Homeopathy Papers

Repertory Round-Up, Part 8: When The Case Is Confused By Drugs

Written by Elaine Lewis

What do you do with a patient on psych drugs?

This was our friend Linda’s dilemma when it came to finding her granddaughter’s remedy.  Hi Linda!

Hi Elaine!  It’s such an honor to be here at the fabulous Hpathy Golf Club and Grille on the French Riviera.

It’s not much of a golf course, but, then again, what is?

So, last month our friend Maria traveled half way around the world from Greece to the fabulous Hpathy Superdome on Mt. Everest to share her nephew’s Dyslexia case, and, if you’ll remember, her big concern was that her nephew, as a teenage boy, wasn’t giving out any information other than “I don’t know,” “Maybe,” and “I guess so…” 

So now we’ve got a different problem; namely, what are the real symptoms in a case when your patient is on drugs?  You know, you can’t use those symptoms as part of your case, right?  How many of you look up their drugs before you take their case?  You have to do this! 

What kind of side-effects do we associate with psych drugs:  Suicidal depression, homicidal impulses, hostility, fixed ideas, dullness of the mind, delusions, difficult speech, paranoia, hallucinations, canine appetite and so on.   The easiest thing in the world is to assume that these symptoms are  part of the patient’s case; but they’re not!

So here she is now to tell us how her granddaughter was on track to becoming a “regular” at the local psychiatric hospital!  Linda?  The floor is all yours!  (And the drapes and whatever else you need to make a speech.  And by the way, don’t make a speech!)

****

Thank you, Elaine; for that sublime introduction!

Don’t mention it!

So here it goes!  In May of this year, my favorite nephew, “Landon”, invited me to come and visit him at his new home in Arizona.

Did I mention that my mother used to live in Arizona?

No.  Are you going to be popping in frequently like this, or…?

Not at all, in fact, I’ll be in the kitchen cooking dinner.

Good.  That’s a very good idea.  So as I was saying….Landon…

By the way…

Yes???????

…just to let our readers know, we’re not going to tell you the remedy until the end; we want you to work it out for yourself.  So, if there are no further interruptions….

…and hopefully there won’t be….  

Take it away, Linda!

So, Landon suggested it would be a good time to bring his cousin, my 17-year-old granddaughter, “Amber,” with me, to get her away from her boring existence and get her some real help for her psychiatric problems.  She was on two antidepressants and an antipsychotic!  

No way!  TWO antidepressants?  Isn’t that a bit excessive?

One would think so.  So, with the rate of Covid-19 infection being so low in Arizona at the time, I decided to take Landon up on his offer.

Amber was thrilled when her mother, “Diane,” said she could go.  I booked our flights for the middle of June.  Amber lives with her mother, step-father and two half-siblings in low-income housing, with little to do but housework, babysitting, and watching videos–the same ones–over and over again!

Sounds charming.  (I am cooking dinner!!!!!)

I strongly suspected Amber’s worst psychiatric problems were actually being caused by the drugs themselves which her parents and psychiatrists made her take.  I believed, and still believe, that one of the antidepressants caused the psychosis which resulted in her being put in a mental hospital four times in the past two years and for which she was given the antipsychotic drug, Abilify.  Her step-father, “Allen”, insisted that her problems began before she was given any drugs but I don’t buy it.

Amber’s  doctors and psychologists decided it would be a bad idea for Amber to go to Arizona “in case she needed *more* psychiatric help” so Diane changed her mind at the last minute and told Amber she couldn’t go.  Amber became so furious that she threw a fit, threatening to call her father (my son) and go live with him or come to live with me.  She even packed her bag to move out!  Diane and Allen were between a rock and a hard place, wanting her to have fun but afraid to go against the advice of the psychiatric “experts.”  Finally her parents relented and let her go but with one caveat: I was not to lower her meds in any way!  I agreed to that even though it was a tough pill to swallow.  Did you hear that Elaine?  A tough pill to swallow!

I’m sorry, but I am very busy not interrupting!  But, oh yeah; that’s a good one, Linda, “tough pill to swallow”!  Ha!

