The Mood Cure: The 4-Step Program to Take Charge of Your Emotions--Today Paperback – December 30, 2003

In March of 2008 I had to let my insurance go. I am self employed and the cost had skyrocketed. As I knew the end was coming I tried to prepare by reading about and using holistic treatments as opposed to the five prescriptions that I was going to have to do without. I was diagnosed as severely clinically depressed in the late '90s. The very first prescription that I was ever given was one for 60mg., yes 60mg, of Prozac. The doctor(s) wanted to hospitalize me but I refused, opting instead to see the psychiatrist every other day....the first week was every day. I managed to get through this first year without killing myself and it is all just a blur. There were side effects to the drug that they "treated" with more drugs. I gained weight, lost weight, slept for 8 months, went through my entire life savings, etc., etc., you get the picture. I was a total mess. As time progressed I noticed that the drugs stopped working as effectively as they did in the beginning so I'd get switched.... I have it all written down somewhere but I think the last prescriptions I filled were for Wellbutrin & Zanyx.... plus sleeping pills.... I can not recall all of their names right now....I think I've blocked them out at this point because I simply do not need them or take them any longer.... and I feel SO SO SO much better than I ever did while on the drugs. Seriously, a million times better. I still have days that aren't pretty, just like I imagine everyone does, but I can manage those days by taking an extra dose of SAM-e or one extra tablet of 500mg. L-Tryptophan at night.Another reviewer states it correctly here, this is not an overnight cure. However there are amino acids that even I felt better within one hour of taking them even while still a complete mess. I got The Mood Cure and The Diet Cure by Julia Ross and they both are invaluable to me. I learned so much from them about how things work in our bodies and what the cause and effect of what we put into our bodies is and what is happening when we are depressed or even when you have overwhelming urges to eat something like chocolate or carbs..... migraine headaches (which I have had) can be managed with the right combination of these amino acids, vitamins & minerals. I have never been anorexic or bulimic but those are also addressed and treatable in these books. Weight gain, weight loss, adrenal gland failure....it is all in these books. All completely treatable with the holistic means she tells you about in these books.Dr. Ross spells it out beautifully in these books. You can see yourself and read about exactly what has happened to you right in these pages. It is such a wonderful experience to know that you can get better. I did. I promise you can as well. She is honest and says that she can not treat two things by holistic means alone, those are bi-polar disease and schizophrenia which Dr. Ross says must be treated by prescription medicine but can be greatly helped with holistic treatments in conjunction. With those two aside you can figure out how to treat your severe clinical depression like I did with a trial and error approach to the suggestions she makes in the books.By the way, I really want to emphasize how important it is for you to take it extremely seriously how careful you are to get off of your prescription meds before you jump into "straight" holistics!! You could really crash and do serious harm to your psyche and also to your physical body if you are not careful. This is how I did it: I stayed on the meds while I learned to incorporate the aminos, etc. I would take a whole dose one day, 1/2 the next...I did this for one whole month. The second month I would do two days of 1/2 doses, then one whole....it took me several months, maybe 4, to completely get off of the prescription meds so please please be careful. You can have a severe set back if you just stop or stop too soon.With that said I also incorporated the aminos into my day as I was weening off the scrips. One of the great things about natural treatments like amino acids is that once your body has been refueled and doesn't need any more, say 5-HTP, or L-tryptophan, then you will get a MILD headache so you'll know you don't need that any more. But keep it, because if you have a bad life experience (like a mate dying or a family member, etc.) then you can understandably need to use them again until your supply is built back up.It took me until now from a start in March of '08, so 2.5 years, to be completely certain that I no longer need to take any of them! I still take a small (for me) dose of 500mg L-Tryptophan at night and occasionally I'll take a 200mg of SAM-e in the a.m. but for the most part I am strictly maintenance now....but the first year I was taking 6000mg, yes, six thousand mgs per day of L-Tryptophan, high grade pharm powder, plus L-tyrosine, and a few others. I feel that my adrenal gland was just completely shot and I know I was right because I am the living proof of it now. You will FEEL what is right for you as you try different suggested things in the book. Complete relief does not happen over night but enough relief to function can come within an hour of taking the right amino, just as they tell you in the book.I've waited this long to review the books because I wanted to really get to the point where I feel "cured" and I do. I feel very well. My energy level is good, my moods are mostly even and level headed, I sleep very well and I have an appetite for wonderful healthy foods.The only other thing I can tell you that I have used to get where I am now is Weston A. Price Foundation (WAPF) and their opinions on whole foods & cod liver oil....invaluable. Also, they are big believers in all organic, including meat, and raw organic dairy. Which I also advocate.So, good luck. My very best wishes for your improved health and happy life. I know it is possible. I'm living proof.

