Case: Woman 33 years old, came to me in January 2010.
When she came for the first time she was closed and reserved as usual patients „Natrium muriaticum“ are. She had black hair, was elegantly dressed and she had very sad look in her eyes.
Her troubles started 2 years ago, when she was a babysitter in England, where she escaped from her worries. She had to divorce and she was faced her catholic family. No one knew that her husbant was up to his ears in debt. He had his own business and he borrowed more money than he could pay back.
Her physical troubles started suddenly in the evening. Her lower abdomen got swollen and sore. The pain expanded to back and all lower part of abdomen and back was very painful.
Sharp pain as from knives. Worse after eating or using antidepresive pills, and when she was sitting especially for a long time.She had frequent urge to answer the call of nature. The constipation and diarrhea was alternated all the time. She had painful flatulence with sensation as her abdomen was full of air bubbles. The pain spread from umbilicus down to lower abdomen and never stopped. When it started, the pain was worse on the right side, but now it is on both sides, from stomach downwards. The sharp pain as from knives woke her up in the night. She tried breathe deeply and cursed to stop it. She had strong nausea and when the pain had been getting worse she wasn´t able to eat.
It was aggravating her all the time for 2 years. It was a litlle bit better when she ate just a little. Several times she was hospitalized with that pain, but no one knew what is the pain from and how to help her.
She had gynecological, internal, x-ray, laboratory examinations with no results.
She also suffered from migraines since puberty, but it got worse after her marriage, especially when her husband wasted all their money in his bad bargain and ran up in debts.She used to have migrains 3 or 4 days every week when she was married. Now it is once a month. Headaches started when she didn´t have coffee in the right time, or when hungry or before rain. And was better during the rain. The headache starts on left side, than right side. It is worse from noise and light. All the problems are accompanied by vomiting. The pain is pulling and extending from forehead to eye and cheek.
She had also very painful menstruation delayed about 2 or 3 weeks, with cramps in lower abdomen.
Her skin is white, dry, sensitive and itching and she has red eruption on upper part of chest. She has acne on her back. Her eyes are red and inflamed in the morning.
She can’t sleep till midnight and wake up at 2.30 a.m. Which is terrible for her. Just as all her troubles.
On mental level she wasn’t able “digest” her divorce and the situation after it. She doesn’t have her own flat and she had to live in tenement.
Marriage for her was awful. She felt alone all the time and saw her husband waste their money. She didn’t tell it anyone. She was holding back her tears. She didn’t want to burden anybody with it. But really frightening moment for her was forcing herself to get divorced and after that stand the pressure from family and friends. They were quick to condemn her.
The first remedy I gave her was Natrium muriaticum. We went up with potecy from 30, 200 and 1M during next 5 month. She was much better and very happy that something brings her relief from the pain. But I was sure, that we are very close to the simillimum but not there yet. So we tried also one by one Natrium carbonicum, Magnesium muriaticum, Phosphoricum acidum with no result and we had to go back to Natrium muriaticum, which seemed to be better for her. Better but not the best.
So I went back to her situation when her troubles started. She lived in Slovak catholic family. No one from all relatives got divorced. She had to do it. She had to do the things which no one from whole her family never did. How did she feel about it?
She felt estrange from her family, not belong to them, alone, not belong to anyone and she had strong aversion to her husband becouse he cause it.
MIND – ESTRANGED – family; from his: (31).
MIND – DELUSIONS – family, does not belong to her own: (3)
MIND – DESPAIR – love, from disappointed: (4)
MIND – DELUSIONS – alone, being – always alone; she is: (7)
MIND – DELUSIONS – alone, being – belong to anyone; she did not: (5)
MIND – AVERSION – husband, to: (18)
The only one remedy which is in these rubrics is Natrium silicatum and it solved the case. I think I can say it was the simillimum for that lady.
I gave her Natrium silicatum 200 in July 2010.
Follow up in August: she felt much better, looked completely changed, pain was about 50% lesser than before
Follow up in September: she had to repeat the remedy because of pain in abdomen and it helped within 3 days. Last 2 weeks came back old thoughts and rushed one over the other and woke up her in the night. She sad:“Something big hangs overhead and I’m a small point underneath.“ This was her old symptom from her marriage. So we gave Natrium silicatum 1M
Follow up in October: she felt well, no pain, slept well, she had enough energy.
