Is there a remedy for fear? For anxiety? What about panic attacks? Or waking in the middle of the night in a cold sweat and a state of terror? Is there something I can take? I’m so anxious, I can’t function. There’s talk of a second wave, another lockdown, mandatory vaccinations, and my news feed is full of contradictions, and even though I dont want to know, I feel compelled to enter that rabbit hole, it's like an obsession. I am driving myself crazy. Is Bill Gates serious about blocking out the sun and releasing genetically engineered vaccine filled mosquitoes? The right is the new left, the left is the new right, will there be a civil war? Little girls are sexualizing themselves, tick-tock is glorifying teen suicide, what’s going to happen? I'm out of work, my children are forced to wear masks and sit in cubicles or study via zoom. Will things ever return? Is this the new normal?
By far, the most common condition I treat these days is anxiety. There are a number of remedy choices and as always homeopathic treatments are highly personalized. For example, Aconite is an excellent remedy in the heat of a panic attack. It can bring down the increased heart rate and accompanying cold sweat and the sense of impending doom. But Syphilinum has a completely different type of anxiety. The memory is weak. Did I turn the gas off or not? Did I lock the front door when I left? And they go back and check, often two or three times. Arsenicum has a tremendous fear for their health. The Arsenicum patient wil go from doctor to doctor, specialist to specialist, looking for confirmation. They are really worried about death and disease, and about being alone.Not so much because they love company, but rather that someone will take care of them.
Sulfur patients have a great fear of germs, of dirty plates when eating out, of catching a disease, though they don't mind their own dirt. Look into their handbag or on their desk, you will see used tissues and weeks old half-drunk cups of coffee, sitting on piles of dog eared papers. Both Arsenicum and Sulfur have burning pains, but Arsenicum is cold and restless and leans more towards OCD controlling behaviors, whereas Sulfur is hot, critical, haughty, sluggish, and anxious about his children, who keep him up at night with worry.
What about specific fears? Some remedy pictures fear cats. Some have a great fear of heights Others will run out of the room if you even mention snakes. That’s me. I can’t see a snake. Even writing about them makes me want to run. Once at the beach, a young man arrived, joining a groups sitting a few meters away. He had an exotic snake slinked around his neck. l could not relax, I couldn’t watch him and I couldn’t not watch him, and in the end I left. This is pathology. And it is a very telling keynote which will help us chose one remedy over another. The organism expresses the pathology and the pathology points to the remedy.
But what about this current free-floating anxiety that doesn’t usually belong to you. Maybe you were a little anxious before but now, you are obsessing, you can’t think about anything else and all your free time is spent scanning social media for proof that conspiracy theories have validity. You are fighting with your partner who thinks you’ve lost your mind, and your children want nothing to do with you. Or perhaps you are exhausted, from this constant state of instability. Is there a remedy for this?
In these situations, I generally look for a constitutional remedy. Keeping in mind that the constitution may change over time. A constitutional remedy, is one which includes the symptoms, keynotes, and the essence of the remedy. For example, you describe your anxiety as a general feeling that something will happen, though you can’t put your finger on it. You tend to worry about your family, and your health but you are easily assured by your doctor. Maybe you are very open and impressionable, so you believe much of what you read online. You are clairvoyant and easily startled. Your gums bleed easily and you are always thirsty. You like your drinks cold, and even though you are generally hot, your knees may be surprisingly cold to touch. You like company, even just having someone in the house makes you feel better and you love ice-cream. You give a lot of social energy, but you burn out easily. Phosphorous would be an excellent remedy.
What about the patient who is too good, too responsible. Anxiety has always been there, but recently in these unstable times, she feels so destabilized. She worries about her children and the future and she can lie awake all night. She loves stories, and read early as a young child. She is very sensitive to hearing bad news and tragic stories, they invade her delicate psyche. She loves salt and chocolate, the darker the better. She is a perfectionist, she is fastidious in her work. Her intellect is sharp and she can get caught in her repetitive thought patterns. Much like Phosphorus, she too has weak boundaries. She has trouble saying no. She would do (and does) well on Carcinosinum.
This is what she says after a few months on the remedy:
"I am putting up clearer boundaries, I am less anxious, I have removed Facebook and Instagram from my phone. I am making the children help at home. I have asked my husband to do more. I walk more, I’ve gone back to dancing, I’m doing yoga in the living room. I'm eating well, I’m planting a garden, I am breathing."
These are the things that return once the correct remedy has been prescribed. The correct remedy or sequence of remedies is like a gentle reminder to the organism, a reminder to return to that natural state, one that supports balance, harmonious lifestyle choices and creativity. The organism knows what it needs, movement, breath, water, to dig in the dirt or put on an old Monty Python movie and laugh so hard that you almost break a rib. The organism knows what to do, once the direction towards health has been reset by the correct remedy.
Anxiety may still arise, of course, these are indeed strange times, but after the correct remedy, you will be more inclined to witness it instead of claiming it as your rightful inheritance. It is not that. It is an ancient and primitive response to stress, no more, no less. When you have to run to catch the bus, it is useful. Otherwise, it is a distraction. We are all being called upon to walk through the fire. As Dr. Zac Bush says, we are being upgraded. Be conscious where you put your energy. Contract your focus, make it small. Shop locally, eat seasonally, nourish yourself. Look at the details of your blessed life. But if you still feel overwhealmed, find a good local or online classical homeopath and support yourself through these times. It can make the world of difference.
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