The 32-year-old patient presents with migraine.
Ghanshyam Kalathia (GK): Please tell me about yourself and your complaints.
P: I have suffered from migraine for five years. The pain is very, very severe. I cannot concentrate on anything. When I have to read something or prepare an annual report or an interim report, I get these headaches. Whenever I have to concentrate on one thing, I have an attack. Once the pain is there, I cannot get rid of it. Over the last two or three months I have noticed that the headaches improve when I eat a lot and well during an attack. Then I feel better.
GK: What do you feel in your head during the pain?
P: It feels as if my head were getting bigger and bigger (gesture). I have the sensation that my head swells with the pain – it’s not just a feeling; sometimes I can see that my head is larger than usual when I look in the mirror. Mostly the pain starts here (around the first cervical vertebra) and moves up from there. Sometimes it extends across the whole head and sometimes there are intense, shooting pains like electric shocks that go from the base of the skull to the forehead.
GK: What do these pains do to you?
P: Since I have had these headaches, I have lost interest. My life has lost its charm. I would prefer to do nothing at all. Nothing matters anymore. Everything is just routine, always the same, nothing special. I miss my wild student days.
GK: Please tell me about your wild student days…
P: They had a certain charm. Everything was interesting and exciting; sometimes I even forgot to eat and drink. I hate my current job; it is very, very boring, always the same, there is no variety. Everything is routine and meaningless, nothing interesting happens. No excitement, no buzz. Everything is simply boring and sucks the beauty and charm out of life. I feel like I am wasting my life and my youth with this boring job. My age has felt as if it has doubled since I took this job. Life has definitely lost its charm.
GK: What makes life charming?
P: The charm lies in feeling younger than you actually are. You enjoy every moment. You take life to the full; you live a beautiful life. That only happens if every moment of life is exciting. If everything is exciting, there is no room for boredom, gloom and routine in your life.
GK: What is the difference between a boring and an exciting life?
P: In a boring life there is no charm. In an exciting life you feel younger and more active. You constantly think, “Let’s do this and that.” Everything is simply interesting. You try to enjoy every moment of your life.
He now appears animated, speaks faster and his whole body starts moving.
GK: Let us put your life aside for a moment. We will talk now in general terms. Please answer me spontaneously with whatever comes to mind. What does excitement mean?
P: Excitement means being filled with joy and happiness. Everything in you is excited and you feel this warmth in your body. You feel your body in motion, as if everything is rushing in, surging in. My head becomes very hot when I am excited; I feel the heat here (left side of the head).
I can literally see the excitement while he talks.
GK: Please tell me more about the excitement…
P: Right now I am very excited. I can feel the warmth in my whole body and I have the sensation as if something is rushing upwards inside me, like waves. Now I do not have to think about my boring, grey life. I feel strengthened inside. It feels as if every single cell in my body is active and refreshed. In this moment nothing stagnates in me. I can feel deeply within myself. There is nothing boring or gloomy at the moment, everything is beautiful; I feel happy. Generally my mouth becomes dry when I am excited and so does my throat. I also have to pass water very often then, sometimes even every 10 minutes.
GK: Tell me about your dreams.
P: I am almost ashamed to tell you about them. I have bad dreams. I always dream about girls. After the dreams I wake up very aroused.
Analysis
Here there is a clear polarity between excitement/arousal and dullness. The patient reacts to changes: even the smallest things affect him and I decide on a prescription from the plant kingdom with the contradiction excitement/dullness as the central theme. In the Labiatae (mint family) we find this form of arousal: lively, pleasant and trembling with the opposite of boredom and dullness. The migraine occurs periodically and I decide on Collinsonia, a remedy from the malaria miasm.
Prescription: Collinsonia 1M
Follow-up one month later: For one month the patient has had no headaches and also feels somewhat better mentally. I decide to observe the case a little longer.
Follow-up after three months: He calls because of a severe migraine and urgently requests an appointment.
P: Since last night I have had incredibly severe headaches. I cannot bear it. It is terrible. It feels as if my head could burst at any moment. I think it is swollen inside (gesture).
GK: How did the headaches start and what symptoms do you have?
P: Yesterday was a holiday and I was at home. I watched a cricket match on television with my family. It was an extraordinary match: until the end it was not clear who would win. It dragged on all day and only finished at 23:30. The whole family was in high excitement, everyone was having fun, relaxed. But when the game ended, the headaches came: they started very slowly but became so strong that I had to vomit two or three times, which gave no relief. I had never had such severe headaches, nor for so long. I think the excitement about the cricket match was the trigger. It is the first time I have been able to identify a trigger for my headaches.
GK: How did you feel during the TV broadcast?
P: It was pure excitement. We all sat in front of the TV and each single moment was exciting. I was so energised, I shouted and cheered, I was constantly in motion.
GK: What do you feel when you are so aroused?
P: I am happy, I have so much fun. It feels as if every single cell in my body is active and aroused. I have the sensation that something rushes through my body, from my feet to my head. I become warm and it is as if my blood is being pumped through my body with full force. Everything in me becomes so excited that I feel the warmth inside, breathtaking moments, everything works within me, quickly (he speaks very rapidly).