At least I’d be able to get Amber away from home for three weeks and I thought maybe we could go to Landon’s again the following year when she would be eighteen and no one could force her to take drugs anymore.  Anyway, Diane assured me Amber was used to taking her psych drugs every day so it wouldn’t be my responsibility to remind her.

On our first night in Arizona, I took one pill of each of Amber’s meds, put them in tiny baggies and labeled them so I could make homeopathic remedies out of them.  Diane and Allen had told me I could give Amber all the natural treatments I wanted, so my plan was to make remedies out of each prescription drug in order to minimize the side effects while she was on them.  (Elaine has instructions on how to do this on her website: https://ElaineLewis.hpathy.com.  The article is called, “How To Make Your Own Remedy”.)  For the first three nights, as much as it practically made me choke to say the words, I reminded Amber to take her meds.  Landon reminded her once, too.  Amber had so many problems, it was hard to know which ones were caused by the drugs and which ones came from her. 

Amber was loud, awkward, self-centered and conceited.  She often walked like a “snow-plow,” meaning she would slowly walk into us and plow us aside if we were in her way!  It didn’t seem intentional; rather, it seemed that she had such a poor concept of personal space that she was oblivious to what her body was doing.  She would often stand so close to one of us that we couldn’t move without bumping into her and she would walk so close behind me that she would step on my flip-flops, causing me to trip!  Sometimes she’d suddenly appear out of nowhere and stand right next to me!  She often talked over top of people, getting louder and louder.  She would frequently interrupt or physically get right between me and Landon when we were talking.

Dear God! 

She was obsessive and moody and had delusions that she was one of the most popular kids in school, the best swimmer on the swim team, and beautiful as well.  She would frequently interject irrelevantly into conversations, “Isn’t my hair beautiful?  Aren’t I beautiful?” and so on.

Like her mother, she had a fear of knives.  Her appetite was simply voracious.

Be careful!  Because that’s probably a drug side-effect, and not part of the case!

She manipulated situations to make herself the center of attention.  Sometimes she was loquacious.  At other times her speech was slow and slurred. 

Again, a common side-effect of psych drugs.

The only symptom I knew for sure was not caused by the psych drugs was her allergy to cats.

On the fourth day, I brought her a pill of Wellbutrin (or, as Elaine was fond of saying, “Not-So-Wellbutrin”) and a glass of water, and she refused it, saying she was too tired and wanted to take a nap.  I started taking notes on Amber’s behavior and how often she took the meds.

For the next three days, we were all so tired at bedtime that I forgot to remind her to take her pills.  She may have taken them on her own, or maybe not.  I didn’t know.  I didn’t even know where her meds were!  I suspected they might possibly be under the enormous pile of clothes on the floor in her bedroom, but, by the seventh day, I didn’t care.  As far as I was concerned, I had held up my end of the bargain: I had not reduced her meds.  If Amber wasn’t taking them, it wasn’t my responsibility to remind her, nor was it up to me to force her to take them if she had, in fact, chosen not to.  I continued to take notes in case things went south and Amber’s parents wanted to blame me, then sue me, over her psych meds.

I made up each of her three meds into their homeopathic versions in a 6c potency and gave Amber a dose of each almost daily.  My goal was to give her three doses of each one, every day, but we were so busy that I often forgot most of the doses.  (I’m not proud of forgetting, I’m just trying to paint an honest picture.)  We were simply so busy going to water aerobics in the community pool, and an exercise class, engaging in what we called our own “modern” version of “prospecting for gold,” (we’d go out in the back yard, hit about three rocks with our pick-axes, then go inside to cool off in the air-conditioning, enjoy a drink of ice water and order dinner to-go from a restaurant.)

I’m impressed that you had pick-axes!

For some reason, we never did strike gold.  We drove here and there to tourist spots, always wearing our masks, and safe-distancing, and so on.  We were all tired at the end of each day.  And that’s what Landon was aiming for, to give Amber so much fun stuff to do that she’d have a little vacation from her boring life, her problems, and Covid-19.

Maybe next year he could adopt Shana.  She leads a boring life too!

Aren’t you her mother?

Do you have any idea how boring homeopaths are?

