A 18 year old youth presented on 3rd June 2018 with complaints of patches of loss of hair on the right aspect of the occiput, since last 3 months. Two patches: 6.5cm x 2.5cm, 2.5cm x 3cm.His hair would come out in his hand while washing or while applying oil to the head. In these patches he felt a sensation of heat. He used to wear a cap everywhere to hide his baldness. He also complained of warts on the left thigh and left eyelid for the last year. The wart on the eyelid was the first to appear. He seemed to be busy but would accomplish nothing. Would spend much of his time thinking about his future. He was in the 12thclass but was undecided about what he should do further.
For the last year he has been going to his room and simply laughing loudly. He strongly felt that he had been neglecting his duties in terms of his studies, as a result of which, nobody in his neighborhood will care for him. After the class 10 exam results,his father insulted him a lot, which shook his confidence. He began to believe his parents were ashamed of him and thought it would be better if had not been born. His younger two brothers are very talented and receive applause. He feels like escaping from everybody.
He cannot control his anger and shouts very loudly at his two smaller brothers and parents. He is afraid of killing somebody in anger. He rides his bike extremely rashly because he doesn’t mind getting destroyed in an accident. He cannot trust people out of fear of being betrayed, even though nobody has really betrayed him in the past. He is afraid of being alone yet doesn’t prefer mix with people. He fears losing loved ones.He is morefond of his mother. He gets frightful dreams of witnessing an ISIS terrorist attack in which he has to act very fast, or else everything will be destroyed.
I consulted Kent’s repertory 1) Delusion neglected his duty, that he has 2) Escape attempts to 3) Laughing loudly.
Loss of hair in spots (Alopecia Areata-autoimmune disorder) is a syphilitic expression. Why do we see an increasing number of auto-immune disorders in young people nowadays? In auto-immune disorder; we form antibodies against our own tissues. In other words, it is a form of self-mutilation. In this case, the experience of embarrassment done by the father after his “not up to the mark” performance resulted in grief and humiliation, which stuck in his mind like a worm. Similarly the body produced an embarrassing lesion on the scalp, which is an outward symbolic representation of his inner state. This external lesion was the only relief for the deep-rooted overwhelming emotional pain. The body mirrors the state of the mind,and only the proper homoeopathic results in a gentle cure.
Hyocyamus has violent rage in which the mildest and gentlest beings become highly irascible and subject to fits of uncontrollable anger, “I want to kill something”. They jump to conclusions during the first moment of anger. It also has confusion of mind, foolish laughter and the fixed idea that they have done wrong.
Hyocyamus 200, 1 single dose was prescribed on 3rd June 2018.
He was not Stramonium because he was better alone, whereas Stramonium is better when in company. He was apathetic, whereas Stramonium is more sensitive and more fearful than apathetic. Stramonium has laughing alternating with crying and sadness, fear of going crazy, whereas that was not the case here. Stramonium has aversion to answer, whereas this patient was outspoken. Hyocyamus has fear of being sold (betrayal) whereas Stramonium has fear alone, in the dark and twilight, of anything black, of being injured and of water. Also, problems of Hyocyamus begin from feeling forsaken.
4 July 2018 – The hair regrew from the centre of the patches. Now he doesn’t have to wear a cap. He gets dreams that are happy and he has no episodes of uncontrollable anger. He is now kind and helpful to his younger brother. Warts on his leg and eye continued to remain unchanged. He no longer rides too fast on the road.
10 Jan 2019 – He is fairly well and his only complaint is pimples on the face with lots of black-heads on his nose. He sweats a lot on the face and back. He is pursuing his further studies. No episodes of violent anger. Confidence is good. At this stage I explained to him that pimples should not be treated in any way and it’s a normal phenomena during teenage years.
In problems we have two possibilities, either to run away or to go through them and becoming stronger. It is important to realize that symptoms appear to show us what we need to learn. Hence Dr Kent was absolutely correct in saying “There is no disease, There are only sick humans”.
Before
After
Good diagnosis with good results. Congratulations.