2.16 Oxygenium, Case 1A 25 year old woman complains of chronic tiredness. She sleeps more than 12 hours a night and is still tired all the time. Any exertion is too much; she needs to rest a long time after she has done some exercise. The tiredness is worse in hot weather. She thinks she has low blood pressure. She would like to start to work full time, but she dare not in this state. She wonders what is the point of it all and she feels like giving up.
She also suffers from headaches, with pressure above her right eye, ‘as if an elephant is standing on it’. It feels as if her eyebrow is being pressed down. The headache is worse when she is working. All she wants is silence and other people’s talk makes her cross. When she has a headache she also has pains in her neck and back and she feels irritable.
She also complains of vertigo; everything turns black at times. This is aggravated when she is busy or when others are busy in her presence.
Her throat feels dry and she gets a tickle in it which is worse on talking. It makes her want to cough and she loses her voice. She coughs up white lumps of mucus. She feels pressure in her ears, her nose is often blocked and she gets a nosebleed from time to time. This is worse in smoky rooms, in a draught and during winter. She also suffers from sinusitis and swelling of the lymph glands.
She has a problem with relationships. Her last boyfriend was a real mummy’s boy who never never said a word. His parents accused her of coming from a difficult family and this caused her to have a nervous breakdown. This is when he finished the relationship. She tried to patch it up but she did not succeed and since then she feels that her memory has been a lot worse.
Three years ago she got another partner, but he often makes nasty remarks about her. Their sex life is nothing to write home about either, she says: ‘this is not the right way of showing that you love someone’. She is not interested in sex anyway, it only makes her more tired. He can’t satisfy her, she can only do that herself. His parents insult her and call her a slut. This started when his brother tried to seduce her one day and now everyone thinks it was her fault. She is still angry with him because he almost raped her. She never wants to meet his parents anymore either. They also accused her of being after their money.
She would like to do so much but she can’t because of feeling so tired. She studied horticulture and she is now doing a course to become a model. She would like to have a job because it drives her mad being at home all day. She wants to earn some money. Everybody is putting pressure on her to start doing something. The social services don’t believe that she lives on her own and threaten to stop her allowance. Even her doctor doesn’t take her seriously.
She likes to be on her own. Having friends only creates obligations. She isn’t a great talker and on the rare occasion that she has gone out with her best friend she (the friend) took someone else along and spent the evening chatting to this other girl instead. She used to be quiet and shy as child. She was often teased and she liked boys better than girls who did nothing but talk about boys.
She was a problem child. Her twin sister had more privileges than she did. She is just as stubborn as her father and she always quarrelled with him.
She hates the world and thinks it is unfair the way things are run, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Worst of all is the fact that she can’t find a job and therefore doesn’t have any money to do nice things. ‘It is so unfair that models earn so much money and I can’t even afford to go on a slimming course to become a model!’
She loves the feline species, especially panthers.
She once dreamt that she got home and the house had been burgled: her cats were lying on the balcony all beaten up and covered in blood.
GeneralsWeather: cold (2), <- damp, <- gloomy (2).
Time: < after 3 pm.
Desires: junk food (2), meat balls (2), chocolate (2), spices, fat, meat.
Aversion: brown beans (2), runner beans (2), coffee (2).
Food: < milk; profuse saliva.
Menses: stomach pain and back pain at the start of menses.
Sleep: much; on abdomen; takes more than two hours to fall asleep.
AnalysisIt wasn’t easy to find the right remedy.
Natrium bromatum seemed indicated because she felt she was getting all the blame and she wanted to withdraw. But it only brought temporary relief. So did
Ammonium fluoratum, the indications for the latter being the resentment towards her brother in law who tried to seduce her.
When we take another look at the whole picture it is clear that she feels very hard done by, not by anyone in particular, but by the world in general. The whole world is in a mess, ’The rich get richer and the poor get poorer’. Her parents in law accuse her of being a problem child and of being a slut who is out to get the family fortune.
Appreciation, possessions and sex play a major part in this case, which would indicate the
Carbon series.
She expects a lot, wants to have a nice, easy job with a large salary, but is not prepared to do an awful lot to achieve it. She doesn’t like housework, she can’t be bothered to put much energy into cultivating friendships, she can’t be bothered to do anything very much, there is no point as far as she is concerned.
Expectations and laziness indicate stage 16, which then leads us to Oxygen.
Her complaining attitude to life and the feeling of being misunderstood by doctors and social services also fit this picture very well. The dream about the burglary is a nice little confirmatory symptom.
ReactionAfter oxygen 1M she gradually starts to get better. She thinks the feeling of depression had something to do with a memory of incest. Two months later she feels much better, she feels less empty and her boyfriend is being very supportive. She is beginning to enjoy being outside in the sun and listening to the birds. She had a dream in which she had redesigned her garden and she knew that her plants were doing very well in it.