|
| |||||||||||
| ||||||||||||
Forums
Courses
Shop
Diseases
Articles
Journal
Directory|
|
||||
Cured Cases |
||||
|
|
||||
| Hpathy Ezine - June, 2009 | ||||
Answer to Case # 3 of case solving contest:“Everyone Is Looking at My Acne”- Teleosis School of Homeopathy |
||||
| Helen F. is a dramatic-looking young woman, tall and willowy, with jet black hair, pale skin, and blue eyes. She is wearing all black, her top cut low to reveal her cleavage, and the lace sleeves ending just short of her wrists to show off her bracelet-shaped tattoos. She presents for cystic acne, primarily on her cheeks and jaw line, which is worse premenstrually; and for amenorrhea since going off the birth control pill. (She had to go off the pill because it was causing side effects, including the acne and mood swings.)
She had a pregnancy scare when she first had amenorrhea; after skipping her period for several months, she was sure she was pregnant because she felt something moving around in her abdomen. She also wonders if homeopathy can help her with dyslexia. She has trouble writing term papers because she tends to leave out letters or words. Although she is now a graduate student at a local alternative/holistic university, she paid her undergraduate tuition by working as what is euphemistically called an “exotic dancer.” She knew that sleazy old men were watching her strip, but she didn’t care. The money was good plus she loved dancing, wild and free, alone in the booth, just her and the music. She describes her life at the time as “dancing close to the flame,” in other words, pushing life to the limits. In her teenage and college years, she enjoyed these extremes; she
used a lot of drugs, hung out with a fast crowd, and had a lot of
one-night stands. Now at the ripe old age of 28, she looks back
on her wild youth and feels she has really settled down. She has
been with the same boyfriend for five years and they are talking
about getting married. Her past medical history includes genital warts (frozen off), recurring vaginitis, and probable candida (diagnosed by a naturopath, for which she takes probiotics). Her naturopath, who is into Louise Hay, told her that amenorrhea signifies “dislike of her femininity”; she disagrees, but admits that her mother was a poor role model. Her father was alcoholic and physically abusive, her mother weak and dependent and non-protective of Helen. Her father was also verbally and emotionally abusive, telling Helen when she was a teenager that she was “only fit to be a streetwalker.) Her main fear is of loss of control. She weeps easily when she feels helpless. On a day-to-day level she worries about finances, whether people are talking about her behind her back, and whether her hair is falling out. She likes tidiness because messiness makes her feel chaotic and agitated. She feels jealous when she sees a “beautiful woman who seems to have it together.” She has been treated in the past for depression, anxiety and insomnia. She also reports disliking damp weather; drinking lots of tea as her favorite beverage; weepiness and irritability with PMS; constant burning vaginal discharge and postnasal drip. In sum, she says ,”I would like to feel attractive and womanly and in control of my body.” ---------------------------- ANSWER This is a Thuja case (the client did extremely well on Thuja; not only did it clear up her acne, it improved her relationship with her boyfriend and her coworkers; it helped give her the strength to quit her job at the health food store and go into the music promotion business; you can see the Medorrhinum characteristics from a previous layer, a previous time in her life, and in fact she did need Medorrhinum at one point when the Thuja had done all it could. She mentioned that many of the customers in the health food store remarked to her how well she looked when she started the Thuja. List of characteristic symptoms: acne
amenorrhea NWS going off birth control pill Evaluate and Prioritize the Characteristic Symptoms The first thing that jumps out is all the sycotic characteristics.
Another theme that stands out is the wildness and sensuality,
although this is mostly in the past and may represent a past layer
that needs a different remedy. I need to keep this in mind. I am not going to include the amenorrhea because it is normal in women going off the pill, and my experience is that it comes back with a good hormone-balancing remedy. However, I do want to find a good hormone-balancing remedy for her, so I want to take a couple of her symptoms of hormone imbalance like weepiness and irritability before menses. I will also use her chief complaint of cystic acne before menses. I could repertorize the “likes tea” and “hair
falling out” but I think I will save them for a confirmatory
or later remedy differential. Instead, I will use several distinctive
mental symptoms: dyslexia, fear of losing control, and sensation
something moving in abdomen. These don’t really fit into another
theme so I will just list them so as not to forget them. Themes sycotic: cystic acne, wants to hide, disgust with body, genital
warts, vaginitis, candida, averse damp weather, burning vaginal
discharge, postnasal drip Remedy recognition Thuja: delusion something alive in the abdomen, disgust about
her appearance, acne etc. Search for rubrics (from Synthesis) Sycotic Face, eruptions, acne Wild/extremes Mind, passionate Premenstrual: Mind, weeps, menses before [combined with]
Fear of losing control: Mind, fear, control, of losing
Remedies from Repertorization of the above rubrics Miasmatic analysis Choose three, pick one Lachesis matches in some ways: can be high energy, wild and vivacious, with hormonal, acne and sex issues. Lachesis can be suspicious (which might cover her belief that people are talking behind her back) but we would not expect Lachesis to have such a negative body image. If she stated that her PMS symptoms immediately got better as soon as her period starts, we might take Lachesis more seriously. But it doesn’t match the wide range of symptoms that Thuja does. Thuja is not only is it the top sycotic remedy, but it best embodies the desire to hide and the disgust for the body. As a sycotic remedy, it will cover well all her specific sycotic conditions; as a hormone-balancing remedy, it will cover her PMS and (eventually, although maybe not right away) her amenorrhea. In addition, it covers her delusion of something alive in the abdomen; her desire for tea; her hair falling out; her fear of losing control; and her past history of anxiety and depression. Almost every aspect of this case is covered by Thuja. This is a real case and I chose it because this woman was such a remarkable living example of Thuja. Medorrhinum must also be considered for her. It does not show up in the repertorization because it does not repertorize well (not enough symptoms in the repertory). However, it matches her past better than her present: her wild, drug-using, promiscuous, exotic-dancer days. It shows up now only in her dress (black, showing cleavage, tattoos, etc.) I expect that she will definitely need Med. at some point.
|
||||
|
||||
