Dealing with Anxiety Neurosis Homeopathically!

As we all know, homeopathy is a holistic mode of therapy and “mind” is the most important rubric in is huge material medica. No case taking whether chronic or acute is complete without considering the mind of the person you are treating. And this journey into human mind is fascinating. Mind has been aptly correlated to wind. Mind works similarly as the wind that turns into any direction and is either violent or mildly soothing.

Anxiety is one of the major rubrics for mind while studying homeopathic material medica and in day to day practice; we encounter countless people having this symptom with some or the other physical general and particular symptoms. According to Oxford Companion of Medical Studies, anxiety is either good or bad. An unpleasant mental state of foreboding, uneasiness, and apprehension, almost approaching fear, which may be accompanied by the signs of sympathetic over activity such as tremor, sweating, and tachycardia. When this anxiety is as per the circumstance or is apt for the circumstance, it is nothing but the physiological preparation of the body to face the difficulty ahead. But when it is prolonged, excessive, and inappropriate to the circumstance, it is a disease!

Certainly living with the later kind of anxiety is tough. The person goes through lot of emotional turmoil while handling day to day life problems and slowly starts loathing life. In spiritual sense, we can say that people who are anxious decide to themselves that they rule over the circumstances and if they go out of hand, they are responsible for it. In short, these are the people with an attitude of faithlessness for the people around and themselves. Out of this sheer vulnerability to seek responsibility for every act arises the anxiety that is so hard to deal with.

I had a patient whom I was treating for his gastric trouble. He had an anxiety that he will be dismissed from the job one day and life will be so very difficult later. He was a conscientious person and was quite up to date and fastidious regarding his work. But this fastidiousness was not out of love for the job but out of the anxiety that he will lose job if he is not. He lived away from his family after his transfer to a nearby place. There his anxiety was redirected to the fear that his family, especially children will not bother about him now, as he is not there to take care of them personally. Obviously this was an anxiety without any base but he nurtured it so very close to his heart. No wonder he suffered from palpitations, gastric discomfort, and alternate diarrhea and constipation.

This kind of excessive anticipatory anxiety (a kind of suspended feeling) is found in many homeopathic remedies. Argentum nitricum was the drug of choice for the above mentioned patient with few repetitions and he started responding immediately. Looking at his other physical general and particular symptoms and mental symptoms, he was later given Sulphur 1M 1 dose and he was totally cured of his physical symptoms. Also in next visit he reported that his anxious spells are reducing day by day. He is able to cope with day to day work better.

This is just an example. Certainly along with homeopathic medicines, homeopath must be able to counsel the patient well. Rather it is true that counseling is the part and parcel of any treatment module. Only then we can achieve perfect cure!

(First published as a blog in the Homeopathy World Community Profile of Dr Shreya Deshpande)