I’ll make a note of that.  So, I was also giving Amber a daily dose of CBD oil because it’s supposed to be good for most ailments, including psychiatric ones; Sam-e which is a food supplement that helps with hay fever, raising one’s serotonin level and lowering the histamine level; Vitamin C to help prevent the Covid-19 virus; and zinc for the white spots on her fingernails.

Maybe a week or so after she was no longer taking her drugs, I asked her how she was feeling.  She gave me a long answer which I wrote down verbatim: “I feel depressed.  I want to stab someone, or myself.  I get the shakes, too.  I think it’s only when I’m on the drugs.  I feel anxious.  I have a headache.  My appetite is huge on the antidepressant.  When I’m on Prozac I go crazy.  When I’m off it, I go crazy.  I don’t want to be alive.”

She was pinching her fingertips and added, “I do this with my fingers instead of cutting myself.  I feel spaced out.  I feel left behind.  I tried walking to school [that was two years ago and her school is about seven miles away].  I was not myself.  I felt weird.  Giggle- giggle.”

I gave her a dose of Wellbutrin 6C.  About fifteen minutes later, her headache was almost gone.  She added, “My heart hurts.  I think the antidepressant is causing it.  I hope I don’t need heart surgery.  My mother says it will hurt my heart if I stop taking the medication, that it will hurt my kidneys.  I feel like my kidneys are hurting.  The first time I was in the hospital, I was rolling around on the bed, trying to sleep, but when I closed my eyes, I had really bad thoughts, like cutting myself, hanging myself.  I’m a visualizer because I could see cutting myself, hanging myself.

I’ve been on the meds for five or three or two years.  I’ve been to the hospital four times.  I’ve been to all the kids’ ones, giggle-giggle.”

Elaine sent me a link to Drugs.com where I looked up Lexapro’s side effects; they include suicidal ideation, headaches, OCD, kidney disease, psychosis, and much, much more!  Medical doctors take an oath to “First, DO NO HARM,” and then they prescribe chemicals that destroy lives.  It’s so wrong!

That evening Amber told Landon that she knew a secret; that he had come to visit her in the mental hospital.  That actually never happened.  I gave her a dose of Lexapro 6C.  I continued giving her doses of the homeopathic versions of all three psych meds but now more consistently.

On Friday, June 26th, Landon and Amber went to pick up some frozen yogurt.  As Amber was talking to her mother on her cell phone outside the shop, Diane became angry with her about who she was texting on Instagram.  Amber hates being reprimanded.  As she hung up she told Landon she needed to go to the hospital.  Landon said “No way.  You’re fine.  Let’s get the yogurt,” and in they went.  Amber forgot all about the hospital.

Back at Landon’s house, Amber was again talking to Diane and, afterwards, again told Landon that she needed to go to the hospital.  I got on the phone.  Diane told me I had to take her to the hospital.  She wasn’t angry but she also mentioned that Amber had told her, “Grandma is crazy and I don’t want to take any more of her crazy remedies.”  I thought, wow, Amber is playing both ends against the middle!

Landon told Amber it was time for our take-out Thai food.  She forgot all about the hospital.

The next day Amber was lying on her bed, crying, saying her heart hurt.  Call me a cruel, heartless grandma but I thought she was faking it to get attention.  Soon she was sobbing, then wailing loudly and this was the state she was in when she called Diane.  Amber brought me her phone, saying her mother wanted me to take her to the hospital.  I told Diane I thought it was all phony and Diane even agreed that Amber does do things like that for attention.

As Amber went back to bed and sobbed some more, it was Landon to the rescue for a third time.  He came in the house and quickly came up with a brilliant plan: he had me tell her, “Landon wants to run an errand and you’re invited to go with him.”  At pretty much the speed of sound, she forgot her pain, gleefully jumped out of bed, put on her flip-flops and was out the door!  Landon had to quickly think of a real errand and Amber never mentioned the heart pain again!

Soon, Landon and I both realized she hadn’t “snow-plowed” us in some time!

Via emails, Elaine continued to help me with Amber.  It was a challenge for us to figure out which symptoms were caused by the psych drugs, which were caused by the withdrawal from the drugs and finally which were actually Amber’s.  As Elaine so carefully paid attention to each and every behavior, big and small, she was able to sort out the symptoms and concluded that Amber’s remedy was _____________ 200c.