I couldn't read the whole thing because the way it was split up bored me after a while. It really should be set up differently.What I did was read about half all told and I think that is all I needed to read.I read enough to realize I pretty much qualified to take every single supplement on the list based on the different tests. I read also about a few or all (can't remember) of the 'types' and then there was some talk about food, I think, and who knows what else. It was tedious after a while and really annoying that she didn't just cut to the chase at the end of each of the quiz chapters with something like, "if this sounds like you, then you should take 100mg of 5-HTP on an empty stomach. For more information on supplement usage, skip to chapter X." But, this is not how she did it.I found the different charts (a pain on a Kindle) and read about how to take the supplements and, as I was in a hurry to start fixing my mental problems, I went straight to a website and ordered 5 different amino acid supplements as well as some other supplements she either recommended or someone else did (don't remember).For about a month now, I have been taking the 5 supplements every morning on an empty stomach:DLPA,L-Tyrosine,5-HTP,Gaba,and something I can't remember at the moment, but they're all from the book...A half hour to an hour later when I eat my breakfast, I then take:a multi-vitamin,MegaRed krill oil pill,Vitamin D3,Vitamin K2 (I think?),500mg magnesium pill.Some other things, too, but they're not relevant to mood at all.At lunch, I take:B-complex vitamin500mg of Calcium and 500 Magnesium both.At dinner, I take another 500mg of Magnesium.The author does not recommend this much Magnesium, but I have determined on my own that I was deficient in this supplement and, having read up on it and realizing how important it is for the whole body, I am taking more of it than the RDA. It definitely eases anxiety and, with the rest of these supplements, I can truly say I'm starting to feel like a much happier, more relaxed and more socially-at-ease person.************************************************************UPDATE - January 22, 2015I have been really noticing that I must be depressed lately, which is somewhat unusual or I wouldn't be noticing it.- wake up and want to go back to sleep- wake up early and feel good, but STILL want to go back to sleep, then have bad dreams and wake up very tired and depressed- often daydreaming about death- anxious and depressed throughout the dayAfter looking up the side effects for each of the items I'm taking, I have decided to stop taking L-Glutamine and GABA for now. These both have side effects like the above in addition to others I've been experiencing such as: feeling sad and empty, anxiety, depression, dry mouth, extreme thirst, pains in muscles and joints, memory loss, headaches, flatulence, craving for tons of food, etc. There's more bad side effects than that, but this is enough I legitimately checked off the list with absolutely no doubt, so I am removing these two and sticking with taking only 5-htp, L-Tyrosine, and DLPA for now.This surprised me since I've taken 5-htp before and don't remember getting a lot out of it, but until these side effects started, The Mood Cure was definitely overall making me feel MUCH better. I really wasn't expecting much from L-Tyrosine and I *was* expecting GABA to be really important for me since I know it helps with brain function and I have a history of major difficulty concentrating on programming at work. And, for whatever reason I remember thinking DLPA was the possibly dangerous one. I think just because I was unfamiliar with it and the name sounds really synthetic or something.But, it turns out, I am sticking with the 3 of the 5 amino acids I didn't expect to be taking. This just goes to show it is good to really give The Mood Cure a chance and not try to stick with your hunches. I scored high in all of them, so I took all of the aminos. I figured "why waste time?" And the author says you could very well need all of them. I think I did need them all for a few months and now the side effects are helping me to determine what I no longer need. She also says in the book you won't need these forever and it's good to stop after about 6 months or so and see how you feel.So far, I'd say, this book's advice is working like a charm. I will update my review again as time goes on and if anything changes.************************************************************UPDATE - January 23, 2015Big difference yesterday and even better today. Everything just feels "brighter" and I am able to concentrate and think pretty easily, too. I did have one frustrating moment at work yesterday which was uncharacteristic for me as of late. I was sort of rude and talked over a co-worker in a joking/frustrated way, but I felt rude after because it was rude. She said "I agree with the client" and I said "I really don't care if you agree with the client!" It was meant semi-humorously, but was totally truthful, too, because I was thinking pretty clearly and wanting to cut through the b.s.; rather than listen to her boring explanation of why she agrees with the client (which was obvious and didn't need to be explained), I wanted to point out that it doesn't matter for various reasons that both she and the client misunderstood and the issue is really not an issue, just a misunderstanding that can be resolved in the blink of an eye. I think if I felt as bad as I had been feeling recently, I would have just said nothing because I didn't care. I think my normal personality is kind of jerky, sarcastic and aggressive and the L-Glutamine and GABA were helping to hamper those tendencies by making me suicidal. If you don't care about anything, why get agitated about anything, right?Anyway, today I'm feeling great! I got up super early and came in to fix that same client's problem. And in the past 2 days, I've enjoyed writing some long notes explaining details to clients that normally would be extremely frustrating. I was actually having fun as I edited the notes to make them as pleasant as possible by rewording stuff that might be misconstrued as inflexible or whatever.