Teucrium |
The patient is a 38-year-old man who has been my patient since 1992. He now comes because of infections around his fingernails (paronychia), which he has been dealing with for two months. At first it was very painful, as if a needle were stuck in his finger.
Another problem is his lack of feeling: he is not even depressed, it is just that nothing really seems to touch him. “It just leaves me cold. I feel indifferent, like a robot.”
This is partly also related to his current unemployment. Seven years ago he completed his studies in ecology. Since then he has had seven permanent jobs, but for the last four months he has been unemployed. |
He has written many job applications and is very unhappy that he cannot find a job: “I am wasting my energy, I just can’t manage to build something up.”
Case history:
At 16 he had two ulcers under the tongue that were filled with a yellow fluid. One was removed surgically, the other healed on its own. Before that he had already had problems with worms and mucus in his stool. He has often lived in shared flats, where he felt affected by quarrels: “I can’t bear it when I cannot trust people.” The arguments seemed to bring on worm infestation and anal itching, especially in bed at night. He bites his fingernails.
General:
Aversion to cold weather, especially snowstorms. Dislike of cold and wet.
Sweating / night sweats slight
Previously a strong craving for sweets
Character and biography:
““I am very friendly.” He lives alone, needs his personal space, although he used to live in communities for idealistic reasons. He wants to live so that he can be satisfied with his life when he looks back from his deathbed. He is a strict vegetarian. He was raised in the Dutch Reformed Church, known for its dogmatism. He is the youngest of four children. His mother was very dominant and made her children feel they never did anything right. The father stayed in the background. He grew up with the feeling that “the world is bad and people are no good.” For a long time he could not imagine having his own children.
He is attracted to both men and women. He has a daughter with his girlfriend, who lives on the same street. His daughter spends half the week with him. He does not want to live with his girlfriend.
He is active in Amnesty International, but cannot bear the stories about violence and torture; they affect him deeply. “I prefer to just donate money.”
He is involved in nature conservation and leadership tasks. He hates having to struggle for work; it feels to him as if he is selling himself. “This culture has too much packaging and too little content, it’s a bla-bla culture made only of air.”
Analysis:
The combination of paronychia and worms is a good indicator for Teucrium marum (cat thyme). Teucrium is also a remedy for nasal polyps; this man had ulcers under the tongue. Note his reaction to cruel stories. Teucrium is found under this rubric: “Terrible things and sad stories affect him deeply.”
Prescription: Teucrium 200K
Follow-up:
His finger healed quickly and he feels emotionally much better. One year later his GP, who had referred him to me, reported that he was still doing very well.
Teucrium is a plant from the order Lamiales. Rajan Sankaran uses the earlier name Labiatae; he emphasises the sensation: “Excitability, which can be lively, pleasant or anxious.”
As a passive reaction he names “lack of excitability, lack of response to external things, dullness, indifference.” This man calls himself a robot: “Everything leaves me cold and indifferent.” His feelings are blunted; this is a good example of a passive reaction, as is found in the Lamiaceae.
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