Vanadium CaseThis is another case of a woman with anorexia. It started when she was 15 years old. Things were going wrong at school because she had difficulties dividing her time between the various subjects. She also did not want to grow up. During that period she changed from being a willing, hard-working little girl to someone who did not study and only did things to attract attention. She became rebellious, turned against her parents and her former friends and started to behave and dress in a totally different way. She started to use drugs, marijuana and heroin, partly because she had a boyfriend who persuaded her to, and partly because it helped her ’not to feel things’. The use of drugs made her passive, but she also started to write poems and see auras. She felt very clean, and it helped her to stop overeating. This period of using drugs lasted only a short time, but she did take a lot during that spell. Then she suddenly stopped when she was 18, because she realised that she was ruining her life.
However, her feeling of depression stayed and she used to wander around aimlessly and feeling desperate. The eating attacks came back too. She has received psychiatric treatment for 9 months.
The glands in her neck are swollen.
Occasional constipation with hard stools, < before menses.
Itching on the hands and on the sternum.
Stomach ache after coffee.
Past history: jaundice at birth. Meniscus operation when she was 14, because her knee used to lock.
General characteristics:
Temperature: cold, fingers numb, painful, < cold.
She likes fresh air and mountains.
Perspiration: copious at night.
Time: < 7 pm.
Desires: sweet, cheese, chicken, vegetables (2), fruit (2).
Aversion: fat, particularly fat on meat.
Menses: headache, stomach cramps and restless, itching legs during menses.
A lot of vaginal discharge.
Sleep: on her stomach, with her arms tucked underneath.
Mind: She is very unsure of herself: ’who am I really?’. She compares herself with others and thinks: ‘Am I nice, am I a good person?’ She thinks that she hasn’t got her own opinions. She feels that she is doing things wrong. For instance, when she is doing a drawing she feels as if she has to fight with it. On the other hand she is always making many plans for her life, planning far ahead into the future. She is inclined to postpone things. Her parents say to her: ’You never finish anything, you are never on time.’ She would rather not be here because she is afraid of who she is.
She is very friendly and easily persuaded by other people's ideas.
She used to think that people had a task to fulfil here on earth.
She suffers from anxiety before exams, and she doesn’t consider herself to be a successful person.
She suffers from guilt, particularly when she fails to do something that was expected of her. She also feels guilty about her former drug habits.
She is emotional and easily touched, especially before the menses, when she feels very lonely. She is afraid of being left on her own.
Her father is a very successful, self-made man. She always had to do all sorts of things to please others.
Relationship: when she was 12, a boyfriend of hers died in an accident and this upset her deeply. She cried and shouted with grief. Later on her relationships were difficult, as if her boyfriends never really chose her for her personality.
Work: she is studying horticulture.
AnalysisAfter the previous case it was not so difficult to find vanadium as the right remedy for this patient. Other remedies, such as med, puls, ign, Bar-c, and Graph have also helped her a lot. In cases such as these there are usually so many problems that it is very rarely solved with only one remedy. Each one of these remedies has resolved a particular problem. For instance, Ignatia greatly helped her to resolve her old love disappointment.
However, the anorexia and the eating attacks remained: sometimes there was some amelioration, but it did not really go away. Neither did the feelings of doubt and the inability to make choices.
When we compare this case with the previous one we can see many similarities, hence the choice for
Vanadium once again.
ReactionAlmost immediately after taking
Vanadium 1M her energy surged. She felt more powerful, she could keep her eating habits under control and she felt that she was allowed to be who she was, allowed to be successful.