An Expert at Pushing the Envelope

We were not surprised to learn that Liz had her own share of fears, especially of monsters. Nightmares would awaken Liz so often that her parents had hung a “No monsters allowed!” sign on her bedroom door. The dark still made Liz nervous. Even now the monsters chased her in her dreams, and she refused to enter another room unless someone else was there with her.

There were a few other quirky characteristics about Liz. Oversensitive to just about everything, she couldn’t handle noise, light, crowds, or being talked about, even if complimented. Highly prone to sunburn, Liz needed to apply an SPF 30 sunblock four to five times a day when she was outside. Indoors, however, she preferred to be totally unprotected. In fact, from the moment she came home from school, she preferred to be naked or close to it.

Add to this a propensity to be in constant motion and the teachers’ complaint that she had great difficulty focusing on any one thing. “There must be something misfiring in Liz’s brain,” concluded her mother, who had tried every known parenting technique on her daughter.

Homeopaths always base the prescription on what is strange, rare, and peculiar about the individual, her symptoms, and her state. We always search for one thread that ties together every aspect of a person’s past history and present complaint on all levels. Sure Liz was sassy and touchy, but there was much more. The intense reaction to immunizations as a baby, her equally intense reaction to the sun and to noise. The key to understanding Liz seemed to be her sensitivity on all levels—even to wearing clothing. And underlying this ultrasensitivity was the terror that she inherited from her mother and, possibly, her maternal grandfather.

The one medicine that most closely corresponds to this hypersensitivity, and that also fits particularly well her childhood tendency to high fevers with a glazed look in her eye, is Belladonna (nightshade). This is a case of an intense medicine being prescribed for a very intense child. Her response to the medicine was equally intense. First, her backtalking increased dramatically for three weeks, then she developed chicken pox accompanied by a fever, during which time she became disoriented. Her mother, familiar with homeopathy, had treated the chicken pox with Rhus toxicodendron, which rapidly relieved Liz’s itching and restlessness.

Six weeks following our initial phone consultation with Liz, her mother reported that was doing quite well. The nightmares had ended, as had her sleepwalking, which she had forgotten to mention during the first appointment. Her ability to focus was better, and, consequently, her school performance was improved as well. Doodling and drawing pictures while in class had diminished. No longer as bossy, she was interacting much more positively with her friends.

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