Mom, I have quite a depressing Death Report this time.
But there’s no getting around it, we have to do this segment of the Quiz, just like always.
Right, because, what Homeopathy Journal doesn’t have a Death Report?!
First, a very shocking announcement: we lost Emmy Award-winning star of “All In The Family”, Rob Reiner, at age 78.
Rob Reiner and Sally Struthers in “All In The Family”
He and his wife, Michele, 68, were found dead in their home, stabbed to death by their 32 year old drug addict son, Nick, who is currently in jail. What an unbelievable tragedy!
Rob is best known for his iconic role as politically liberal, Mike Stivic, playing opposite his ultra-conservative father-in-law, Archie Bunker, played by Carroll O’Connor, in the 1970s award-winning sitcom “All in The Family”.
This show was a game-changer! Produced by the fearless and visionary Norman Lear,
it chronicled real life, as opposed to the phony sitcom scenarios of the past where everyone lived in the suburbs, had a great job, and the only problem they faced was who was going to take Betty to the Prom.
After “All In The Family”, Rob became a famous movie director. He owned a film/television company called “Castle Rock Entertainment”.
OMG! Castle Rock is the producer of “Seinfeld”!
I was just about to say that; Rob Reiner’s company produced your favorite TV show, “Seinfeld”. As you will hear in this interview with Howard Stern, we literally have “Mike Stivic” to thank for “Seinfeld” staying on the air because apparently, NBC was going to cancel it.
No way!
It wasn’t doing well in the ratings at first. It was known as “the show about nothing”, remember? And it was Rob Reiner who begged the president of NBC (Brandon Tartikoff), to give “Seinfeld” another chance.
I had no idea!
Jerry Seinfeld and Rob Reiner
Now, I know we’re probably supposed to show a clip from “All in the Family”, but it would be a mistake not to mention “Spinal Tap”, Rob Reiner’s famous “mockumentary” film about a fictional rock band which now has a cult following. Rob’s last movie before his death was a Spinal Tap sequel made 40 years after the original. I haven’t seen it yet but I do recall reading that Elton John was in it.
Oh no! Elton John again????? Is he literally everywhere?
I also vaguely remember finding the first “Spinal Tap” on VHS in the Thrift Store – probably Philly AIDS Thrift Store on Bainbridge Street near Mostly Books, or as we used to say, “Mostly Bricks”, because the building was made of, well… mostly bricks.
Shana, don’t look now, but, no one’s from Philadelphia here but us!
Wasn’t Alan from Philadelphia?
OK, fine! That makes one person who might possibly care about the Philly AIDS Thrift Store at 5th and Bainbridge!
We also can’t forget to mention that “The Simpsons” did a take-off on Spinal Tap, probably because of Harry Shearer. He starred in Spinal Tap and is also the voice of many Simpsons characters.
And we’re talking about “The Simpsons” now because…….
Mom! If you were paying attention at all, you would know that “Spinal Tap” is a very famous movie produced and directed by Rob Reiner, which starred Harry Shearer, who also has a starring role in “The Simpsons”, which happens to be a very popular television show!
Oh. Well that’s different. Never mind!
Promotional Poster – Homer Simpson with Spinal Tap. Ironically, this episode aired one day after I was born, as Season 3 was still ongoing in 1992, but the majority of the classic episodes aired before I was born or too young to watch.
Here you are now, too young to watch “The Simpsons” (having “bathies”):
Mom! No one cares!
But look how cute you are!
And besides, I have another death to announce! Steve Cropper, the guitarist at Stax Records and a member of Booker T. and the MGs, died at 84.
l-r: Booker T Jones, “Duck” Dunn, Steve Cropper, Al Jackson
This was the House Band for every song that came out of Stax, including “Dock of the Bay”, “Soul Man”, “Knock On Wood”, etc. But, Steve Cropper is probably most assuredly remembered for this:
“Green Onions”
A cause of death was not immediately known but a few days before his death, according to what I’m reading now, Steve was at a rehabilitation facility in Nashville, apparently recovering from a fall.
Another Failure-To-Have-Arnica-With-You-Related death!
Who’s in The Quiz this month, Mom?
“Dobbin”.
Isn’t that one of Santa’s reindeer? Oh, I know, it’s Samantha’s husband on “Bewitched”!
