This is a case of an 8 year old girl. She had problems with timidity (3) and asthma (2).
August 1999
Her parents told the following story:
“She has always been a very independent girl. But a couple of weeks before school ended in June, she changed and became very timid. Before she always played with her friends away from home, but now she never leaves home. Her friends have to come to her place instead. An older boy corrected her in a harsh way in school a few weeks before this change in her mental disposition appeared. She became very upset and sad after that episode.
Now she is very timid when away from home. She was afraid that people would laugh at her after an episode when a friend and her mother laughed at her because of something she didn’t understand. Before the mental change came this spring she could perform in front of others without a problem, but now even buying ice cream is impossible if the parents or older sisters don’t go with her. She has worried a lot during the summer about starting school again.
At home she is very obstinate and has a bad temper. She becomes very angry when not getting her own way.
She likes to play alone and she does have a good imagination, so it’s not a problem for her to be by her self. Many times she prefers to be alone.
She stills sucks her thumb.
Fears: Ants (3), darkness (1), boys (1)
Sleep:
She often wakes early in the morning, never tired in the morning. At evening she is tired and goes to bed by her self.
Position: all positions according to the parents.
Food:
Desires: sweets (3)
Aversion: salad, carrots, paprika, onion and mushroom
Respiration:
She medicates regularly for asthma since fall 1998. She is getting asthmatic symptoms when exercising (2) and when having an infection of the respiratory passage (3). She had whooping cough the summer before and was coughing quite a lot after it. The cough finally disappeared, but returned during a cold that fall and then it didn’t stop again. She then also coughed a bit during the night. The doctor gave her medicine for the asthma to take on a daily base from December until spring and then her symptoms slowly disappeared. Today she doesn’t normally have complaints from the asthma, but gets symptoms if she catches a cold. She also takes her asthma medicine regularly before exercising.
-It is interesting to notice the connection in time between her asthma getting better and her mental state severely worse. It’s showing a suppression of the physical symptoms that aggravates her mental state.
Diseases in the family:
Her father also gets asthma symptoms during exercise. One of her sisters does also have a diagnosis of asthma. Some heart problems and cancer further back in the family history in the elderly.
In front of me is sitting a girl that looks at her parents every time I ask her a question. If she answers, it is in a whispering voice. She is not looking at me straight in the eyes, looking down or at her parents instead.
Prescription Thuja 10M x 1
As I pointed out in the article on Thuja, Thuja is lacking in a lot of rubrics, so I didn’t use the repertory and rubrics to find the remedy. I know this picture of Thuja and have learned it by experience. Having worked full time with homeopathy for 12 years now, I have slowly learned more complete pictures of the typical patterns for Thuja and Medorrhinum through trial and error method. My understanding is far from perfect, but I have come a bit further in understanding these remedies than many other homeopaths have. I’m now adding Thuja in a lot of rubrics, so that other homeopaths will have a better chance to find the remedy through the repertory. Maybe I can do the same for Medorrhinum later. There are also more additions that should be done for Thuja, but to do that I must go through my adult Thuja cases which I unfortunately don’t have the time to do for the moment.
Follow up October 1999
After a few weeks her timidity began to disappear. The parents noticed that she was starting to visit her friends again. It improved steadily during some weeks, but the last two weeks she is getting more timid again although she is still visiting her friends.
She is also teasing her siblings more during the last weeks.
She has had a cold with the rest of the family and then received a double dose of Pulmicort to stay free from respiration problems.
Her desire for sweets became less, but is now increasing again.
Prescription Thuja 50M x 1 now and 7 – 8 weeks later Thuja CM x 1
Follow up January2000
Talked to her mother on the phone (they live at some distance from the clinic). She told me that the remedy had worked very well in helping her daughter with all of her problems. But now she complained about pains in her stomach instead.
Prescription Thuja MM x 1
Follow up April 2000
She had a difficult cold last week and then she got asthma symptoms again. This was the first time since the winter that she had any problems with her respiration. They gave her Pulmicort again then. She still had a bit of a cough.
Mentally she is doing very well. The timid girl is completely gone, says her mother. She can do anything she wants and is more straightforward in expressing what she wants to do, to her friends now. They can’t remember the last time she had a pain in her stomach.
School is no problem at all any longer.
She still has a desire for sweets, but not as strongly now. Desire for fruits has increased. She has started to eat onions and carrots.
In front of me sits an outgoing, independent and bright young girl, who looks me in the eyes and responds to my questions without hesitation.
Prescription Thuja MM x 1
This last prescription brought her over in a Medorrhinum state. She developed some new symptoms pointing to Medorrhinum and I continued the treatment with that remedy.
I switched her to Medorrhinum because
- She started to go to her parent’s bedroom nearly every night. This is a new symptom and she has never done this before.
- She developed a need to check where the other members of the family were inside the house.
- Stomach pains returned again, but now in the evening (for Thuja during morning and school time).
- Desire for sweets increased strongly again.
- Her change to an outgoing personality.
- My experience that when a patient needs Thuja in the beginning of the treatment they will shift to Medorrhinum later, if treated with regular doses in gradually rising potencies.
She received Medorrhinum in a similar pattern as Thuja before.
Result:
The doctor can no longer find any symptoms at all showing the existence of an asthma problem. She had been without medication a long time before the visit to the doctor. She experiences no problems whatsoever in her breathing.
Her pains in the stomach disappeared.
She still came into her parent’s bedroom at night sometimes, but much less.
Timidity is still gone.
She is much tougher towards her friends and is now putting more demands on how they behave towards her and others. She has also started to play with some new friends.
No problems in school at all.
She is still strong willed at home.
I would like to make a comment about my way of repeating the remedy. It’s also based on experience, but here I started out relying on Kent (See his “New Remedies, Clinical Cases & Lesser Writings”). It’s an efficient way to work, but at the same time dangerous because of the deep effect it has on the individual. If you try to treat with this regime, but are giving the wrong remedy, both you and your patient are in trouble.
Chris Jorgenfelt
Svenskt center foer klassisk homeopati AB
Vasagatan 33
792 22 Mora, Sweden