Linda, excuse me while I briefly jump in.  People, I want you to make a list of the elements of the case.  See if any of them match a side-effect of either Lexapro, Wellbutrin or Abilify, which you can find at Drugs.com, and if they do, cross them off the list.  I’ll give you a hint: Voracious Appetite is a common side-effect of many drugs.  So is slurred and difficult speech and headache.  So, for example, your list might look something like this:

Talking fast

Interrupting

Can’t use knives/fear of knives/delusion: kills with a knife, cuts herself with a knife

Craving Attention

Hysteria

Suicidal Thoughts (Lexapro, Wellbutrin, Abilify)

Awkward (Abilify)

Depressed (Lexapro, Wellbutrin, Abilify)

Psychosis (Lexapro, Wellbutrin, Abilify)

Headache (Lexapro, Wellbutrin, Abilify)

Chest pain (Lexapro, Wellbutrin, Abilify)

Increased appetite (Lexapro, Abilify)

False beliefs that cannot be changed by facts/Fixed Ideas–that Landon visited her in the mental hospital, etc. (Wellbutrin)

Talking loud (excited talking) (Wellbutrin)

Incoordination (plowing into people) (Wellbutrin, Abilify)

Self-injury (Abilify)

Anxiety (All three drugs)

“Me, me, me” all the time

Faking illness to get attention

 

And so on.  Keep the list going, ignore the symptoms that are side-effects of drugs (though it is possible that both can be true at the same time, so, you’d have to say, “When did that start, before the drug or after?”  If after, cross it off) and then see how much of your list you’re left with.  Do you see a remedy picture?  If not, find rubrics for your items and repertorize.

If you knew my family you’d understand why I already had the remedy with me in various potencies, along with about twenty other remedies that are primarily taken for psychiatric problems.  The remedy you came up with was the same remedy my son needed five years earlier.  I was right there and saw with my own eyes how his psychosis completely disappeared ten or fifteen minutes after taking it.  Unfortunately, he left with a friend and the next thing I knew he was in jail because the 30c wasn’t high enough.  Many of his symptoms were very different from Amber’s and yet still belonged to the same remedy.  (He’s been well for many years now.  That’s another whole story.)

As I thought about how well Amber’s symptoms matched ______________ my eyes filled with tears.  It was such an enormous feeling of relief and joy realizing Elaine may have just figured out what had been plagueing my family for generations.  (Of course, I believe my late mother-in-law was probably the worst, most vile example of _________________ I’ve ever dealt with but that, too, is another story.)

Within a day or two, Landon and I both noticed Amber’s obsessions were easing up.  She wasn’t anxious.  She was much less conceited and no longer interrupted our conversations with inane, off-topic remarks such as, “Who loves Amber?” or “Don’t you love my hair?” or “Aren’t I pretty?”  She wasn’t as loud.  I asked if she still felt like stabbing anyone.  She laughed and said no.  She was less interested in food.  She was cutting up an avocado with a sharp knife when I realized she had no fear of the knife.

She seemed calm, no longer “amped up,” that is; her laugh, speech and actions no longer seemed pressured.  Some of her symptoms were listed as drug side effects or the effects of withdrawal from the drugs.  Others weren’t.  But they had all dimished. The natural aids I gave Amber (CBD oil, Sam-e, etc) may have helped but she didn’t improve noticeably until after she was given _________________.

Since the 200c, once a day, had not cured her completely, Elaine advised me to increase the dose to twice a day.  Again, Amber’s symptoms improved within a day or two but it was getting close to Monday, the day we’d have to go home.  Time was quickly running out and she would soon be returned to her old life, to parents and doctors who were true believers in suppressing psychiatric symptoms with chemical straight-jackets.  Landon and I did our best to make her see how much better homeopathy was than the nasty synthetic drugs because we knew that when she returned home, it would be up to her to protect herself from the drug-pushers and refuse the psych meds.

The number of cases of Covid-19 was exploding in Arizona.  I so hoped it meant flights would be canceled so we wouldn’t be able to fly home but no such luck.

