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Comment by heyutoo | Hacker News Reader

For mild depression, anxiety and ADHD, I've been using an all natural vitamin supplement called EMPowerPlus from Truehope for the last three months. I've noticed mild improvement in my mood. I've been on anti-depressants before that didn't work.

Last week I went off of it for two weeks just to see if I could discern any difference. I felt my mild depression return and I couldn't lift myself out. With the supplement, I can.

Very expensive, but I'm going to keep using it as I feel the results are worth it. Their website cites published clinical studies to it's efficacy.

Disclaimer: I have no relationship with the company other than being a customer and I don't derive any direct or indirect benefits from sales of their products. Just sharing this in case it helps someone and to see if anyone else has experience with their products.

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I've been mostly a lurker here on HN for the past few years, and haven't made many comments.

So for the sake of my learning curve, can anyone clue me in to the reasons for down votes? I don't take them personally. Just curious and wanting to learn. Is it because the comment seems spammy? Or is it off topic? Sloppy writing?

I didn't downvote, but: it seemed alightly off-topic; also it's in the worst possible range of anecdote/bad science (N=1, no blinding, it's a vitamin supplement so I suspect it contains no active ingredients anyway, you claim anti-depressants don't work on you†).

gwern's articles on how they try out drugs is very good at explaining how to do blinding etc. and is actually credible. Do something like that and you'll definitely get upvotes.

† No judgement here, but the burden of proof is quite high when you're claiming a properly tested medicine doesn't work and a supplement does.

Thanks for the feedback.

Really my purpose in the comment wasn't to convince anyone they should take this. My intention can be summed up by "Hey, I tried this and it seems to work for me and is safe; it's just vitamins. If it piques your interest, do your own research on it and decide whether you want to try it"

You are not staying on the subject of productivity enhancers when you are talking about mood enhancers for treating or managing depression. I think that is my sense why you are down-voted, do not take them personally and if you do, use it as a learning tool. HN uses karma to nudge the reader to write with certain level of quality, substance and style in posts.

How did you go off of it for two weeks last week?

Sorry, sloppy writing. It was actually about a week and a half. I wasn't very scientific about it at all, just went off for awhile to see what would happen.

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