GK: Describe that: “Everything works within me”.
P: I can feel every single cell in my body. In that moment nothing is sluggish or drowsy, everything is in motion. Every part of my body performs at its peak. I can feel my blood flowing through the veins. I notice every change in my body. Just a few seconds earlier everything is normal and suddenly everything changes as if you were a completely different person. You are sluggish, lazy and relaxed and suddenly you are alert and active. Everything in you changes.
The excitement is now no longer the central element, but the ‘process’, the course of the arousal. In the first case-taking I made an error: I had taken the theme ‘excitement/arousal’ as self-evident and had not tried to investigate further. It is indeed not only about arousal, but about how this ‘arousal’ plays out in the body, i.e. the physiological sequence of the arousal.
GK: You are doing this very well, continue…
P: It is as if something simmers inside you. If, for example, someone insults you, you notice how the blood boils up in you. It is pure arousal, nothing else.
GK: Please forget yourself for a moment and describe what arousal generally means to you.
P: Arousal is nothing more than a phenomenon or process that takes place in our body. It is merely a process that is coordinated by the head and the body. The head gives the orders and the body becomes alert. I believe that certain chemicals play a large role in this moment. My whole body was on red alert.
Patients who require a sarcode as a remedy often compare their experiences and sensations with processes that take place in the body. Sometimes they relate their sensations to a specific organ or bodily system.
GK: Chemicals?
P: Yes, the brain signals to the body through certain chemicals what it must do. Or directly via the nerves that stimulate the body to release chemicals which then spread very quickly through the blood. So that the chemical reaches the target organ quickly, the body ensures that the blood circulates well and fast – that is why there is this ‘rush’. I have not studied medicine or biology; I can only tell you what I know and what I can describe. Arousal is nothing more than a coordinated process between brain and body.
GK: Describe this process a little more closely.
P: It is a process in which your whole being is seized by a chemical reaction. Let us assume something changes in you quite suddenly and unexpectedly. Then brain and body react very quickly with the help of chemical reactions. It is only about stabilising mind and body. That is how the body copes with unexpected situations; it is a reaction pattern of your being. For example: you stand with a stranger and suddenly your girlfriend touches you unexpectedly from behind. What happens then? We are talking about an adrenaline reaction.
GK: An adrenaline reaction?
P: Yes, exactly. Adrenaline is one of the chemicals the body produces when something sudden happens, a shock or an excitement. If, for example, you kiss your girlfriend for the first time or if you are angry or you watch a film on TV, or if you receive bad news. It is part of the body’s defence mechanism. I believe God mistakenly built an adrenaline factory into me (laughs very loudly)!
GK: What do you feel right now at this moment?
P: I don’t know why, but my headaches have gone. For the first time in my life my headaches have stopped without painkillers. I believe you have a healing influence on me (he laughs)!
GK: What conclusion do you draw from our conversation today?
P: I now understand that I react more than I act. I believe this arousal is my reaction pattern (laughs).
Analysis:
There is a clear difference between the first and second case-taking, although the theme ‘excitement/arousal’ is prominent in both. During the first consultation I did not delve deeper into his sensation. At the second appointment, however, we arrived at a ‘nonsensical’ sensation that he could fully relate to.
With hindsight from the first conversation it was easier for me to understand the language of this ‘nonsensical’ sensation. The patient speaks of a physiological mechanism taking place in his body and I know from earlier cases that this is the language of the sarcodes. He relates this process to the adrenaline reaction and the indicated remedy becomes very clear.
Prescription: Adrenaline 1M
Follow-up one month later, after Adrenaline:
The patient has no headaches and feels extremely well. He has become calmer than before and the remedy is not repeated.
Follow-up four months later: no headaches, but he starts reacting strongly to other people again. His wife reports that he often picks fights. Adrenaline 1M is repeated.
Follow-up after 18 months: Since the last dose he had one instance of a headache, which again resolved by itself without painkillers. He had in total two doses of the homeopathic remedy. He has become calmer. He reports: “Now I make decisions with my mind and not out of a reaction. It has become clear to me that my reaction system previously did not work well and that is why I fell ill.”
Steroid sarcodes:
Highly reactive:
In all my cases that required a steroid sarcode there was a certain reactivity or impulsiveness. Behind the reactions there is no thought: they react suddenly and impulsively.
Quick and hasty:
Another facet of their overreaction is impatience and hurry. Everything they do, they do in haste and at great speed. They want to finish everything in the shortest possible time.
Highly unstable:
Stability is an important theme in the lives of these patients. Basically, they are extremely unstable and easily influenced; it is as if they were controlled by someone else and had no control over their own life. Some patients try to retain control through their rapid and furious actions.
Restlessness:
Physically they are very restless and move quickly. They are constantly moving their hands or legs or making involuntary movements.
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Photos
Shutterstock; imagedb.com
Shutterstock; Gustavo Frazao
Category: Cases
Keywords: excitement/arousal, reaction, reactive, mechanism, chemical reaction, sarcode
Remedy: Adrenaline
