To an amateur remedy user, i'm confused when it comes to a remedy that aggravates. What are the signs of aggravation e.g. irritability, weepiness...
Is there a specific list that I can find in literature? Can some one give me some of their experiences of aggravation or is it an amplification of the remedy archetype. Your input would be appreciated.

Dear Mia,

The following are my course notes on aggravation.
Hope they help you.
Snoopy

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Murphy/7

5. AGGRAVATION
Right remedy: If a person calls back and they're worse, don't panic. "Similar aggravation": If their symptoms get stimulated by the remedy, it may be a bull's eye. The right remedy has overstimulated the person. Back off the remedy. Go to 2nd cup. Also, an aggravation could mean that something old has come back. Good sign.
The best sign would be that their chief complaint gets worse, but their vitality has come up.

Wrong remedy: Chief complaint is aggravated, remedy is stopped, person returns to prior state, no amel. It means the remedy was close; OR, it was the right remedy out of order. Exhaustion and fatigue after the remedy. Apathy, procrastination, dullness of the mind/spaciness, unrefreshed sleep, insomnia, tired but sleepless, stuporous on waking, hypersensitive to environment or other people's energy, depression and indecision, all after the remedy. Stop the remedy. Wait a week. They may go into amelioration.

Dissimilar aggravation: getting worse in new ways that aren't part of your case.

Mixed agg./amel.: good sign if inside is better, outside is aggravated. The opposite would be suppression, but ask, "Is this an old symptom? This insomnia, or depression, or indecision?" Because it may look like suppression when actually it's return of old symptoms. Otherwise, just stop the remedy and the person should recover and the chief complaint should come back out in a few days or less. The other option is to give an acute remedy for this proving symptom of insomnia or depression, etc. The other option is to antidote the wrong remedy you gave: coffee, camphor, etc.

6. ACCESSORY SYMPTOMS
Proving symptoms come out, but, the person's vitality has come up, it's still the right remedy, you just gave it in too high a potency or too many repetitions. Adjust the remedy.
******

Mia,

The assumption in the notes above is that one is prescribing as per the 6th ed. of the Organon, namely, LM prescribing, or low potencies in water
as per LM's; meaning you're giving daily or weekly doses in water with succussions.

Snoopy

Dear Snoopy,
Thank you for your input. I'm a little confused when you stated in no.5 right remedy: go to 2nd cup. What do you mean by that? Also, putting low potency liquid remedy on sugar pellets be still considered LM prescribing?
Also, you stated these are your course notes on aggravation. Are you a student of some institute and/or practicing practitioner....basically, i want to know your background....get to know you better. Its very refreshing and challenging to exchange information on homeopathy since i'm just a peion in this field.

regards,
miah

paragraph 161, Org.:

When I here limit the so called homeopathic aggravation, or rather the primary action of the homeopathic medicine, that seems to increase somewhat the symptoms of the original disease, to the FIRST or FEW FIRST hours, this is certainly true with respect to disease of a more acute character and of recent origin; but where medicines of long action have to combat a malady of considerable or of very long standing, where no such apparent increase of the original disease ought to appear during treatment and it does not so appear if the accurately chosen medicine was given in proper small, gradually higher doses, each somewhat modified with renewed dynamization –par.:247. such increases of the original symptoms of the chronic disease can appear only at the end of treatment when the cure is almost or quite finished.

__________________
Hans Weitbrecht
Consultant Homeopath

Dear Hans,

Thank you for your reply and input. Therefore, the Organon states if aggravation in a chronic state is observed in the tail end of the chronic state then it is considered at the end of the healing process? I hope I got that right? I hope there's an easier way of learning the Organon.

regards,
mia

Dear Snoopy,
Your explanation was crystal clear! You and Hans must have a lot of experience in this field! I see both your names on this site at almost every discussion.
Thanks again!
mia

Well, I can't speak for Hans....

The reason Hans and I are on every thread is because we both have an exaggerated sense of self-importance.

Was there a question?

Snoopy

Oh! Yes here it is:

"Therefore, the Organon states if aggravation in a chronic state is observed in the tail end of the chronic state then it is considered at the end of the healing process?"

It's considered a good sign. First you'll be feeling a lot better; then a rash may appear, or an old symptom that was suppressed years ago by an antibiotic may come back. That's a sign that you've gotten so strong that your vital force has pushed back out to the surface something that had previously been driven inward and lowered your vitality and level of health. It should continue to resolve and disappear. Hahnemann is saying in the Organon: This is the real homeopathic aggravation, it's not the one at the beginning of treatment which is really a mistake on your part by giving too high a dose of the medicine and causing a problem for the patient.

Snoopy

[ 13. October 2002, 03:40: Message edited by: Snoopy ]

Dear Mia,

You said, "I'm a little confused when you stated in no.5 right remedy: go to 2nd cup. What do you mean by that?"

Sorry for the confusion. It means the right remedy was given but in an excessive amount, so it's aggravating. The person's complaint is aggravating. Give less often or take a tsp. from the cup you're dosing in and put it in a 2nd cup of water, so that it's more dilute, and hopefully gentler.

You also asked, "Also, putting low potency liquid remedy on sugar pellets be still considered LM prescribing?"

When you buy your remedy tubes or bottles from the health food store or pharmacy, the pellets have already been treated as you described above: a liquid has been dropped on the pellets and now they are medicated.
There would be no need to repeat that; and that would not make them LM's; but, you could administer them as per the LM method: You could drop a 6C pellet in a 4 oz. amber bottle, succuss 10 times, put a tsp. from the bottle into a 4 oz. dosage cup, stir, and take a tsp. from the cup as your dose,
and you would do this 2 to 3 times a day, doing the 10 succussions before each dose, and, assuming this was a chronic and not an acute case, you would get better results than if you were just giving the remedy dry. Faster results.

Hans has quoted one of the most important paragraphs in the Organon. He is saying that the real homeopathic aggravation comes at the end of treatment, not at the beginning. We refer to it as, "Return of old symptoms."

If you get an aggravation at the beginning of treatment, it's because you've made a mistake in your potency selection or amount of repetitions; the ideal is to have no aggravation at the beginning in a chronic case, that's what Hahnemann is saying here. And you won't get one, he says, if you prescribe as above--low potency, in water, succussions before each dose, repeat as needed. (Low potencies generally require frequent repetitions.)

After the patient is doing better, suddenly an old symptom will return to the surface, or a rash may appear. This is the real homeopathic aggravation, Hahnemann says, it is a sign that the person is healing, the remedy is working. The vital force is throwing the illness out to the surface where it can do no harm. The patient should report feeling much better at this point. However, the so-called aggravation at the beginning of treatment often leaves the patient in a pitiable state. Hahnemann says, stop the remedy and if you prescribed in a low dose, this state will go away.
Prescribing a better-chosen remedy will also make this pitiable state go away.

I hope this wasn't too long-winded an explanation for you!

Snoopy