The last follow up of this case is from April 2011 when she moved back to Slovakia and came to me just to thank me. She was without any pain, no migraine, no painful menses, good sleep, energetic enough, smiling happy young lady.
For that lady Natrium silicatum was constitutional remedy and helped her a lot in all levels of her being.
We can say, that Natrium silacatum is something like combination of two well known remedies Natrium muriaticum and Silicea plus something else. Chemical notation is Na2SiO3.
Only one „ailments from“ for this remedy in our repertorium are ailments from disappointed love. When we imagine that situation, it is not suprise that we can find it in rubrics grieve, sadness and despair from disappointed love. They have deep feelings of being estraned and separate from group. This situation could happen during devorce process. When patient has a feeling that is suddenly separate from his family and group of friends, there is confusion of mind – even confusion about his feelings. They used to have family, friends, husband and suddenly everything has changed and they feel alone, not belonging to anyone. They are so separate from themselves, that thay don’t know what they feel and they can fall down into depression.
On physical level there are a lot of headaches, migrains, weaknesses, mental and physical exhaustion. Patients often suffer from poor digestion, cramps and stitching pains in abdomen which is worse after eating, and many other complains. No wonder there is sleeplesness from rush of thoughts, cares and worries.
So I think and I use this remedy also for patients who are going through the process of devorce. I think, that this remedy is useful especially in that moment of devorce, when pacient feels not belonging to the family and this remedy could help the paceint overcome this feeling and not allowing it to start some disease. For these patients it is not the remedy for long time, but it helps them overcome one part of devorce process – that part, where they feel confused about their own feelings, they feel separate from family, and not belonging to it anymore, despare from dissapointed love, broken heart, not belong to anyone, despare from future.
Recently I used Natrium silicatum successfully on 30 years old lady. She works in bank, but she wants to be hairdresser. She is very sensitive and has inner feeling that is going on the wrong way. She fell into bad mood, tormenting rush thoughts and sleeplesness when all the colleagues in her work have been completely changed. Suddenly she felt estranged from group which she used to belong. She used to have very good relationships at her workplace and now new colleagues dish the dirt on her. Although she was happily married, the separation from group in her job started her troubles. The remedy helped her a lot on all levels. She sleeps well, no tormenting thoughts, no fear from people anymore and was able to solve the problem with her colleague.
Differencial diagnosis with another remedy:
Natrium silicatum is really closed to Natrium muriaticum and can be easily confused with it. These two remedies follow each other really well. Both of them have ailments from dissapointed love and aversion to husbands, but only Natrium silicatum has confusion about her/his feelings and lost feeling. (Nat-m is sure about her feelings – she may love a wrong person, but there is no confusion about it). Nat-sil has delusions that she is alone, not belonging to anyone, even not to her family, which Nat-m doesn´t have.
From silicatum part of the remedy there are fears of failure in examination, desire for sunshine, irresolution and pedant.
There is also sadness – chronic sadness which in combination with pedant and feeling being alone could be confused with Carcinosinum.
So my answers for the questions of this conference are:
- Are there for you, Homoeopaths, various levels of healing?
- If so, which ones?
- Which strategies are you applying in your practice?
- Are there for you, Homoeopaths, various levels of healing?
For me, as homeopath, there are practically many levels of healing, but just one right way how to help my patients. It depents on how deep I´m able to dive to the story of the patient and how similar the remedy which I give them is.
- If so, which ones?
If we give the remedy, usually something happens. We can call it levels of healing, but for me it is the way how to find the simillimum. I think, that in our practice there are just seldom cases in which we can say: „Yes, this is the simillimum!“ and the patient is happy for many years on one remedy. Usually we have to change the remedy more often. And the question is Why? Maybe our knowledge is not good enough to find the simillimum, or all world is changing so our patient and his remedy is changing, too. Or there are various levels of healing and we can see just what is floating on the surface.
- Which strategies are you applying in your practice?
When I start to treat the patient, I always give the best remedy which I can, but I´m not always able to reach a goal and choose the right remedy which the patient needs. We can call it levels of healing or the path how to find the right remedy and reach the goal.
In my practice I´m applying the simple strategy: Carefully listen to the patient, take the centre line of his story and choose the best remedy which I can. And see what happens and react to it.
Thank you for your attention.
Petra Cihlarova, Prague, Czech Republic
www.homeopatie-praha.com
Cihlarova P., ČLHS, Prague, Czech Republic