Reprinted courtesy Elizabeth Adalian from: https://www.adalian.uk/blog-1
Sometimes, an event comes along in living history which not only goes down in the collective memory of a nation, but in that of the world at large. After such an event, it is very likely that there is a shift in consciousness within the individual affected as well as their fellow sufferers.
Of course, the way the individual calibrates such an event is very much related to their own individual early history based on epigenetics (1). However, what I have now discovered, having witnessed the current collective narrative, is the expression of an overlapping vulnerability of self-doubt and lack of trust in the process ahead which results from such a cataclysmic occurrence as a pandemic.
Just as historically there is often a genus epidemicus remedy documented for the physical symptoms of such outbreaks, I now clearly recognise that certain groups of remedies also step up to cover the resulting recalcitrance imbued in the individual having suffered such a trauma as the lockdown in reaction to the pandemic. It is very much the hidden nature of these changes which is found to be so unsettling.
One group of remedies I consider could underpin patients expressing such a reaction are the Baryta’s. This includes Baryta Carbonicum and Baryta Muriaticum (the main ones appearing in the repertory) as well as Baryta Iodatum, Baryta Phosphorica, Baryta Silicata and Baryta Sulphuricum, where there is an overlap between the Baryta element and the specific accompanying one. There is a relationship among these remedies with the remedy – Folliculinum – where the patient has often similarly undergone an over-enmeshment with a family member or similar duress enduring for a protracted period of time.
I look at just 3 rubrics of Baryta Muriaticum, for example ‘delusion, thinks everything changed,’ ‘delusion, familiar, things seem strange’, and ‘delusion, fancies that he walks on his knees’ (2). Of course, the first two rubrics could ring true in the current circumstances. As for the final of these 3 rubrics, this delusion is very emblematic of this group of remedies where there is often a regression due to familial or societal pressures (as also mentioned above in context of Folliculinum).
The Baryta group of remedies is often considered specifically for children, although this is not always the case. At this time where there is an expression of feeling infantilised by the dictates of those in power, the Baryta’s take on almost a miasmatic role in this new phenomenon observed to be playing out around us.
See rubric ‘childish, behaviour’’. A timidity can take over – even leading to agoraphobia after such protracted captivity as the lockdown has afforded. See the rubric ‘men, dread of’, ’timidity, bashful’, ‘fear, open, spaces’, ’anxiety, future, about the’ (where both Baryta Carbonicum and Baryta Muriaticum appear in italic type).
Young children returning to school may have to be re-introduced to play before lessons take over, having been denied the company of their peers for a protracted period of time.
Baryta Carbonicum appears in both rubrics ‘playing, aversion to, in children’ and ‘play, inability to’. Suspicion is inevitable across the swathe of different stages of life with the conditions created by the lockdown. Of course, suspicion is marked in Baryta Carbonicum, where it is black type in the rubric, ‘suspicious, mistrustful’.
Selective Mutism (3) which can be related to states on the Spectrum such as Asperger’s or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, could easily now become more common. This is because children may have withdrawn from society in the face of routines having been severed in such an abrupt way as experienced recently. See ‘amusement, aversion to’, ‘playful, indisposition to play in children’, and ‘talk, indisposed to’.
The impact of the level of depression induced by the level of trauma caused by the lockdown could easily create damage to the brain structures, particularly the prefrontal cortex, the one seen to be most damaged in this group of remedies.
To prevent senile dementia creeping in later in life, the Baryta group of remedies could prove invaluable when matching the triggering symptoms. These symptoms can create delayed development in children and arrest the development of older victims undergoing such duress as suffered in this current global phenomenon.
As the well-known saying goes in different formats: ‘one cannot alter the direction of the wind, but one can adjust one’s sails’. Homeopathy can really come into its own when facing such challenges and uncertainties as currently prevalent.
References:-
- Adalian, Elizabeth, (2017), ‘Touching Base with Trauma: Reaching Across the Generations
– A Three-Dimensional Homeopathic Perspective’, Writersworld.
- Robin, Murphy, N.D., (2005) ‘Homeopathic Clinical Repertory’, Third Edition, Lotus Health Institute.
- Wong, Priscilla, ‘A Review of Etiology, Comorbidity, and Treatment’, March 2010, (3), 23-31,Psychiatry (Edgmont), Selective Mutism.
