The ABC Homeopathy Forum
study question: Tourettes Syndrome
I am exploring homeopathy. I accept the philosophy and the truth of it. I am interested in how cases are taken and repertorized, how remedies are selected and prescribed, and how cases are handled over time. That's where I'm coming from.I was watching a documentary on YouTube about Tourettes Syndrome. It seems to me that to select a remedy, one would want to look at the possibility that a person's tics began a certain way, began after a certain problem, provide a certain cover, play a certain role. In other words Tourettes Syndrome is a label that, like all mainstream labels, actually covers a huge range of potential remedies.
That said my impression from the documentary is that in general, there is some sort of fear or anxiety going on. But it could vary from person to person. Maybe it was fear of abandonment, maybe it was fear of sexuality, maybe it was fear of being abused.
So naturally with Tourettes Syndrome one might think of the remedies that influence jerking motions. But only an interview could clarify the mental origins, or the mental role that the tics play. Indeed, couldn't some remedies be focused just on the mental symptoms and ignore the jerking and shouting?
For example, if a young lad with TS had a tic involving sniffing, throwing his head back, and lifting up his shoulders, and an interview revealed that he had trouble being accepted by the male population starting with Dad, and if on top of that he had digestive heartburn, then could we select Lycopodium, which has nothing to do with spastic motion?
Is there a risk that a non-TS-sufferer would try to read too much significance into the specific TS symptoms? For example, maybe the lad's symptoms look to me like a kind of repetitive self-assertion and defensive self-absorption, but what if it is merely genetic? Is that possible? I don't think the symptoms would be devoid of meaning.
In general how would you approach a TS case?
ckcu8 on 2014-05-25
This is just a forum. Assume posts are not from medical professionals.
You would approach it like any other case.
This is the same reason why 5 people with a cold will all get a different remedy.
It is your life force that does the clearing, not the remedy. The remedy is
a 'match' to what makes the person better or worse. What is his thirst, and
likes and hates for food, what are the physical symptoms, what are the mental
symptoms- When you have enough of a match, this match will be 'similar'
to what is going on in the body/mind. The body won't let two similar things
go on at the same time. So the life force is stimulated. The life force has
its own intelligence and should start working according to Herings law of cure
clearing out imbalance.
If you have several remedies that seem to be a match, you look for the strange
and peculiar symptom, if there is one of those in one of those remedies then
that trumps the other ones.
This is the nuts and bolts of homeopathy.
This is the same reason why 5 people with a cold will all get a different remedy.
It is your life force that does the clearing, not the remedy. The remedy is
a 'match' to what makes the person better or worse. What is his thirst, and
likes and hates for food, what are the physical symptoms, what are the mental
symptoms- When you have enough of a match, this match will be 'similar'
to what is going on in the body/mind. The body won't let two similar things
go on at the same time. So the life force is stimulated. The life force has
its own intelligence and should start working according to Herings law of cure
clearing out imbalance.
If you have several remedies that seem to be a match, you look for the strange
and peculiar symptom, if there is one of those in one of those remedies then
that trumps the other ones.
This is the nuts and bolts of homeopathy.
♡ simone717 9 years ago
Thank you very much for your reply. Looking in Complete Dynamics, I see that there are many remedies corresponding to twitching in a wide range of body parts, so from the standpoint of bodily twitching, there should be ample range for discovering the overall best match. Therefore, for TS, it isn't correct to say automatically (as someone did on the forum a few pages back) that the patient ought to take agar, a remedy that is 'mainly neurological'.
Is there any possibility that for a 'TS' person with physical twitches (noting that some have only verbal tics), the apt remedy might actually have no aspect of twitching in it? Or would the twitching-related remedies (for the appropriate body parts) be the full available set, owing to the prominence of the twitching as a symptom?
In truth, we *all* have defensive twitches, occasionally manifested. When we are nervous or upset, we might shrug, or glance, or pat our hair, or say something sotto voce. Perhaps for TS cases these have just been reinforced and become part of the person. Must the tic be central to the remedy-finding?
