A woman of 50 years old, her build is compact, calm but she comes alive when talking. When thinking she often searches for her words up to the right, when she talks about tension she leans over to the left. ‘I always have a busy head’. Because of severe allergies she has always lived in survival mode, which is why it did not stand out. She is busy and chaotic, she is always occupied with ‘in ten minutes’, she finds her way by always holding herself back; for instance, during the washing-up or a conversation she can suddenly go and do something else. When she does not smoke she is even more restless. The picture alternates: either a phase of thinking about everything, or a phase of only sleeping, up to as much as 20 hours a day, not wanting to see anyone because she is then so tired. Previously it was all or nothing; if she could cope, then she gave everything, after which things went badly for weeks or even months, being unable to eat anything because of the allergy. She often lived on tube feeding and got a lot of prednisone. As a child she was always ill; the allergy began with eczema at fourteen, and after the birth of the children it became severe, she lay in bed with her whole skin open. Later she also got blood in the stools, throat and ear infections. For four years she has had injections of dupixent, with which the allergy still flares up only minimally.
She has had a burn-out, after the divorce; her partner was an alcoholic, she gave up everything for him. She was so tired, got anxieties, thought she was going to die, had to cry a lot and the eczema got worse. At the time she lay in bed for months next to her parents. It was as if she was no longer inside herself, walking along behind her body, that is how anxious she was, and she could not eat. The anxiety had to do with the fact that she no longer had a buffer, she could no longer put things into perspective. Last year she had a second burn-out, she undertook everything to get back on top of it. She always takes everything on, she takes everything upon herself at work, and feels annoyance towards the people who do not do so. She always thinks she can cope with everything. She is always ‘on her way to the finish’. She works in a care home, which she had wanted from an early age but could not do because of her eczema. Caring is in her; as a child she always babysat, and working with the elderly attracted her. At home she was the only girl, she had a dominant mother. Father was hard-working, and good to the family. She always felt like an odd one out, she was emotional, had to cry a lot, never got compliments, she was a ‘pleaser’ for girlfriends and her partners. She has children with chronic illnesses and problems. She sleeps very badly, then lies thinking and planning about her worries, or about her rotten life, only working and caring. In her dreams too she is caring, and often wakes up crying.
Dreams: about searching for and rescuing the children or the dog, about her partner cheating. She has always just kept going, she was always ill, she crawled up the stairs, she has too great a sense of responsibility for everything.
AnalysisSeries 6: allergies, accountability
Series 3: skin, family, children, caring for people
Series 63: domesticity, friends and family as a foundation.
Phase 6: always tired, not belonging, no compliments, caring for the needy.
Phase 3: adapting, pleaser.
Stage 14: no longer able to do anything, only sleeping, it is unsolvable.
Prescription:
Plumbago europaea MK.
Follow upthe first night she hardly slept, lay sweating a great deal, and she had very nasty nightmares, a kind of sleep paralysis (
Stage 14) which she could not get out of, and she heard scary sounds, felt scary things, saw people. She began to think about her work, she started applying for jobs and that already gives her rest. She still feels wound up, but she now does sleep very well. She is calm. She can fall asleep more calmly and no longer lies planning everything. The dreams are calm now. At her work she got criticism and anger, whereas she was there precisely for the patients; when she gave criticism, colleagues saw that as an attack. That was at the time the trigger for the burn-out; she always stood in it with one foot in and one foot out (
Phase 6 theme). When she talks about her work it is remarkably efficient, at a high pace, direct, stable and within a limited number of decibels. She is still a bit tired, but ‘I had already been tired or very tired for 49 years’, this feels much better. Sleep, energy and rest are holding.