Since the two daily doses didn’t cure Amber, Elaine had me go up to 1m (which, of course, I had with me), one dose daily.  Amber had had two doses when, on Sunday afternoon, she disagreed with something Landon and I said and became so angry that she told us she didn’t like either one of us and that she was never going to visit Landon again!  It was a real meltdown.  He replied, “Well, you’re not invited to come here again!” and Amber fled to her bed, crying, then sobbing, then wailing.  It dawned on me that she was behaving as she did before the _______________ so she might be having an aggravation.  She soon came out and apologized and we all made up.  Not wanting to bother Elaine on a Sunday, I made the decision to stop the remedy.

The next day Amber was her normal self and free of the psych meds.  We flew home.

I can only hope the _______________ 1m will continue working ever more deeply over the coming year to completely dig up and evaporate the rest of the feindish, bad energy that had been lurking in her, and that her parents and doctors don’t find some lame excuse to restart the drugs.

Don’t count on it, Linda!  I think Diane and Amber are the same remedy.  Diane’s afraid of knives too.

To recap, on June 16 my granddaughter was squarely on the road to being in and out of mental hospitals for the rest of her life, with more drugs being piled on to suppress the symptoms caused by the previous drugs.  On July 6, exactly three weeks later, she was off all three psych drugs and doing well.

If you hadn’t made remedies out of those drugs, she’d have gone into withdrawal for sure!

I’m confident whatever symptoms remain will be cured with Elaine’s next prescriptions.  Amber is back to being fun and enthusiastic and someone who has a chance at a bright future.

That’s a real miracle if you ask me.

So, thank you, Elaine, from the bottom of my heart and God bless you and Dr. Hahnemann.

Linda 🙂

Thanks, Linda!  OK, everybody, let’s figure out the remedy now!  This is really simple, to tell you the truth.  What are the elements of the case?

Hysteria

Conceit/Ego, Me-me-me, We’re not talking enough about me!

Craves attention

Wants to go to the hospital

Hypochondriac, imagines illnesses, fakes illnesses

Manipulative/Deceitful/Cunning

Delusion that she is the best, the greatest, the prettiest

Fear of Knives

You know, as soon as I saw, “I want to go to the hospital,” I knew immediately the remedy was Tarentula hispanica!  This is a very peculiar symptom because your average person does NOT want to go to the hospital–and for good reason!  But this is Tarentula for you!  Why?  Because being sick is a great way to get attention and this remedy craves attention and craves an audience!  You get lots of attention in the hospital!

Tarentula is also a very awkward, disharmonic remedy, you can readily imagine Tarentula bumping into people.  I have other Tarentula cases.  In one of them, the mother complains that the child “has a lack of spatial awareness”, very similar to what Linda said about Amber, that she was always too close.  In another one, there was the inclination to pinch himself, only it was his eye, whereas Amber pinched her fingers.  In still another case, the patient kept claiming she was sick and needed to go to the hospital.  Here is some of what client “Joe” said about his mother, “Rosa”:

“She also believes she’s extremely pretty and looks only 50, every man over the age of 50 is in love with her, according to her! …  She claims she likes things neat and orderly but her room is a mess!  [Remember Amber’s room?  Clothes all over the floor?] …  She needs to be the center of attention and everyone should talk to her about everything.  It is similar to wanting to be popular in high school, only she is almost 77. …  She will interrupt anyone in a heartbeat, LIKES TO TALK REALLY LOUD AND FAST [This is exactly what Linda said!]  Occasionally she will finish other people’s sentences [interrupting]. …  [I asked if Rosa feigns illness to get attention.]  All the time!!!!  Every other day she is “sick” or has a fever that is not detected by a thermometer!  She told Marge she had a stroke, so Marge took her to the hospital.  The doctors after a complete and thorough examination concluded she NEVER had a stroke in her life.  At this point she changed her story and said some doctor told her she had a stroke.  She also told Marge she had a heart condition but guess what?  The cardiologist didn’t think so. …  She still thinks she is Miss Pretty.  She colors her hair, wants to wear bright colors, shirts with deep neckline to show cleavage and claims all the younger men have the hots for her.  It is really quite disgusting!  She has always been like this, every other man wants her and she is the most beautiful person around.”