In the documentary, the parents spent time describing the psychology behind the scenes. So there is a logic to a TS case. Also TS sufferers were able at times to guess that certain symptoms were faked or exaggerated for various reasons, which again invites a discovery process.
[message edited by ckcu8 on Sun, 25 May 2014 22:11:10 BST]
Is there any possibility that for a 'TS' person with physical twitches (noting that some have only verbal tics), the apt remedy might actually have no aspect of twitching in it? Or would the twitching-related remedies (for the appropriate body parts) be the full available set, owing to the prominence of the twitching as a symptom?
In truth, we *all* have defensive twitches, occasionally manifested. When we are nervous or upset, we might shrug, or glance, or pat our hair, or say something sotto voce. Perhaps for TS cases these have just been reinforced and become part of the person. Must the tic be central to the remedy-finding?
In the documentary, the parents spent time describing the psychology behind the scenes. So there is a logic to a TS case. Also TS sufferers were able at times to guess that certain symptoms were faked or exaggerated for various reasons, which again invites a discovery process.
[message edited by ckcu8 on Sun, 25 May 2014 22:11:10 BST]
ckcu8 9 years ago
Take a look at Evocationers case taking
form. Take a look at What Fitness asks.
You get ALL the information, then make
rubrics, some rubrics count more than
others, remedies are graded as to cure in rubrics, only after you have a totality then
you see what remedies match and go
from there.
First you have to learn how to take a case-you need to do more looking at
case taking. Many homeopaths take the case using several different
methods and then analyze.
[message edited by simone717 on Sun, 25 May 2014 22:21:36 BST]
form. Take a look at What Fitness asks.
You get ALL the information, then make
rubrics, some rubrics count more than
others, remedies are graded as to cure in rubrics, only after you have a totality then
you see what remedies match and go
from there.
First you have to learn how to take a case-you need to do more looking at
case taking. Many homeopaths take the case using several different
methods and then analyze.
[message edited by simone717 on Sun, 25 May 2014 22:21:36 BST]
♡ simone717 9 years ago
Every case will be different, in terms of what you look at, what you determine is important, and how you translate that across into a prescription. The specific named disease would have almost nothing to do with the prescription, although it may have a lot to do with the dosage, potency, and prognosis.
The symptoms themselves, such as Jerking, would be explored definitely. But we would be trying to uncover what is peculiar in each one, especially when most or all people with the condition have it as a general characteristic. We would be asking ourselves 'What makes this patient's jerking different from all the others'. When does it happen, what makes it worse, what makes it better, what else comes with it, what stirs it up, and most importantly what sensation do they experience with it?
But the most relevant part of the case would be the mental and emotional aspects of it. How do they feel about their disease, how does it affect their life, how do they react to it, how do they manage it? We would look at where it started, was there an event that appeared to precipitate the illness, or a set of circumstances. It may be curable just on the basis of understanding how it began.
On of the things every homoeopath is meant to be taught (assuming their education was appropriate), is how to distinguish what is to be cured, what is to be treated, how to determine what symptoms are valuable for leading us to a remedy. Where those symptoms are found, which ones we weight as important, varies from case to case.
Primarily we make those decisions based on what the patient tells us. It is their thoughts, their words, their feelings, their theories and ideas, their experience of the disease that brings to life the totality we need to see, and therefore the remedy that needs to be given. It is not our own ideas about it that matter, and certainly not our theories about where it has come from. We need to understand it entirely from their perspective.
The symptoms themselves, such as Jerking, would be explored definitely. But we would be trying to uncover what is peculiar in each one, especially when most or all people with the condition have it as a general characteristic. We would be asking ourselves 'What makes this patient's jerking different from all the others'. When does it happen, what makes it worse, what makes it better, what else comes with it, what stirs it up, and most importantly what sensation do they experience with it?
But the most relevant part of the case would be the mental and emotional aspects of it. How do they feel about their disease, how does it affect their life, how do they react to it, how do they manage it? We would look at where it started, was there an event that appeared to precipitate the illness, or a set of circumstances. It may be curable just on the basis of understanding how it began.
