Lemon Balm tea – welcome to Mellowmania
A friend dropped by yesterday and I my medication hadn’t yet kicked in. I’m usually pretty manic last thing at night and first thing in the morning (yes, would drive many people nuts!). But I drink Lemon Balm tea, which is a muscle relaxant and makes me pretty laid back, quite mellow. The result? Mellowmania.
In my teens and adult years my mania literally developed in leaps and bounds. But this masked the real diversity of Rapid Cycling Bipolar I’d had since infancy, because I tended to avoid venturing out if I was in equally extreme but phobic, severely distressed or depressed or rage states, which were all the mixed bag of my month, my week, my day, depending on how fast my moods cycled.
Low Salicylate diet really reduced the cocaine-like force behind my swings, omega 3s, calcium-magnesium, mega B complex all really helped and Glutamine kept me out of the darker side which might otherwise have killed me. Finally a very low dose of Seroquel does the rest and certainly autism is easier without fleas than with.
I don’t take enough Seroquel to build it up in my system which means I get windows on the ‘old me’ as soon as it wears off but this worked better to daily, weekly, monthly remind me why I wanted to take it. Because however glorious mania could be, there’s a point at which its endangering, highly exhausting, socially and communicatively sabotaging and more dysfunctional than it is wildly creative.
I’ve had a better quality to my creativity within a state of mellowmania than I have had in the disorganised, agitated, unpredictable and constantly vigilant, flighty state of mania, proper. But its so important to slow that train or you’ll burn out.
So here’s to a common garden weed, lemon balm, and the tea made from it. May you and your friends not melt on the side of the kitchen table as the relaxant sets in.
🙂 Donna Williams *)
http://www.donnawilliams.net
Hi Donna,
I’ve still to try lemon balm tea myself. A few cups of these would have helped me prior to job interviews and exams. I drink green tea a lot, as anything more than four mugs of caffeinated beverages of whatever description (with cow’s milk) has the end result of me being sleepless and ‘trying to remember how to sleep’.
Stuart.
Donna, Is there a particular brand of lemon balm tea that’s especially good or effective. Have you used more than one? Can you name the one you use?
Thanks for all the experience and information you share.
Hi Valerie,
the best is fresh. This is a kind of ‘mint’ but if you rub the leaves they smell like lemon. It grows anywhere, everywhere, so growing it is no problem. A pot on the veranda will do and most neighbors will have a plant somewhere in their garden… oh, that thing….
So ask about…. ask, do you have this mint looking plant that when you rub it smells like lemon… you’ll be surprised… it may be lurking in your garden as we speak!
but, yes, you can buy it from health food stores which sell jarred herbs… don’t mistake it for lemon verbena… they’re not the same plant.
if no luck try a herb nursery.
🙂 Donna *)
http://www.donnawilliams.net
Donna,
Thanks so much for your reply concerning my question about lemon balm. Do you make the tea from the fresh leaves or do they need to be dried first? I was told at a health food store that they would need to be dried first, but I still wonder if that was what you do, given that you said that “fresh is best.” Can you give any more info about how you brew this helpful elixir?
Since I’m doggedly exploring anything that can safely help my son during anxiety and panic episodes, I was also wondering whether anything in the area of aromatherapy had helped you. I recall once hearing you interviewed on the radio, and you had described a meal with a friend and an unfamiliar, overwhelming individual who had begun to make you lose your sense of the setting–and certainly of any personal well-being. You said that your perceptive friend leaned toward you, and the familiar scent of her, or her hair, helped bring you back. My son leans in to sniff my hair when he is particularly anxious. I suspect that the olfactory pathway is so physiologically primary and direct that I could help him with exploring other ways for him to derive comfort from it. I know there are a lot of aromatherapy resources but wondered if you had any helpful experience with this that you’d be willing to share. Thanks again, Valerie
Fresh lemon balm is stronger than dried and wonderful in the tea pot, no problem. But it dries quickly so dried is just fine too and if one is growing it then one’s own dried is surely fresher than that from the shops.
Bach Flower Remedies can be wonderful for anxiety but one needs to match which of them to use with which person… I have an online consultancy at http://www.donnawilliams.net if you ever want to explore that for your son.
aromatherapy is something one has to be really careful of if one is phenol/salicylate intolerant as most are high in these things.
epsom salts baths are also a muscle relaxant and detoxer (one absorbs it through the skin DONT DRINK IT)
otherwise there’s the dietary and supplement path (again, that’s an individual thing so something that is best dealt with in a one to one consultation regarding each person) but what I use re anxiety is GF/CF, low sugar, low salicylates/phenols, omega 3s, calcium-magnesium, mega B complex, glutamine and finish off what’s left with a small amount of medication that suits my ‘fleas’. That doesn’t mean this is the path for all, just that its my path.
Donna
http://www.donnawilliams.net
I read the blog but I didn’t see how to make the tea. It’s probably simple. I have a lot of the lemon balm plant and want to use it. How much water, how much of the lemon balm==and what is the process? Thanks, Joe g
You can use as much or as little as you like, use fresh or dried. For strongest, fresh when in bud is best and I packed one of those see-through teapots with the removable strainer thing (so no tea leaves). I left it stewing till it was quite dark. That’s the relaxant version, a few cups of that and I was very MELLOW. But otherwise I use far less and dried or fresh is fine just for a nice herbal tea.
Sorry to dig up something so old, but I’m looking for information on lemon balm too. Can one simply eat the leaves and achieve the same effects as from drinking strong lemon balm tea, or is the heat necessary to extract whatever sedative compounds are in the leaves?
Sure, I reckon so,
perhaps the raw leaves as the base of a salad.
The tea, though, can be made all year round as the dried leaves/flowers can be stored.
But the plant dies off for a short time Autumn-Winter.
So you wouldn’t have the raw leaves then.
Also, the flowers in spring are so pungent, pretty hard to eat them…like eating purfume.
yet they’re the most potent.
Great information on lemon balm tea does it work like cammomile tea I wonder?
I have a hyper dog at times and will try some for myself also. Thanks for the great info- we could all use some relaxation today!
Thank you Donna! You were more informative and accurate than any other spot on the web regarding the subject of Lemon Balm Tea making! I tried several before I found you and your friends asking the same questions I had.-God Bless &Take Care everyone!
V.interesting as on ehow they talk about having to dry it first – I may do that for the winter but right now I’m going straight out into my garden to get the fresh buds. Is it true you have to stop it from flowering, though, in order to keep using it for tea?
no, I’ve made it fresh from the buds and its far more potent that way.
After it’s flowered though, it dies back so if you intend to dry it, pick it before it flowers.
Ah! thanks so much Donna – that is so helpful 🙂 .. I cannot believe how good I felt after that cup of tea this evening (and it was so nice, unlike the shop teas). I have IBD & had been feeling uncomfortable for days. What a relief, thanks to you ..& Google!
I’m going to freeze the fresh leaves, same as I do with basil & other herbs, then I can just brew them straight from the freezer in the winter.
I’ve really gotten into lemon balm. Its refreshing and extraordinarily great for every meal. Lemon balm is a citrus scented herb that is dried and used for tea. It can be used to help with a variety of health problems, including fever, headaches, anxiety, and depression. It is also used to treat gas, bloating, and other indigestion problems. Lemon balm is safe to give to children.