Would anyone care to take a bit of time to make a "fast and dirty" assessment of the following characteristics? Either for a constitutional remedy or for something to specifically address any of the problems near the top of the list? I would be most grateful. I am "going over a rough patch" at the moment. (Not to worry--I have been seen by an internist and a cardiologist and I started regular visits to a therapist, for the first time in more than 25 years, in December. But I basically go to MDs for diagnosis only, preferring to address problems using homeopathy, nutrition, herbs, aromatherapy, and behavioral modalities as much as possible.) Here is my list:

Extreme sensitivity to noise of all kinds

Extremely uncomfortable in closed spaces with no air moving; craves fresh air

Anhedonia (little joy or interest in things)

Palpitations, chest tightness when lying down

Mood usually either angry, melancholy or grieving

Poor concentration

Obsessive

Prone to compulsive shopping and hoarding behavior

Alternately suspicious/pessimistic and gullible

Feels that life is over; fearful of future

Feels outcast; no social confidence

Cannot bear to contemplate suffering or conflict, human or animal; cries easily

Cannot resist urge to complain at risk of annoying others

Irritability and resentment override desire to be gracious and courteous to others

Nausea and/or transient nasal stuffiness when tense

Menstrual irregularity since 9/11 (NYC resident)

Perimenopausal

Former smoker (quit 1992), drinker (quit March 2001)

Moderately nearsighted in one eye; vision impairment/eye strain worse some days than others

Tendency to dry eyes

Always "playing catch-up"

Cannot tolerate clutter

Intermittent soreness of tongue and mouth

Often drowsy/weary

Cannot sleep more than 5 hours

Typically goes to bed at 2 a.m. but sometimes naps between 9 and 12

Plantar fasciitis of right foot for past 6-9 months (Rhus tox. helps a little)

Loves to walk (but hips, lower legs and feet, especially right foot, hurt after a while; knees are OK)

Can't find time/energy/motivation to exercise any more (due partly to longer commute beginning 3/01)

Strongly torn between city and country

Haunted by childhood vacation spot, still returns every year

Irritable bowel (alternating constipation and diarrhea, gassy)

Acid reflux esophagitis

Lower abdomen tender to pressure, painful to stretch (this for many years)

Uterine fibroids and endometriosis

Circumstances: Lives alone (except for 3 cats), never married, childless

Physical: 5'2", 135 lb, 49 years old, medium build, light skin w/some freckles and red undertone, brown eyes, brown hair with a lot of gray in front, soft nails, fairly youthful appearance

Favorite foods: cheeses (strong like Romano or sweet/rich like ricotta/mozzarella), whole wheat pasta, red meat, squid, beans, good dark chocolate, chicken broth, deep green vegetables, honey, potato chips, dairy treats (ice cream, pudding, yogurt) that are not too sweet

Thanks for any consideration!

Avalon

I keep coming back to Pulsatilla. The feeling of abandonment--an outcast; desire for fresh air, hatred of warm stuffy rooms, can't bear to hear about horrible things, suspicious yet gullible,
cries easily, desires creamy things like yogurt and ice cream....Well, that would be my guess.

Snoopy

Hmm, I shall have to look that up tomorrow, I have a feeling I won't like thinking of myself as a Pulsatilla... ) but thank you very much for the analysis, Snoopy!

Avalon

Well, I could be wrong. I considered Nat-mur, and thought you might have a Nat-mur layer on top of Pulsatilla. It's hard to know without having a time line and etiologies. Like, if you had said, "I was this way until five years ago when that happened and since then I've reclusive and irritable." It's easier to solve a case that way, when you know what caused what and how you used to be and when you changed. By the way, how would you describe your thirst and drinking habits?

Snoopy

Snoopy,

I have never been a thirsty type, even after working out. Including coffee and tea, my intake most days is probably less than 1 liter. (I know, more would be better. I'm working on that.)

Since you mentioned the importance of chronological history I numbered and sorted my list according to time frame and pasted it below. Also added a note about my occupation.

1=Past 3 to 4 years
(I lost an 8-year job that I liked, due to a new boss who didn't like me, in '98 and my boyfriend of 4 years moved to Europe in '99. I also began to show signs of very early perimenopause in '99 or '00.)