On of the things every homoeopath is meant to be taught (assuming their education was appropriate), is how to distinguish what is to be cured, what is to be treated, how to determine what symptoms are valuable for leading us to a remedy. Where those symptoms are found, which ones we weight as important, varies from case to case.
Primarily we make those decisions based on what the patient tells us. It is their thoughts, their words, their feelings, their theories and ideas, their experience of the disease that brings to life the totality we need to see, and therefore the remedy that needs to be given. It is not our own ideas about it that matter, and certainly not our theories about where it has come from. We need to understand it entirely from their perspective.
♡ Evocationer 9 years ago
One point the homeopath would have to consider as a possibility, is that the TS sufferer may have a surprising role in the ailment, in that he may derive some benefit or enjoyment from the behaviors, and may not cooperate in changing. In the documentary I viewed, at least one sufferer appeared to use the syndrome behaviors in a deliberate manner. So rubrics like [ mind; capriciousness ] or [mind; obstinate ] could be useful.
ckcu8 9 years ago
The important thing is not to make any judgement about it. We need their own words, their own feelings, their own opinions. If they describe themselves as being capricious or stubborn that is fine, but we would not be interpreting it. In a way, it makes no difference to us at all if it is feigned or real - we are only interested in the internal world of the patient, which we perceive through their description of their life.
♡ Evocationer 9 years ago
And you're saying that if you can nail that inner psychological sense to the sense of a remedy, then the physical symptoms don't matter? As you said in the other thread, '... regardless of whether the remedy is in the repertory for those symptoms.' What Materia Medica can help with that?
ckcu8 9 years ago
Physical symptoms do matter. You take the totality of the case.
Otherwise, what you are doing is not homeopathy.Homeopathy is about
getting a SIMILAR match to the disease. Not just one part of it.
[message edited by simone717 on Mon, 26 May 2014 14:38:27 BST]
Otherwise, what you are doing is not homeopathy.Homeopathy is about
getting a SIMILAR match to the disease. Not just one part of it.
[message edited by simone717 on Mon, 26 May 2014 14:38:27 BST]
♡ simone717 9 years ago
I agree with Simone - you cannot just examine one part of the case and hope to see the totality there. The vital force will influence all levels of the person.
However, each level is able to express peculiarity to a different degree, which means that it can be perceived more easily in certain kinds of symptoms.
The levels of Sensation, Mind, and Emotion are more individual aspects of a person, and so more easily show the peculiar state of the remedy. This is why it is said if you can get the totality right there, you can often cure a case without worrying about repertorizing the physicals.
But it is important to examine them, because different patients express their disease at different levels, and it may very well be the physicals that are displaying that strangeness we are looking for.
The key here is flexibility. One cannot approach every patient exactly the same way. You have to be able to adapt your case taking and analysis to suit the person in front of you. That is one of the differences between a good homoeopath and a not-so-good one.
However, each level is able to express peculiarity to a different degree, which means that it can be perceived more easily in certain kinds of symptoms.
The levels of Sensation, Mind, and Emotion are more individual aspects of a person, and so more easily show the peculiar state of the remedy. This is why it is said if you can get the totality right there, you can often cure a case without worrying about repertorizing the physicals.
But it is important to examine them, because different patients express their disease at different levels, and it may very well be the physicals that are displaying that strangeness we are looking for.
The key here is flexibility. One cannot approach every patient exactly the same way. You have to be able to adapt your case taking and analysis to suit the person in front of you. That is one of the differences between a good homoeopath and a not-so-good one.
♡ Evocationer 9 years ago
To post a reply, you must first LOG ON or Register
Important
Information given in this forum is given by way of exchange of views only, and those views are not necessarily those of ABC Homeopathy. It is not to be treated as a medical diagnosis or prescription, and should not be used as a substitute for a consultation with a qualified homeopath or physician. It is possible that advice given here may be dangerous, and you should make your own checks that it is safe. If symptoms persist, seek professional medical attention. Bear in mind that even minor symptoms can be a sign of a more serious underlying condition, and a timely diagnosis by your doctor could save your life.