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“My
Husband Left Me and I Can’t Go On”
Her original
complaint was poor digestion with frequent bloating and belching.
Dorothy was self-conscious
about being married to a man fifteen years younger than her. Premature
graying of her hair contributed to her concerns about being old and
undesirable, although she was quite an attractive woman. She had received
benefit over the years from several homeopathic medicines, especially
Lycopodium (club moss) and Ignatia. Then we didn’t see Dorothy for
a number of years because she was doing well.
Dorothy returned in great distress after her husband had recently
moved out, having confessed ambivalence about staying in the marriage.
Crazy about him, Dorothy experienced terrific despair. It seemed to
her that the decision to divorce or remain together was in her husband’s
hands and that she was helpless to influence his decision. Dorothy
explained, “The state of my marriage affects everything. It’s an issue
of self-esteem. Homeopathy has helped me in the past with stress and
now I need help more than ever. I’m desperately unhappy. I contemplated
suicide. I cry so easily. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s the menopause,
maybe the marriage. It represents a loss of my femininity. I’m not
sleeping well lately. I have so much on my mind. I don’t know what
to do with my life. I don’t want to be rejected.” Dorothy knew about
rejection. Her childhood was difficult. An abusive marriage followed.
She felt guilty about not having shown her children as much love as
she would have liked due to her own emotional pain.
Dorothy’s physical complaints included uterine fibroids, irregular
periods, a nodular thyroid diagnosed as Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, and
a tingling sensation from the neck upward. She loved carbohydrates,
including rice, pasta, and bread. Dorothy remarked that she had never
been a thirsty person.
We prescribed Ignatia, which had helped Dorothy in the past, without
success. Her condition had deteriorated. She was now tormented by
thoughts of suicide, mainly of slitting her wrists. She felt no optimism
about a future without her husband. She knew she would not kill herself,
yet the urge to cut herself with a knife was persistent and disturbing.
When we probed further, Dorothy explained that she had a very domineering
mother who allowed her to have absolutely no privacy. She was not
encouraged to be herself. Her mother had picked out all of Dorothy’s
clothes, even in college. Dorothy only went out with boys that her
parents liked. Her husband had become everything to her—the only person
she ever loved and trusted.
I'd
do anything to please
Do I need to go to a mental hospital?
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