Hi everybody, I'm trying to help a close friend who is distressed about some problems her boyfriend is having which he says stem from being sexually abused as a child. He has a lot of physical problems and also a compulsion to surf porn sites (gay and straight) although this habit is at the same time disgusting and shameful to him.

She knows of my interest -- OK, fanaticism -- about homeopathy and wants to know if it can help this type of situation. I told her homeopathy can work wonders, but I'm not sure about this. I don't know all the details, and haven't met the BF personally. Is there even anything to cure here, i.e. is it a matter of "curing" an addiction to pornography, or just coming to terms with some different sexual behaviors? Do any of you all know of any cases of this sort that have been helped by homeopathic treatment?

[ 18 April 2001: Message edited by: CRA ]

The way to deal with this is through constitutional treament. Don't worry about the symptoms as if the remedy is chosen on the totally of symptoms it will remeove this upsetting trait.

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RSHom - Registered Homeopath

My feeling -from previous experience - is that this is something which could well be amenable to homeopathy. But your friend's boyfriend would need some degree of commitment to seeing a professional and experienced homeopath for many months (at least) as this kind of problem is deep seated. I think it's worth the effort and it is something I personally would be prepared to treat. But only if the person in question were committed to homeopathy and to recovery.

Hi CRA

Wexdoc has an important point here, you have to choose the homeopath with care. Choose s.o. who has experience and who is prepared to take it all the way. The patient needs to be committed but so too does the homeopath.

If this is sexual abuse what comes up in treatment will not be pretty, neither may the behaviour. Everybody should be prepared for this, boyfriend, partner, friends etc. Not to put your friend's boyfriend off, I'm sure he could hope for a very positive outcome, eventually...

I have a friend who had treatment for this, halfway through the treatment when then patient was in crisis the homeopath decided it was too much and pulled out.

All best wishes to your friend and partner.

[ 19 April 2001: Message edited by: debdell ]

Thanks, these are good insights and I will pass them on. I guess I'm just wondering whether in a situation like this with psychological trauma involved, it's not beneficial to go the traditional talk therapy route. It seems that by just popping a remedy, you would miss out on some of the valuable talking process. Or maybe the talking process is not so valuable. What do you all think about homeopathic treatment of psychiatric problems like this?

Personally I 'm dead against the traditional talk route although I know some people swear it helped them. My reason is that talking about old hurts, going over them and delving around is like digging into a dustbin and it's never ending. Far better to treat what's in front of you (Hahneman's advice anyway. I know we need a history but there's a limit to how much digging around in details is necessary.

In my opinion, the well chosen remedy can bring you to the trauma and even help you through it, but the real work has to be done by the boyfriend himself. Sexual abuse is one of the topics that are now more "en vogue" than in earlier years. That does not mean it was not there, just more into hiding.

A remedy cannot give the person the power back that was lost during the abuse, but it can give enough power to deal with the loss of power and help him to claim it back himself.
Whether the work is done in psychotherapy, or deep tissue work for example, it does not really matter. Whatever works for the boyfriend to stop being a "slave" to his history and start being the "master" of his life and live a good one, should be done.
Homeopathy can smoothe the ride considerably.
Claudia

[ 19 April 2001: Message edited by: ClaudiaRosemarin ]

Just a thought on the psychotherapy issue:

The "talking cure", as Freud called it, can be effective for some people but it is not always. Some people can be in therapy for years and years, yet not experience any resolution to their problems until they get a good remedy from a homeopath.

For some people, talking about old stuff and re-analysing it only palliates. In learning about the remedy carcinosin, for one example, I was surprised to see how often its "appropriateness" was mentioned for those who are "always in counselling or therapy". One writer made a note that one of his patients stopped all psychotherapy once the carcinosin was given, and his whole state improved tremendously on the remedy...whereas he had been in therapy for years with no real improvement.

We know from studying the Materia medica that mental states are part of what gets changed with illness--and indeed there are any number remedies which have corresponding mental states to CRA's friend. Remember, it is not the actual experience which is of importance in our analysis, it is the patient's reaction to that experience which is relevant. We can deal with this using our methodology and our remedies very effectively. Yes, it can be quite painful to go through the process of working through these old issues--but at least with homeopathy there is a means to do this effectively. I'm sure your friend knows that this will mean significant changes will result in his life.

Divina

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...and deliverance has many faces<br />but grace<br />is an aquaintance of mine

Dear CRA,

I'm thinking about Staph., Med. and Thuja. Look in Murphy's Repertory, Mind: Sexual and all the sub rubrics, including Ailments from Rape, Shame, etc.

In any case, I would give a 6C three times a day rather than a 200 or 1M, because obviously, you wouldn't want an agg. in a case like this!

Snoopy

I don't mean to diminish the pain and impact of sexual abuse but there may be more to this. In Homeopathy we know that constitutional illnesses can cause many mental and behavioral problems. CRA, you say that the boyfriend has a lot of physical problems. If I were handling this case, I would definitely want to know what those are and would see if they fit any miasmic patterns. The miasms can cause sexual addictions, as Snoopy suggests. The fact that the boyfriend is ashamed and disgusted by this behavior could indicate sycosis.

[ 22 April 2001: Message edited by: Tomi ]