you know, multiple podcasts about it.

I'm not narrowing it down to one thing, but

I'm just saying that our drivers of depletion can be,

yeah, very intersectional and have lots of, like, interconnected things.

And by kind of addressing One thing that might have a kind of positive effect on the other

things.

Does that make any sense?

Okay, so yeah, so I've mentioned stamina and energy and fatigue and Yeah, I guess just

coming just like the last thing on this is like it's something about proportionality of

like I think any human would be fatigued after a really long day at work.

Do you know what I mean? Like it's not normal for human beings to have

to sit in front, in front of a screen or do endless stuff for like a 10 hour workday or

more.

You know, I used to work like 14 hour shifts as a carer and stuff.

It's like it's very normal to be ******* knackered after that level of like output

where it's like, you know, going to the supermarket and doing like a small little

shop, like if that's enough to like floor you,

then like that is like much more of an expression of like chronic illness.

Does that make sense? And I don't want to have like oh my God,

sorry.

Political stuff has so many *******

disclaimers.

But I don't want to set like an ableist baseline.

I'm just trying to communicate what is like quote unquote normal for you.

Not as like societal normal and this kind of like conditioned ableist culture.

But like what is your baseline for your body and your needs and when that starts to change,

what are you observing and is that communicating like a sign of depletion?

So another thing that really gets knocked out when people are struggling depletion wise is

immune system stuff, right? So it's like the kind of resilience shifts.

Like it might be that you get a kind of cold or kind of like a more generic virus.

I don't mean like something really hardcore like *******, you know, like a full on Covid

strain or something.

But I just mean like your common cold.

It might be that like back in the day you could recover after like a few days, whereas

now it might take like six weeks.

Do you know what I mean?

And I think that's communicating that the body is like struggling in terms of reserves or.

Yeah, things like even just recovery from things like exercise.

Like me and my friend Kev in prison, we're talking about.

Yeah. How he would normally do like 100 ******* burpees or whatever because he's like

pretty intense about training.

But like that would be his baseline normal and

that wouldn't really knock him out.

But then when he's kind of in that like viral post viral recovery period, he just, you know,

he can do three and then he's out.

He would hate me for saying he could do three.

I'm sure he would do more than that.

He'd do like 50 or something.

But his baseline would alter and he would

struggle to recover.

Yeah, I feel like people probably know what all of that means, so I'll move on.

So the other sneaky thing that people come to me all the time about is brain fog.

So again, everyone has a different baseline.

Maybe someone has had a sensation of kind of

brain fog or they've struggled with concentration like most of their life and for

them it's not really a red flag because it's their kind of normal.

But for other people, especially if they've got kind of like some level of like

intellectual labour, like they, you know, are a writer or a designer or whatever,

when that changes and they have this like, they're struggling to concentrate,

like that's a really life changing, difficult thing for them.

And that is like one of the main things that people come to me about is like they just are

not coping with the kind of brain fog.

And again, brain fog could be a massive podcast episode with like a thousand things

that can contribute to it.

And I hate to say, But I think B12 is top of the list.

But anyway,

I think that kind of like cognitive decline in terms of your own baseline, like, can often be

a real sign of depletion.

Connected to that is kind of like nervous system stuff.

I know I've talked about anxiety and fatigue a little bit, but it's something around your

nerves feeling frayed and you feeling like an increased sensitivity to the world.

So I mentioned, you know, the supermarket example.

And then you see all these like funny reels on Instagram that are like, I used to spend my

like 20s, like in basements of drug dealers, like, or whatever, and now I get a panic

attack going, going in the supermarket.

And like, there's no accident that that's the trajectory because I think we use a lot of our

body's resources, like over time.

And one part of that is this like chronic

activation of the stress response, which, you know, fundamentally will keep humans alive

their whole life.

But we do see a kind of like,

like weakening of our systems when they are kind of like overused, if that makes sense.

And I think that's why,

you know,

bang.

You can in prison as a teenager.

And that's a very different experience if you've already had like 20 ******* years of

intense chronic stress and intense activation, rather than if you have had more of a kind of

like Nourishing, happy childhood without much stress.

And then you end up in a stressful situation as an adult.

You're much less likely to have the kind of like hardcore negative effects of that

experience.

I mean, I don't mean in terms of like, you know,

most people that go to prison will develop PTSD from prison, but I just mean that

resilience like, and that capacity to withstand stress.

Like, yes,

people get strong and amazing who've been through traumatic ****.

Don't get me wrong, like I have, you know, read all this stuff about post traumatic

growth and all this stuff, but like ultimately like you are starting from a different

position when you've had like a really ******* full on childhood and all of those systems in

your body have been under stress.

You know, all of the magnesium reserves and B vitamin reserves and iron reserves, like

they've all, you know, they all are depleted by the stress response.

So when we have chronic activation of our stress response, we are on a trajectory

towards depletion.