2=Past 10 years
(My mother died rather suddenly of stroke at age 66 in 1992, traumatic for me as an only child; I had sort of a codependent relationship with her)

3=Always, or at least since young adulthood

1 Extreme sensitivity to noise of all kinds
1 Anhedonia (little joy or interest in things)
1 Palpitations, chest tightness when lying down
1 Mood usually either angry, melancholy or grieving
1 Poor concentration
1 Plantar fasciitis of right foot for past 6-9 months (Rhus tox. helps a little)
1 Prone to compulsive shopping and hoarding behavior
1 Feels that life is over; fearful of future
1 Nausea and/or transient nasal stuffiness when tense
1 Perimenopausal
1 Tendency to dry eyes
1 Always "playing catch-up"
1 Cannot tolerate clutter
1 Often drowsy/weary
1 Loves to walk (but hips, lower legs and feet, especially right foot, hurt after a while; knees are OK)
1 Can't find time/energy/motivation to exercise any more (due partly to longer commute beginning 3/01)
1 Strongly torn between city and country
1 Cannot sleep more than 5 hours
1 Typically goes to bed at 2 a.m. but sometimes naps between 9 and 12
1 Former drinker (quit March 2001)
2 Former smoker (quit 1992)
2 Cannot bear to contemplate suffering or conflict, human or animal; cries easily
2 Irritability and resentment override desire to be gracious and courteous to others
2 Intermittent soreness of tongue and mouth
3 Extremely uncomfortable in closed spaces with no air moving; craves fresh air
3 Obsessive
3 Alternately suspicious/pessimistic and gullible
3 Feels outcast; no social confidence
3 Cannot resist urge to complain at risk of annoying others
3 Moderately nearsighted in one eye; vision impairment/eye strain worse some days than others
3 Haunted by childhood vacation spot, still returns every year
3 Irritable bowel (alternating constipation and diarrhea, gassy)
3 Acid reflux esophagitis
3 Lower abdomen tender to pressure, painful to stretch (this for many years)
3 Uterine fibroids and endometriosis

Circumstances: Lives alone (except for 3 cats), never married, childless, professional, works in office as staff editor/writer at computer all day

Physical: 5'2", 135 lb, 49 years old, medium build, light skin w/some freckles and red undertone, brown eyes, brown hair with a lot of gray in front, soft nails, fairly youthful appearance

Favorite foods: cheeses (strong like Romano or sweet/rich like ricotta/mozzarella), whole wheat pasta, red meat, squid, beans, good dark chocolate, chicken broth, deep green vegetables, honey, potato chips, dairy treats (ice cream, pudding, yogurt) that are not too sweet

Thanks again Snoopy!

Avalon

I think it sounds very like Pulsatilla too.

But can you not find a Homeopath locally? (esp since you're in NY!) It's much better if you could be seen in person to really make an accurate assessment....

Why would you think Pulsatilla is a bad remedy? Please don't get caught up on any remedy pictures you may have read...they don't always contain a 'healthy' side to the remedy and they are merely a tool for us to use in learning Materia Medica.

__________________
"The significance of a fact is measured by the capacity of the observer."
Carroll Dunham

Lisa and Snoopy,

I thought I remembered reading a profile of the Puls. individual somewhere that sounded like a total loser, yes . I might have confused it with Lachesis or something, I'm not sure. After sending my last post, I went to the Boericke online materia medica and read both Pulsatilla and Nat. mur. Pulsatilla sounded fairly plausible; Nat. mur. didn't sound much like me.

I guess I will get myself to a local homeopath eventually, but I am feeling overwhelmed with cost-cutting and other problems at work--my company was financially shaky even before 9/11--and having just come off the worst case of influenza since my 20s (fever around 103 for several days, almost 104 at one point). That didn't surprise me because I knew I had been exceeding my stress tolerance for a couple of months. I'm finding it quite a challenge just to get myself to the therapist every week, and as you can guess, both my job security and my finances are a tad shaky at the moment (not that I'm alone in having a negative bottom line at this time of year)... so I'm self-prescribing for now, with the help of books, online resources, and kind folks like yourselves. I appreciate your time.

