By Martin Jakob
The 25-year-old patient attends the consultation because of burnout. Her complaints include dizziness, fear of illness, recurrent Candida infection of the genital area and a bacterial vaginitis.
She cannot cope with sick people because she is afraid of them. She is very afraid of becoming infected; it feels as if something takes possession of her. Sometimes she suffers sudden dizzy attacks, e.g. when driving. It seems as if she is losing the ground beneath her feet or her balance.
Her sister died after a long illness when she was still a child. As a result she had to grow up. The death of the sister was not discussed further in the family; all the parents' attention was now on her. Even today the patient feels very close to her parents. When her sister was still alive, she had always been the centre because of her illness.
The patient is not in a steady relationship and therefore feels very lonely. She works in the advertising industry but recently had burnout and had to be signed off sick because she was bullied by her superiors. She feels unjustly attacked and suffers from the high pressure of work in the company. Because of chronic exhaustion and dizziness she fears she will no longer be able to practise her profession. Her GP attributes the dizziness to iron deficiency. After her sick leave the patient could not return to her old post because it had been reassigned. It makes her ill because she has "no place" anymore.
She often thinks about what she actually wants to do in life and considers starting something new. She is easily influenced by her friends. She often wonders who she is and where she belongs. She expresses the feeling of constantly losing her own inner voice because so many people want to dictate to her and she does not really know what she wants. It is as if she only follows voices from outside, like a child told by its parents what to wear. She is not satisfied with her figure and appearance; she perceives herself as unattractive, although she looks younger than she is. She questions her relationship with her current partner and wonders whether he has affairs with other women. Relationships are often a great toing and froing – sometimes they work and sometimes not. She regards her relationship with her boyfriend as only half a relationship. Once she had a younger partner and was excluded by his circle of friends because she was "too old" for him. In her current relationship she often feels out of place, insecure and submissive. The patient's first steady relationship broke off very suddenly; shortly before the separation the couple had talked about children and a shared household. Afterwards her boyfriend travelled alone, came back and declared the relationship over. It took her a long time to get over it.
Foods: aversion to: cheese, milk; < garlic
Female genitalia: painful, clotted menstrual bleeding, backache, headaches before menses
Weather: < sun, headaches; sunglasses amel.
Time: 12:00 midday.
< carousel, rollercoaster.
Analysis
Carbon series: death of the sister, fear of illness, not much is talked about in the family.
Liliidae: feels lonely, without a steady relationship, relationship problems, looks younger than she is; infections in the genital area.
Phase 6 (Liliales): sudden end of a relationship without explanation, the partner has another woman; she feels out of place, she is bullied and loses her job to someone else; the sister received a lot of attention, she was excluded by the circle of friends; she is dissatisfied with her figure, feels unattractive.
Subphase 3: dizziness, < carousel, rollercoaster; relationship 'toing and froing', half relationship; easily influenced by her friends, something takes possession of her, no firm ground under her feet (DD Bor), she questions things (one could call her 'confused'); she cannot hear her inner voice because too many people want something from her; she herself does not know what she wants; she is very loyal.
Stage 3: asks herself how to proceed, what she really wants; whether she should start something completely new; wonders who she really is (DD Bor), triangular relationship.
Prescription: Tricyrtis hirta
Follow-up
The patient had been under my care for years and I had given her many remedies: Bor, Borax, Alumina, Aluminium sulfuricum, Scandium, Aristolochia clematis, Agraphisnutans etc. Nothing had brought about profound changes. With Tricyrtis hirta a turning point occurred: the patient reports that she gained self-confidence with every dose. She feels strong and happy. She has learned to be authentic and no longer adapts at all costs. She has got to know herself better and now knows who she is and what she wants. She knows where she belongs and which path she wants to take. This also applies to her relationships with men and friends. Her anxieties, the dizziness and the many genital infections have almost completely disappeared.
Comment
The interesting thing in this case was that I was able to successfully prescribe a remedy that was completely unknown to me. The themes of Stage 3 were very clearly identifiable in this patient and I had already prescribed several remedies from this stage. I had also tried Oxygenium and other oxygen compounds, but had not achieved real success. However, the themes of the individual remedies were clearly present. The plant Tricyrtis hirta with the number 633.63.03 covers the totality of the symptoms: 6 = angiosperms, 3 = silicon series (family, relationship), 3 = emphasis of the silicon series (double relationship and family themes), then Phase 6 = oxygen qualities, Subphase 3 (DD Bor) and finally Stage 3 = shows how the patient copes with the situation. In very complex cases it is often worthwhile to consider a plant remedy.
Photo: © Laura Bartlett shutterstock.com
Category: Cases
Keywords: burnout, fear of illness, Candida in the genital area, relationship problems, being excluded.
Remedy: Tricyrtis hirta.
