so, valerian seems to be garbage for taking the edge off my anxiety. kava-kava seems hideously unreliable; I've had good results from one or two commercial preparations but most make feel kinda weird and a little sick even. theanine has been recommended...is there anything else?
@kara_dreamer STRONG tea made of valerian, catnip, skullcap with damiana optional.
@IanCBell hm. the valerian "supplement" I tried made me feel worse, but possibly proper valerian tea wouldn't...
@IanCBell ah! so maybe this is a case of delivery mechanism being key to success. I suspect this is true of many things that are naïvely packed into capsules and sold OTC
@kara_dreamer but if you find it makes you ill in the tea you can omit it. Even just skullcap esp with catnip does a good job.
@IanCBell skullcap I'm not familiar with. wonder if Tenzing Momo has it (downtown Seattle store that has a _lot_ of the more outré herbs &c. in stock)
@kara_dreamer couldn't tell ya. It was easy to come by in Toronto.
@kara_dreamer ugh the pills never agreed with me either. That's a lot of concentrated aromatics and so forth to drop in one's stomach.