***

I think it’s easy at this point to sum up Tarentula.  Look for talking fast, talking loud and interrupting.  The word “fast” is a good clue to Tarentula.  Look for self-promotion and taking over the conversation (“I’m so pretty, I’m the best, the best ever, everyone knows me,” etc.)  Look for bids for attention, feigning illness and the ever famous, “I want to go to the hospital!”  Look for lying and deceit.  Look for disharmonic movements and lack of spatial awareness.  I think you get the idea. 

Bye Linda, thanks for sharing your case with us!  

Bye, Elaine.

___________________________________

Elaine Lewis, D.Hom., C.Hom.

Elaine takes online cases and animal cases too!

Write to her at [email protected]

Visit her website: www.ElaineLewis.hpathy.com

About the author

Elaine Lewis

Elaine Lewis, D.Hom., C.Hom.
Elaine is a passionate homeopath, helping people offline as well as online. Contact her at [email protected]
Elaine is a graduate of Robin Murphy's Hahnemann Academy of North America and author of many articles on homeopathy including her monthly feature in the Hpathy ezine, "The Quiz". Visit her website at:
https://elainelewis.hpathy.com/ and TheSilhouettes.org

9 Comments

  • Wow, Elaine, amazing case solving! You both saved the girl’s life.
    Interesting aspect of dosing too. I am amazed. Thank you so much for posting it.

  • WOW, what a great article. The way you approached the case and the way you explained it was so articulate and easy to understand. I loved reading this and learning from you. Thank you for having the heart of a teacher.

  • I am writing this to you from America, where I have been since 1962 … In between, I have been in and out of India for few days.

    I have been getting your periodical for many years and have been enjoying the reading … It has changed for better, over the years … It is amazing, the service that you are doing to promote Homeopathy … I compliment you for this.

    Although I am not formally educated Homeopath, I have studied under one of the greatest Homeopath of Mumbai, India, Dr. S. R. Phatak who was absolutely gentleman, like whom I have not seen any other person nor any Doctor, a selfless person who lived, only, to cure patients and paid no attention to make money … He has written many books also, in English and in Marathi language … His repertory and Materia Medica have been widely used and are popular books. He got his Medical Degree from University of Bombay, in Allopathy. Soon he realised that Allopathy could not cure many diseases and thus, turned to Homeopathy.

    My education with him came to unfortunate end due to his sad demise at his age of 86. Due to his advanced age, he had stopped teaching to others for many years, but for some unknown reason, without I asking him, he offered to teach me. His greatness.

    Here I would like to write one amazing case that I experienced while studying under him.

    One day one couple came to him with their twelve years old daughter who had eczema all over her body. They had tried Allopathy, Unani, Ayurved, Acupuncture, even Homeopathy, but there was no effect.

    Then someone told them to go to Dr. Phatak.

    Dr. Phatak was asking them questions and suddenly the mother said that, the girl when she was borne, ‘did not cry’.
    Dr Phatak did not go further and prescribed homeopathic medicine on this single symptom. He never ever dispensed the medicine … He would write on the paper and ask patient to buy it in any Homeopathic Pharmacy … So, he did write and told patient to take it once a day for five days.

    Ten days later the patient came, fully recovered! Amazingly rapid recovery! If I had not seen this myself, I would never have believed this.

    Now what did Dr. Phatak see in this case that other doctors did not see?

    When I asked him, he said,
    “When she was borne, her ‘Atma’ (Soul) realised that she has again taken the birth as a human being and she has to again go through pains and suffering of human being. This gave her deep immense grief, sadness and hopelessness due to that she became numb and did not cry at all. The medicine on this was, ‘Ignatia’. I prescribed her in 1M potency, once a day for five days.”

    And she was cured totally.

    Thinking totally out of normal, was the speciality of Dr. Phatak which made him great Homeopath like non other!

    • Geez. Ignatia, for NOT crying! Well, I guess “ailments from disappointment”. But, you know, it’s possible these days that babies aren’t crying at birth because they’re drugged. And I don’t know…in an ideal birth, why would a baby be crying? I know, the doctor wants the baby to breath so he smacks her to make her cry, causing her to take a deep breath; I never liked it, seems so barbaric. Anyway, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have come up with Ignatia.

Leave a Comment