Avalon

Dear Avalon,

If Puls. makes sense to you, go with it. Take a 6C three times a day (unless you get worse, in which case you should stop) and give it a 2 week trial and see if you start to feel better.
Let us know.

Puls. isn't a loser remedy! There's no remedy that you'll read about in a materia medica where you'll think, Wow, what a cool remedy! Calc-carbs are worriers and over-doers, Lycopodiums are worried about making fools out of themselves,
Sulphurs can't finish any project they start, nat-murs dwell on past unpleasant experiences, Phosphorus people feel everyone's pain and suffering, Arsenicums are worried about germs and are obsessed with cleanliness, Cimicifugas feel as if a black cloud follows them everywhere...and, no one's profile looks really great, like you'd want to brag about it: Yay me, I'm a Nat-mur! So, don't worry about your remedy "looking bad", just see if it matches your important characteristics.

Snoopy

Thanks, Snoopy, I got a chuckle out of your reply. Sounds like maybe I need some Phos too ... A few follow-up questions, if you'll indulge me:

1) I am surprised at the dosage you recommend. I know 6C is low, but 3x/day for 2 weeks? I can't reconcile this with the idea of "least effective dose" that I've heard about. Can you enlighten me? I thought that the patient was supposed to stop taking a remedy as soon as there was improvement, but perhaps I'm thinking of acute conditions? In general, I find the dosing issues very confusing.

2) If I happen to come across 6X rather than 6C, is that potency okay? (Low potencies are scarce, even in NYC.)

3) You mention that I should stop if I get worse, but don't the remedies sometimes cause a transient "aggravation"?

4) Since some of my discomforts, mood problems, etc., are almost certainly caused or at least exacerbated by the hormonal instability of perimenopause, would it make sense for me to take an intercurrent remedy that specifically addresses that problem (assuming one exists)?

Thanks for any light you can shed,

Avalon

Hi again,

Good questions. Let me "read" you my course notes on Pulsatilla as regards women's health:

"The 2 main remedies for women's health problems are Puls. and Sepia. Puls. has an affinity for the female reproductive system and hormones. Dysmenorrhea with PMS with the classical Puls. mentals and emotionals: feelings of abandonment, lonely, feeling unloved and weepy, self-pity, better consolation. Calls all their friends on the phone and complains about their cramps and their PMS. Chills with every cramp, better walking in fresh air. # 2 remedy for the ill effects of the Birth Control Pill."

So...since this is supposed to be such a great hormonal remedy, maybe it will handle the menopausal symptoms.

The reason for the 6C three times a day; here's the standard dosing schedule for chronic complaints:

6C, 6X--2 to 4 times a day
9C--2 to 3 times a day
12C--1 to 3 times a day
30C--one dose and wait, or one dose a week, or one dose every three days (I've heard all three, and I guess it all depends on your response)
200C and above--one dose and wait

Why a 6C? If there's an aggravation, all you have to do is stop the remedy and it should go away quickly. The low potencies generally have a short term of action, hence the need for repetitions, but you never know; you may be the rare person who has a striking improvement on one dose of a 6C, and if that were to happen, no need to repeat it until the improvement wears off.

The other great thing about low daily doses is case management: if an acute illness or injury comes along, you can stop your remedy, take a 30C or a 200C of the acute remedy, and when the acute resolves you can go right back to your chronic prescribing without worry that you've antidoted your constitutional remedy--because you're going to go right back to it, right? People write in here all the time, "Did I antidote my remedy? I just ate coffee ice cream without thinking! What should I do?" You never think this will happen to you, but we get these letters all the time.

Also, the high potencies have a certain violence of action, which makes them very suitable for acute disorders with their usual violent symptoms--food poisoning, painful cramps, head injuries; but chronic disease usually plods along incrementally, more the way a 6C plods along--a better match, for my way of thinking.

You can take a 200C if you want to, but I have noticed that often people are over-shooting their "frequency" and prescribing too high and getting nothing in return. We've seen people get good results on low potencies, go up to 200 with the idea that if a 12C works, a 200 will work even better, and nothing happens! You can always go up if you need to; but I have never heard of anyone going down: "Well, no luck after waiting a month on that 200C, maybe we should go down to a lower potency and see what happens...." If anything, they go up to a 1M and then call it quits. The patient may have responded to a 12C once a day.

Snoopy