Phaseolus vulgaris: angry and tired

Chronic fatigue syndrome

A 26-year-old woman has suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome for five years. When it is really bad she spends four days a week in bed. Everything is too much for her; she has no energy at all. She also suffers from asthmatic bronchitis and breathlessness on climbing stairs, with pain in the chest around the sternum. The breathing difficulties worsen in fog, with a change of weather to wet conditions, in warm, humid weather, on the first day of menstruation and in the morning between 8 and 10 am. She feels better when she pulls her shoulders back.

Allergic conjunctivitis

She reacts allergically to various cosmetics, cleaning agents, solvents, spices and to elm, beech and beans. The allergies are worse in February and March, with irritation and redness of the eyes.

She has a sensation as if there is sand in her eyes, the upper eyelids are reddened, the eyes are painful; there is in addition an outward-pressing pain at the root of the nose. During these states she can be very restless. She then tends to break things and over-extends her fingers. The problems began five years ago when she started working in a clothing shop.

On the first day of her period she also suffers from dizziness; her vision is clouded and lacks depth perception. She is then clumsy and falls easily, especially when going upstairs. She also drops things and bumps into furniture. She has a feeling of floating while her head is in a sack. The ophthalmologist could find nothing and glasses made no difference to the symptoms. The neurologist performed a lumbar puncture and a visual test, but could find no objectively detectable defect.

The allergy to solvents has also affected her skin, which is reddened and itchy, especially on the backs of the hands, on the knees, at the elbows and in front of the ears. The skin on the back of the hands is thickened and swollen, as if a layer lay on it.
She repeatedly has "flu-like infections" that last at least a week, about eight or nine times a year. She has sore throats and the throat is red and itchy; she feels ill, weak and tired and has an elevated temperature of 38°C.

Family history

Her father has hay fever, her sister also has an allergy to solvents and her mother has multiple sclerosis. Her mother's multiple sclerosis began when the patient was about two years old; by the time she was thirteen her mother already needed a wheelchair.

Past history

As a child she sleepwalked, which she enjoyed. At the age of fifteen she suffered from hyperventilation with feelings of breathlessness and tiredness, but without anxiety or panic. The first attack occurred in her classroom during a maths lesson. She fell straight off the chair.

Everything felt very unreal: "I wasn't there any more, it just came over me." Everyone said they had expected something like that because of her family history, as her mother suffered from multiple sclerosis. At that time she also had a boyfriend whose mother was likewise ill with multiple sclerosis.

It was not particularly comfortable at home. She was very headstrong and sullen, which led her to undergo psychotherapy. She left her parents' home to live with an aunt for six months and later moved in with her older sister. Her mother was - because of her illness - very demanding, and she felt that her mother required something of her that she could not give. She felt powerless and thought: "I am neither a physiotherapist, nor a doctor or a magician." She believes that her problems have nothing to do with her mother's multiple sclerosis. This idea makes her angry. Her view is: "Everyone is responsible for themselves".

She can often become very angry, and she then likes to express her dissatisfaction. Even small things can provoke anger in her. "She could kick a cat to death that walked into her path." It makes her very angry when she has a lot to do, especially under time pressure. She then gets a red face and feels the anger rise from the hands, chest and throat up to the head. She is also annoyed by people who do not keep appointments. Astrologically she is a genuine Scorpio. She likes to help other people and values good cooperation. She loves her job as an English teacher and enjoys working with children.

General: Weather: icy-cold hands and feet, worse from damp weather and changes to wet weather

Time of day: Worse between 8-10 am, better in autumn

Cravings: meat, cheese, vegetables, fruit, melons, mango

Aversions: peas (3) and beans (3), sour, sweet

Menses: irregular, every three to six weeks; otherwise no problems

Sleep: Good, on her stomach

Dreams: Active and pleasant dreams; parachute jump from a mountain or taking part in a film. As a child she dreamed that she had gone into the wood with her family and then a witch came to eat her.

Analysis  
This patient first came to me in 1993. At that time I could not clearly recognise the appropriate remedy. Because of the strong aversion to peas and beans, I prescribed the bean, Phaseolus in 1M. At that time I had no further confirmation for this prescription. The confirmation for the prescription is found in the inversion of the law of similars: "In unclear symptomatology prescribe an unknown remedy." Later I discovered that many of my patient's symptoms were symptoms of the legume family (Fabaceae), as you can read below.

Follow-ups
After six weeks: When she returned she told me that everything had become worse. She had had a fever for several weeks, had a dry cough, muscle pains in the thigh, and eczema at the side of the nose. The dizziness, however, was almost gone and she no longer over-extended her fingers. She felt calmer, no longer in such a hurry and had more energy. After her energy level had previously gone up and down, she now found it noticeable when her energy was a little lower for a few days. I repeated Phaseolus vulgaris 1MK(1) and gradually she improved.

The remedy was repeated seven times during the first year. After six months almost all her allergies had disappeared and she only occasionally had transient muscle pains. Later in the same year she developed eczema, first under the eyes, later at the corners of the mouth and on the shoulders. The eczema worsened in the sun and from heat, and also between 8 and 10 am. Again she had the same modalities as before. Within the next five years the remedy was repeated a further seven times when minor problems such as fatigue recurred. After that she no longer felt more tired than a "normal" person and she is still doing very well.