A 42-year-old woman, she is of small stature, has a plump build, and has open and vulnerable eyes. She sits a little slumped, taking up little space, yet is very attentive. Her voice in particular lacks strength and tone. She takes paroxetine 30 mg, euthyrox 75 mg, and levocetirizine. She has been taking medication for her slow thyroid for 10 years, as she was tired and depressed. The medication is not effective and she suffers from side effects: deep sleep, and difficulty getting started. She suffers from allergies, including hay fever, which is triggered by cats and dogs. As a child, she had anemia. Allergy: hay fever all year round, sneezing, lungs, since puberty. She has been taking antidepressants since her oldest child was born. It is going reasonably well, but there are still moments when she feels overwhelmed. Her mind is busy, she loses perspective, and everything seems very dark. A year ago, her medication was increased, and things went well for a while, but now she is feeling very tense again. She is like a sponge, absorbing everything from people, seeing and hearing everything, which makes her tired and insecure. It's about feelings. For example, if a colleague is sad, she is preoccupied with that and cannot put it aside. If friends are going through something, she cannot get on with her life but keeps thinking about it constantly. Her concentration deteriorates, and she cannot even read (which is her way of relaxing). She has many restless dreams. She also worries about things about herself: losing weight, and not looking good, is she a good wife for her husband? She has had this since high school and does not like to talk about herself. She has been struggling with this her whole life. If something goes wrong, she thinks, “See, I knew it.”
Depression runs in her family. She is perfectionist, the house must be spotless. The doctor prescribed medication, and then again when her child started school. When something happens that she has no control over, she loses herself. Something she can't do anything about, ‘Am I making the right choice?’. She couldn't help her children anymore when they started high school. Five years ago, her father was seriously ill and her child was in secondary school: that was a very difficult time. She thrives best with stability and regularity. She's always busy with them, she's good at it, and now everything is protected. She gets tired quickly, and then she has a short fuse. As a child, she found school difficult, she didn't feel at home there, the teacher said: you can't do it, you're stupid. Her reaction was to make her try hard, fight, and make sure she passed. In recent years, she could not work a few times because there was no fighting it, she was tired and sick. She kept fighting for others, putting herself aside, as if she didn't matter. She avoids crowds and dreads visitors for weeks but goes anyway. She has trouble making contact and is afraid of what people think of her; when they look at her, she becomes insecure. Her sleep is very restless, tossing and turning, breathing heavily, having absurd dreams, and feeling hot and sweating. She doesn't want to talk about the past, “I've been through enough.” Her father was an alcoholic, and her brother became addicted as a reaction to this. Her father became unemployed and started drinking, her mother was away in the evenings working, there were debts and financial debacles, and she felt she had to help, to take care of the family. At the age of 19, she took control, to keep everything running smoothly. The family is everything to her, she enjoys seeing the others doing so well.
AnalysisSensitivity may point to
Malvales, but in her situation more obvious are her practicality, the tackling, the fatigue, and searching for stability, all known in
Fabales.
Malvales are usually good at avoiding the hustle and bustle, she gets stuck in it.
Fabidae: Focused on practical action, tackling, and functioning in her world. The most important thing is family, but how she deals with it is ‘decisiveness’, which can be seen as the theme.
Fabales: the theme of fatigue, the theme of continuing as the only option, overweight, thyroid, family-oriented, debts, no time for fun.
Series 4: Concerns about her children just in society, school. Focused on achievement of herself, what she can do.
Phase 5: Always tension, unrest, forgiveness, being kicked out of the house, joy, enjoyment, short tempered.
Subphase 6: Being not worth, she did not matter, father loosing hes dignity. Tired, giving to much.
Stage 11: protecting.
Prescription:
Caesalpinia bonduc MK.
Follow-upThe first two weeks were restless; she felt alternately very relaxed or very busy, nervous, with a fast heartbeat, and impatient. The first few days this happened for hours at a time, then increasingly shorter periods. After these two weeks, she feels great. Her sleep is deeper, she no longer hears everything. A dream: anger, I am angry at others, they are angry at me. She is calmer and more cheerful. She is more confident in her nature, she has started exercising again: for years she did not dare to start, and now she no longer suffers from shortness of breath even with exertion. The ‘sponge feeling’ remains, but now she is able to deal with it. She have had this sensitivity since childhood, and have always felt that she need to learn to cope with it. The better she feels about herself, the better she is able to do so. She still feels other people's sadness, but is better able to put it into perspective. Her energy is better; she used to be very tired, but she kept going and doing everything, otherwise she would feel bad. After three months: This was a good period, she is relaxed, has more energy, and has halved her paroxetine dose over the past two months. She no longer needs an inhaler or nasal spray. She has become more active, she continued exercising, and has successfully resumed her diet. She is sleeping well and no longer has nightmares. She realizes that she needs rest, regularity, and stability.