Unless we ******* live like a ******* athlete where we're like constantly,

you know, supported by a bunch of people and nourishing ourselves with like amazing

nutrition and supplements and wild berries and roots and all of these things.

And that's why I'm always ******* banging on about how amazing herbalism is because it can

give us this like extra boost in helping people like survive this ******* world.

Do you know what I mean?

Okay, I feel like I'm blathering on, but yeah, so, yeah, so increased sensitivity to

stimulation in general, but also to noise and to stress.

It's like,

yeah, like something that used to be fine is now like completely intolerable.

Like I remember when, for example, I've had like loved ones die and I'm in that, that like

really intense, like exhausted, depleted, can't get good quality sleep, full of

cortisol,

like level of like intense stress response and exhaustion.

And then it's like you can't ******* park your car.

Do you know what I mean? And I'm really good at driving but like you

can't ******* park it because you're so overwhelmed.

And then you just like burst into tears and you have this row of cars behind you being

impatient.

And it's like something you used to cope with

fine is now completely ******* unbearable.

And I think that is such a sign of,

yeah, just ******* depletion and running out of ******* capacity.

Okay, so we've got a couple more.

So yeah, I've talked about fatigue, but I just want to talk briefly about sleep.

I think like sleep for Humans is like our recharging system, right?

Like, it's a ******* genius mechanism to restore our energy.

It's when our tissues start repairing themselves.

It's when our digestion really gets to, like, focus on what it's doing.

Like,

sleep is like the ******* lifeline to sustaining ourselves in this world.

And there are like a thousand things that can affect quality of sleep.

And I'm going to do a series all about sleep soon.

But when you are actually getting enough sleep but it is not restoring you,

that is a red flag to me that, like, there's something else going on.

Whether that's like chronic inflammation that's using your reserves, whether that is

like a depletion of like, vital kind of vitamins and minerals in the body, or whether

that's like the, you know, the mitochondria and like, cellular health going like wonky,

like, which is a clinical term, by the way.

But anyway.

But like,

if I see someone and they're like, I feel depleted and I have no energy and I'm like,

how much sleep are you getting? And they're like, like four hours a night.

I'm just like, no, Sherlock, of course you feel like death because we're not getting

enough sleep.

So then, you know, I'm supporting them with

sleep herbs and nervous system support through the day, addressing inflammation, all the

things.

And then if they start sleeping longer and then feel refreshed,

we are in like a good position.

Do you know what I mean?

In terms of chronic illness recovery and everything else,

if someone starts having actually quite long periods of deep quality sleep, but they're not

waking up feeling refreshed, that's like I said, that's my red flag of like, okay, what

else is going on here that is depleting this person's energy?

Because, yeah, sleep is meant to be that thing that nourishes us.

And, yeah, I will talk about sleep a lot more soon.

Okay. A couple of other things, like, oh, my God, like, thyroid stuff could just be a whole

other ******* series.

But like,

if you are,

yeah, feeling like if you're kind of like thermoregulation, like your body temperature

stuff goes a bit awry,

that's often a red flag for me in terms of changes from your baseline, basically.

Like, if you are starting to experience the cold much more or you're starting to be very

intolerant to heat when you used to be, okay, these are kind of signs that something in our

kind of like,

internal dynamics is kind of like changing off our baseline and can often be a sign of

deficiency, you know, often related to our thyroid.

But again there's like a million and one things that can drive this stuff.

But when people come to me who are feeling like really, really cold, that's often a sign

to me that like they are depleted.

Like I remember when I had all this chronic

illness stuff in my like late 20s, before I did my clinical training and you know, it was

a major driver for me to like do my clinical training.

But I'm like such a warm bodied person.

Like if I didn't have a baby that I had to

care about his temperature, like I would just be so happy never putting the heating on.

Like I'm always feeling pretty good temperature wise.

Like when we used to work in the mobile clinic in Calais, like all the team would be

struggling,

they wouldn't be able to be able to open dressings or like do all this stuff because of

the cold and I'd just be like in a hoodie like bouncing around.

But when I was sick I got so cold, do you know what I mean?

I had hot water bottles, I was like, I had to get the to Bristol once and it was like

******* unbearable.

Like I felt like that cold was like ice to my body and that was like such a sign that I was

like tapped out, you know what I mean? I was just running on ******* empty, which I

was when you know, we got all the bloods back and everything else.

But yeah, like I think this kind of temperature sensitivity is very interesting in

terms of digestion.

You would think if you're struggling for energy that you would start eating more food

and that can be the case.

For example,

you have a really heavy period, like maybe you just start craving like carbs and things more

like.

That makes a lot of sense.

But in my experience I'm much more likely to see people that have kind of like lost their

appetites.

Like there's this kind of like it's like, like their kind of hunger response is like

flattened, if that makes sense.

And that's maybe because they don't have the

energy to cook.

So it's like easier physiologically to just turn off,

excuse me, turn off that desire for food than it is to like feel hungry, have the energy to

cook a meal.

