Case by Maarten van der Meer
A cheerful, sweet, and literally and figuratively sturdy girl of 21 years old, she comes across stable but has a cautious and probing attitude. She has vivacious and understanding eyes, she is amazingly graceful, and she has a beauty and a gentleness that however does not make her vulnerable. The complaint is the abdomen. From her second year, there have been abdominal complaints, associated in toddler-hood with two substantial umbilical hernias from birth, and later with antibiotics given to her from age four to seven because of chronic ear problems. The course was invariably, and often abdominal pain was followed by high fever and ear infections. At age ten, the symptoms returned with no apparent cause. The abdominal pain often comes in combination with headaches and a pale face, little appetite, the clothes must be loose from the abdomen and a warm application improves. An attack of pain occurs several times daily. Her major hobby is drama and music. She attends a theater school and the music blares through the house where she stands and dances. She also crafts a lot, works with beautiful color combinations, and knows as child she wants to be an artist later. Falling asleep has always been difficult, she is a “night animal,” she is just never tired and goes on playing or drawing, reading, or journal writing. For the parents, she is an ideal child, sweet and problem- free. She comes across as very independent, and open-minded but somewhat withdrawn. For her age, she has an emotionally mature attitude. Keywords for her as daughter are resolute and calm. She seeks safety and is rarely in the forefront, only after when a new situation is talked about by her mother, she does improve and dare more. With friends present she can take the lead but then worries about who she should choose to play with, clearly she does not want to get into discord with anyone. Twelve years later I see her again with still abdominal discomfort. “The stomach feels annoying, is constantly in the way, all day long it's like I can feel what's happening”. The stools are different every time during the abdominal pain, there is often diarrhea. She also has a house dust allergy, which was discovered after blood tests because she was constantly tired, the allergy gives additional abdominal symptoms. Energy is better since the environment is kept dust-free. The abdominal complaint is also worsened by fatigue, too much attention, and in general by making herself nervous or being busy in the head. Nervousness makes her nervous about new situations, which is scary. For example, she started a new course this year and was very nervous days beforehand, as well as for tests during the year. Going to the dentist has been a problem for as long as she can remember. The course she is doing is art therapy, for industrial design did not please her and art school did not let her. She likes this choice very much, she knows from her own experience how much good art can do with you. She is still creative with painting and drawing which can help her when she is restless. She likes education, but new surroundings and new people make her shy, as always her insecurity disappears only after a few months of getting used to it, after which she starts talking more. In the past she often dreamed that the house was on fire, and recently a nightmare about a car accident with her parents, a nightmare from which she woke up screaming.
AnalysisThere are many Malvaceae features (in Plant Families, the Thymelaceae were incorporated into the Malvaceae. Case histories indicate that many of these characteristics can be extrapolated to the
Malvales and largely to the
Malvidae). Sensing in contact, sensing energy, people, and emotions, reading facial expressions and body language, waiting and sensing in contact, the softness they exude, and being able to let unwanted attention flow or anticipate it. She has a lot with the theme of creativity, art, and expression. Within this family, the search was for a suitable medicine, using the rubric “dream of fire”. Here we see
Malvidae Daphne indica,
Tilia cordata, and a medicine related to this family Chocolate. Based on my case histories, I place
Daphne indica at
Stage 5.
Prescription:
Daphne indica MK.
Follow upThe first week after taking it, she had tremendous energy, and the abdomen no longer showed any symptoms. The second week there was an emotional dip with a crying fit during the hours before the grades of the exams were announced. Visits to the dentist gave tension but no abdominal pain or diarrhea as always happened before. After four months, a vacation revealed no more a dust allergy. Energy remains good despite the long days. After eight months she has a radiant appearance, sometimes a feeling of insecurity still overwhelms her and she realizes that she has always had this but pretended to be tough and confident, she can now talk about it well. Two years later, she has an emotional time, in addition to a lot of pressure because of training, exams, and a therapeutic internship. She gets a lot of neck and shoulder pain, cavity inflammation, skin complaints, and again intestinal complaints.
Daphne indica is repeated, and she is back toblazing health after that.
Discussion This case is instructive and typical of a Malvaceae indication (see article Malvaceae). A sensitive child from an early age, she copes well with this by seeking protection, and withdrawing until the coast is clear. In addition to sensitivity, she has the characteristics balanced, easy-going, friendly, and contented, even happy; in her own words, she “praises herself”. The symptoms take place in the gut, tension and allergy affect this more than nutrition, indicating mucosal problems in the form of superficial contact or over stimulation due to irritation, not a consequence of the deeper layers of the gut wall. In her childhood, a loyalty problem is named, “Which friend should I choose”. Tension and emotions do not express themselves and give her restlessness that is discharged with creativity. In that creativity, we see some remarkable themes. She makes paintings where the heads do not match the body, often a duality in female characters (symbolic of emotions or feelings?), the theme of fire plays a role unconsciously (in drawings) and in the subconscious (in dreams). In the repertory this can be found as: confusion, as if the head separated from the body, delusions body parts scattered, visions and dreams of fire. These themes combined with the shyness and confusion in a very self-conscious woman almost literally fit the themes of the Thymelaceae, especially Daphne-indica, as described by Jan Scholten in the syllabus Plant Systematics 8. The typical character description from her teenage years still fits exactly, but what is particularly striking now is a special sensitivity, as if she feels particularly well how much space she occupies, and especially where someone else’s space and energy begin, or where they meet. This is rather abstract, but when I mentioned this fact after her improvement following this medicine, she appeared to understand and feel exactly what I meant. Communication, understanding and empathy without words, are conscious and manageable. As a rule, she can handle this well, through her attitude to the group or a person, by closing herself off more or less and picturing it on paper to get a view of what is happening in and around her, and then learning from it. I have also seen this trait or capacity in other people who responded well to
Daphne indica or
Dirca palustris, probably it is a characteristic of people in situations where a medicine from the Thymelaceae group is indicated. Possibly characteristic of the whole
Malvales group, because Tilia europea can also have this theme but can't handle it as well, probably because they can't hide or shut down as well. With Tilia, you see more that the need to withdraw is not a distancing, but a kind of intoxication they get into. Chocolate and Abroma also has this sensitivity, but has the solution that attack is the best defense. Recognizing a
Malvales’ indication often goes based on the mentioned softness and “feeling”, you can often feel these people yourself (for those who are predisposed to that), they feel you well, non verbally they are very strong, half a word is enough, a gesture or expression is enough in communication without starting or finishing a sentence. Parents and children can be seen communicating in this way, in a consultation you often see them looking for or seeing the story, the answers in the space right in front of them, slightly upwards, like in a speech bubble. Putting ideas into words, describing images, recognizing their own feelings first in images and only then the words, first the understanding and only then the language. They can usually explain it well to you themselves, if asked, for themselves it is so obvious that they don't bring it up.