As mentioned above, instead of using the complete rubrics that are existing NOW, I will use the characteristic symptoms (italics) only to pinpoint the remedy. Plus as I mentioned, being in immediate family, you know the person, how he was before grief and after that. The ensuing ailments combined with characteristic symptoms and you can give the remedy without taking only the present symptoms into account.

With the correct remedy, the cause will be eliminated which in turn will eliminate the symptoms, present & past, both.

Example, long drawn sighs after grief are a characteristic of Ignatia alone, if they are present even now and were then too. It will guide towards Ignatia or its chronic Nat Mur. You can start with Ign & based on results move to Nat Mur, if needed.

__________________
Don't take life too seriously, it aint permanent.

FF,

Sometimes your posts are confusing. You seem to be asking questions -- then you seem to answer them yourself when replies don't match up with what you were thinking.
Perhaps it's just the way you think - or maybe it's something else.

In order to use characteristic symptoms, one has to know how to find them. Some symptoms are characteristic in some instances of disease while in another instance of disease the same symptom would be meaningless/common.

It is very risky to treat friends and family members. One is not able to observe things without bias - and therefore, without prejudice. You may think it's easy, but a lot of us have been down this path - and experience teaches us that it's wise advice not to treat friends and family.

Your comment about grief being present now - or the symptom of long, drawn out sighs -- and combining that with other present symptoms is potentially correct, but I'm not confident you really understand the depth of how to evaluate this and rank the symptoms. In any case, good luck to you and the patient, if you feel you must persist to treat someone you know so closely.

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

Actually, when I ask something, at the same time I try to find an answer for it also but that answer, if there, will be based on my knowledge only. Here I get to have it challenged by experienced practitioners. I hope it clarifies this.

You could be absolutely right that I might not be knowing the depth of it and that too without bias. But then again, you might be mistaken

I think, if we were to follow exactly what others experience had taught us in everything, we would not be where we are.

In my view, the best prescription that you can make is for a family or friend because there are so many things that people take as "normal" when they are not, and if the homeopath is a family member or friend, these things can make the difference for successful prescribing. For doing self prescribing, that I agree, its difficult to be objective.

__________________
Don't take life too seriously, it aint permanent.

I think I would agree that it can be very difficult to treat close friends and family. It does depend how close you are to a friend though.

I had one success and one failure. There was one friend I had and I took her case and it came to Sulphur. She had many Sulphur characteristics and I gave it to her and it did not seem to do a lot, so in the end I left it. I had the opportunity to refer her to a colleague of mine and did so and she then came up with Sepia that I just could not see at all. My colleague did feel however that at the time, she was very much in a Sepia state, but also felt that she could well be Sulphur constitutionally underneath.

Another friend I had, had been given Pulsatilla by her homeopath. She had been using it on and off for 2 years and it had become less and less effective. I observed her over a period of about 3 months and then asked her some questions and decided to give her Calc Carb. She had a marvelous reaction to it instantly and all her m/e, general and physical symptoms fitted with this remedy.

I also spoke to her on the phone one evening and she was describing to me how she felt at the time. What she described to me was text book Sepia, so I told her to go and buy some 30c. After two doses, she said that she felt as if a cloud had lifted from over her head.

She has continued to do well on the Calc Carb though.

As a general rule of thumb, I will not usually treat family and friends chronically, only in acutes, however, it depends how close you are to them and whether you will be able to see the wood for the trees in remedy terms.

There are also laws in some states against treating your own family becasue we are too emotionally involved. I generally will not treat close friends and refer them to someone else. Sometimes the things we see in others and the things they need to tell us in order to find the correct remedy can change the relationship and I would not want to loose a friend.

__________________
Shirley Reischman