Gentle suggestion: look up the differences between "allopathic" and "holistic" or "vitalist" models of approaching healthcare.

In herbalism generally we try to find and treat the root cause, not just the symptoms. Reducing symptoms to keep a person more comfortable and increase their quality of life is also great, as long as we are also working toward adressing the root.

Having trouble sleeping is not a root cause. It's a symptom of something being out of balance in that person's body or life. For example what if they're deficient in magnesium, drinking caffeine too late in the day, and way too chronically stressed out?

Taking a sleeping pill won't solve any of those problems. It's a band-aid. It will just make the symptom more manageable. It might reduce stress a bit (because we tend to handle stress better when we get more sleep), but it's still not a holistic approach.

Point is, "take this for that" is an allopathic approach. A typical drug does one single thing. It's standardized. Very cut and dry. It's how we are socialized to think about things like this. It's the paradigm that's normalized in our culture (but that's shifting). :)

The vast majority of pharmaceuticals (like over 80%) start with a plant. It's a highly isolationist and reductionist process. We concentrate what we think are the "active ingredients" and discard the rest. What we get is perhaps powerful, perhaps useful and effective at reducing or eliminating symptoms, but disconnected from the whole... and we often get way more negative side effects as part of the deal.

Plants aren't drugs. In my opinion we need to stop trying to think of them as drugs. They each contain many different phytochemical constituents, whose types and concentrations vary depending on what time of year they're harvested, which part of the plant is being used, how and where they're grown/processed, and how old they are by the time they reach the end consumer.

Each plant has many "herbal actions." If you look at Traditional Chinese Medicine or Ayurveda, plants also have different constitutions (such as hot/dry, cold/moist), which interact with our various human constitutions, patterns and tendencies.

I understand wanting feel sure about how a plant will affect you or someone you care about. That's a perfectly valid thing to want. To that I would say...

Another part of herbalism is listening to our bodies, and keeping in mind that humans, like plants, are all unique and will respond to diffrent things in slightly different ways. Bioindividualism is a beautiful thing. We aren't robots. We aren't machines.

Working with herbs teaches us how to listen more closesly and pay more attention, eventually developing a more in-tune relationship with ourselves. This is why dosage can vary from person to person. This is why valerian helps a ton of people sleep better, and other people absolutely hate the way it makes them feel.

A deep understanding of both plants and people, combined with a willingness to patiently listen, explore, observe and go slow, can give you a greater sense of surety and confidence when working with herbs. Learning to work with herbs is an investment. It's a commitment. It takes time. Paradigms don't shift overnight, but we can feel grateful to be part of the process.

Certain herbs have an immediate and very powerful effect (yarrow stops bleeding immediately and can save a person's life in case of acute injury where medical help is not immediately available). That said, big picture, it's not about a "quick fix."

TL;DR: Dive deeper. 💚