Therapy with Paeonia officinalis (peony) and Hura brasiliensis (sandbox tree)
Further articles on the topic peony: Peony in periarteritis nodosa by Jan Scholten, Peony – the homeopathic picture by Jan Scholten
Initial case history
The 20-year-old woman comes to me because of severe nightmares. She is an extraordinarily pretty young woman with a dark complexion and beautiful brown eyes. She has at least one to two nightmares every night.
“It drives me crazy! I have had this since I was 16. Every night is chaotic and I cannot get the images I see out of my head.”
She is actually studying art therapy in another city and has rented a room there. But because the nightmares are so distressing and she could not be alone at night, she moved back in with her parents. I asked her about other possible complaints.
“At least three to four times a week my stomach is bloated and I regularly have diarrhoea. These symptoms always occur together with the nightmares. They get worse when I eat oranges, lemons, peppers or dairy products. It is particularly bad when I eat something fatty. I also cannot tolerate alcohol.”
I asked her to describe this in more detail.
Abandoned by friends and family
“I become embarrassed quickly and think very negatively about myself. I always blame myself for everything. I have been abandoned by so many friends and also by my family. I always tried to help others when they were in difficulty. When they got better, they didn’t want anything to do with me anymore. When I was 16 or 17, a lot went wrong at school because of me with other people.”
The nightmares began two days before her 17th birthday, together with the digestive complaints. On further questioning the patient admitted that she had had complaints for a longer time, but by far not as severely.
What are the nightmares about?
“In my dreams I am constantly searching for a hiding place. Someone was after me, but I didn’t know who or where they were. Later the dreams became more intense. The people who were after me turned out to be witches and men in long dark coats. The scenes were as intense as a horror film. At first I had to flee and later I had to fly and hide, but I couldn’t really escape. You feel completely helpless. I try everything, but it is in vain. I can’t do it! There are terrifying monsters that hurt others, injure or even kill them, but I don’t know the people. There is a lot of blood. Lately I dreamt of a mirror in the darkness. I felt panicked and so vulnerable.
I feel a lot of pain and injustice, everyone abandons or despises me. Why is that? Why does no one stand up for me? I even dream of war.
In the past year seven or eight people in my circle died. My GP suddenly died and the death of at least three other people affected me deeply.
During the summer holidays things were a bit better and I was better able to get the nightmare images out of my head. I don’t want these images anymore. What frightens me most is that I can do nothing about it and at the same time I feel so vulnerable.
Shortly before I turned 17 I had a strong premonition about a friend that something would happen. And I was right; she also let me down.”
Further details:
She becomes tired every day at about 5 pm; the tiredness lasts until roughly 8 pm.
Her family consists of her parents and a sister. Her sister also lives and studies elsewhere but is still often with the parents.
“At 14 I went to a family therapist because I was sad all the time. At that time I was already very negative towards myself. When I look back I notice that I had these feelings as early as four years old and when my sister was in puberty. She knew exactly how to attract our parents’ attention.”
The patient’s likes and dislikes are clearly related to her digestive complaints. She likes milk, but dairy products and other foods (fatty foods, onions, oranges, alcohol, caffeine) make them worse.
Analysis
This was the status after the initial case history. During the conversation I tried to determine whether there was a clear connection between the patient’s age and the onset of the complaints (nightmares and digestive problems). The many events and the feeling of being abandoned by family and friends led me to think of Hura brasiliensis.
Hura brasiliensis (sandbox tree) in homeopathy
Hura belongs to the family Euphorbiaceae and I believed I could recognise the theme of the spurges in my patient. Characteristics of the Euphorbiaceae include:
Suppressed emotions and anger about perceived loyalty to and dependence on stronger people and authorities.
Feeling unloved or not good enough. Unloved, patronised, put down. Lack of love, particularly motherly love.
Delusion that others are hard; they do not listen to them.
Suppressed emotions, especially anger. Aggression. Violent outbursts; diarrhoea, vomiting, herpes zoster, emotional. Alcohol. Angry outbursts are not permitted. Loyalty to the dominant person. Lack of self-confidence.
Dependency.
Sensitive, religious. Spiritually inclined. Follows others.
Dishonest, not loyal to themselves.
Fear of one’s own strength. They are neither strong, good nor beautiful.
I prescribed the patient Hura brasiliensis MK. She took one dose of the remedy weekly for a month. The reason was the intensity, frequency and quality of the nightmares.
Follow-up
In the following month the horror and the bloodthirsty images disappeared. She still has chaotic and frightening dreams. She wakes with a dreadful feeling and does not understand what has just happened. After waking she feels hot and sweats on her back.
A few times she had forehead headaches; the pain presses inwards and occurs in the morning after waking. Her GP prescribed Duspatal 200 mg to be taken once a day.
I was not satisfied with the course of the case. Obviously the digestive complaints had not improved, otherwise she would not be taking medication for them. The headaches were not severe, but still not a good sign. But at least the nightmares had become less…
I advised the patient to take Hura brasiliensis as needed over the next four weeks.
Soon afterwards she stopped the Duspatal and the nightmares continued to decrease. Nevertheless she still had digestive complaints. She still has bloating and also mentions that she regularly feels nauseous. Every morning she sits with her head bent over the toilet until exactly 11 o’clock.
The headaches worsen before thunderstorms. I realised that the nightmares and the digestive complaints must be present in the remedy picture.
I changed the remedy and prescribed Natrium carbonicum 200K, because the patient also reacted to dairy products. One week after the remedy was given she emailed me and said the nightmares were as bad as before. My fears regarding the remedy choice and my uneasy feeling were confirmed. I revised the case immediately and looked for a remedy that included both aspects – nightmares associated with digestive complaints – in its picture.
Paeonia officinalis (peony) in homeopathy
I came across Paeonia officinalis and prescribed the patient a 200K. When repertorising the case I was not really satisfied with any of the indicated remedies, but I knew the themes of Paeonia: nightmares with digestive complaints and problems of the rectum.
The result was remarkable. The nightmares improved noticeably and the digestive complaints disappeared completely. She also tells me that her boyfriend now likes her much more because she speaks openly and honestly with him about her opinions and feelings. She is not so aloof any more.
She no longer needs to take Paeonia; she still has occasional dreams, but no more nightmares.
Pieter Kuiper
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: http://www.interhomeopathy.org/paeonia_in_nightmares_and_abdominal_complaints
Photo: 1104063557 by Sarah2
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