Does that make sense?

Or the fatigue is creating a like low output in the body.

So then we're not needing like as much food even though we are actually needing food.

And when people start eating well again, no Sherlock, they will feel better.

But you know, capitalism, our societies aren't set up for people experiencing chronic

Illness.

And I'm sure all my friends with chronic

illness, if they had someone that could just come and cook them a nourishing meal, that

they would eat a lot better.

But when they have to do that themselves three times a day, that becomes, like,

insurmountable as a challenge.

So anyway, side note.

Okay,

Right. So, yeah, I just want to say that, like,

there are so many causes of what experiences,

what,

like, contributes to someone feeling depleted.

And obviously clinical herbalism, like, there would be like a big investigation into all the

different kind of drivers of that.

So nutritional deficiencies, chronic illness,

like hormonal, endocrine things,

metabolism, infection, like, you know, maybe it's a side effect to medication, maybe it's

like a sleep issue.

Like, there are all different things.

But I guess I just want to come back to this kind of stress response because I think it's

the thing that I see as, like, the biggest driver of depletion.

Because when we have periods of like, intense ******* chronic stress, they pretty much

guaranteed to end with some sort of period of exhaustion.

And when maybe you're younger, you do have more capacity to bounce back from that.

But when I think you get older,

your innate reserves to bounce back just aren't there in the same way.

You know, it's like, I don't drink alcohol, but like, hell, if I went out on a night out

now,

which feels impossible childcare wise, but if I did, I'm sure it would take me like a week

to recover from the hangover.

Whereas back in the day, you, you know, you're

just bouncing around the next day.

So it's like, it does change with age, obviously, but it also changed with, like,

things that kind of like age us, like chronic stress, if that makes sense, and things we've

been through.

But yeah, this kind of like intense nervous system activation, like, it does rinse our,

our reserves in our body in terms of, like, our minerals, like magnesium, for example,

just ******* plummets, like, when people are chronically stressed.

So that's why nearly everyone I see, I'm just like,

get yourself in an Epsom salt bath, like, as many times as you can every week.

Like, we just need as much magnesium in you as possible.

Um,

okay, so I think I've blathered enough about depletion,

I guess.

I want you to think about, like, what are your

personal signs that you're feeling depleted? Like, is it that your sleep goes wonky?

Is it that you lose, like, your social capacity to be around other people?

Does your appetite change?

Like, you know, is it your immune Resilience, like what is it in your body that flags to you

that like you are starting to run on empty? Because I think the sooner we can kind of

intervene been like the better position we're in.

And yeah, this is something that I talk about in the herbalism, PTSD and traumatic stress

course is like there's a whole ******* module, actually.

There's two modules about like nerve tonics.

No, sorry.

There's two modules about nervines, so herbs

with an affinity for the nervous system.

But there's one like big focus on nerve tonics, which are herbs that help kind of

restore the proper like functioning and communication and kind of tissue health of the

nervous system.

And these herbs have multiple like effects on the body.

And I've, you know, recorded other episodes about nerve tonics historically.

But like, basically the things I've been talking about today, like all of these signs

of depletion are when I would like pull in the nerve tonics.

And you know, I don't want to say I work with them, with everyone, but I'm just saying like

most people who come to my clinic have been through some level of like gnarly trauma or

state violence or just trying to survive in capitalism, which I think is traumatic for

most people.

But like,

yeah, there's this like long term chronic activation of the stress response or you know,

people have been through like a physiological event that has made them really depleted.

Like I'm two and a half years postpartum and I'm feeling like quite good.

But that is because I have ******* paid attention to like my nutrition, my energy

reserves, like taking, you know, the sec, like literally like within an hour of giving birth,

I was taking like a tonic.

But recovery from pregnancy and childbirth.

So it's like,

you know, I was quite frightened about like this postpartum impact because I have just

seen it again in my clinical practise of people that are,

yeah, really, really affected by such a huge kind of biological event like pregnancy but,

you know, don't have to be pregnant to be ******* depleted.

Like there's all sorts of things like periods of intense chronic stress.

Maybe a chronic illness, you know, that's like knocked you for ******* six.

Like Covid, for example, has such massive effects on our mitochondria, on our kind of,

of energy powerhouses, on our body.

So, yeah, so anyway, I hope you are not feeling depleted but if you've resonated with

anything in this episode,

yeah,

seek some support if you can.

Like the herbalism, PTSD and traumatic stress

course is open for enrolment very, very soon on the 20th of September, so you can join the

waiting list.

No one is turned away for lack of funds.

So if you want to learn how to work with

herbs, to address like depletion, to support your energy, to nourish yourself, like there's

a who section about like nourishing herbs, nutritive herbs,

then I think you'll love it.

Anyway, I will be back soon.

Okay, take care.

Thanks so much for listening to the Frontline Herbalism Podcast.

You can find the transcript, the links, all the resources from the show@solidarity

apothecary.org podcast.