Not quite, Shana. Samantha’s husband’s name was Darrin; but, his mother-in-law, Endora, had a collection of insulting names she used for him, and “Dobbin” was one of them. So was “Durwood”. Anyway, this is a different “Dobbin”!
Well, trust me, it sounds stupid!
Hey, I’m on a tight budget here! I can’t afford writers!
Since when does a homeopath need writers? And P.S., you might want to start the quiz now.
Good idea. I give you now, Dobbin’s mother, “Pandora”!
Good grief …..
_________________________
Wednesday, November 12, 2025 at 09:01:44 PM EST
Elaine, my youngest son, “Dobbin”, (he’s an adult) has OCD and other issues. We just had two episodes today and the one this evening has left his father and me exhausted!
He doesn’t do well when he hears negative news. We were listening to the news this evening and didn’t realize he was standing behind us. He freaked out and was talking about how everything is hopeless!
He got angry and started yelling loudly, stomping his feet and hitting himself in the head.
Dear God!
When we tried to get him to take a deep breath and calm down, he started going on about what a loser he is for acting this way, (as he continued to act that way) and got in my husband’s face and kept telling my husband to hit him. This was the worst episode he’s ever had. Usually, I’m the one who can get him to calm down, but this went on for about a half an hour tonight.
What was the news he objected to?
Apparently, a recession and the economy and us ending up poor, and AI and robots replacing humans and every other negative thing he could think of. This was the worst episode he’d ever had.
I did go looking through your articles and found one on OCD. Argent-nit. caught my attention because he is always asking “What if?” so I ordered Argent-n. 30C.
It was just around the time he turned six when I started noticing things. Just quirky little things at first, like he wouldn’t say certain words. For example, he wouldn’t say the number “one” when we were doing math. And anytime someone said the word “wimpy” he would have to say the word “awesome” afterwards. His two older brothers liked to aggravate him by repeating “wimpy” over and over again so he would have to say awesome each time they said it.
He thinks if he thinks about something and the opposite thing happens, it’s God showing him that he shouldn’t have been so sure about whatever he was thinking. He thinks God is monitoring every thought of his just waiting to punish him for anything he thinks wrongly about. We’ve discussed this and he knows it’s not logical, but he can’t stop thinking that way. He says it feels that way and I’ve told him feelings don’t mean it’s a reality, but the feelings he has are just too strong.
I’ve just gone over in my mind many times over the years trying to think of something that may have caused this. He’s very bright. Everything was normal when he was born. He started walking at 10 months and talking in short sentences before he turned two. He loves to read and is a deep thinker. He’s very artistic and creative and he likes to have intellectual conversations, but his issues have held him back.
He doesn’t see or hear things that aren’t there. He’s not suicidal or anything. When something upsets him, he might hit himself in the head, but he doesn’t do that too often. He might feel like harming himself when he’s in that mood, but it’s not something that’s really worrying and it doesn’t last very long. He’s happy and content most of the time, but bad or negative news can set him off. The other thing that can set him off is frustrations with himself. He says he has poor judgement, like in assessing a situation, for example. He says he needs to rely on someone else to understand what’s really going on. He also gets frustrated with his indecisiveness and his ability to follow directions.
Also, another thing he does is pace, but it’s not like a nervous pace. He says he does it while he’s thinking. He has a very vivid imagination. He also daydreams a lot. He thinks too much. His brain never shuts off. I hope this added information helps.
We filled out the questionnaire, see below:
Name: “Dobbin”
Phone number:
Email Address:
Age: 34
Weight: 160 lbs
Height:5’7″
Gender (male or female): Male
Occupation:
Date:11/15/25
CHIEF COMPLAINT
Chief complaint–
OCD. Excessive worrying. Daydreams a lot. Difficulty following directions. Socially awkward. Difficulty making decisions. Since the age of six with some symptoms gradually increasing over time. Feels like some symptoms of OCD may have occurred before the age of six like didn’t like touching certain things because of the way they looked.
Do you know what caused your complaint?
Little quirks started around, possibly before, the age of 6 with other things gradually developing. Nothing was going on at that time, except maybe being exposed to toxic mold? It started not long after we moved to a new house. There was nothing traumatic or out-of-the-ordinary about the move. Nothing else comes to mind.
What aggravates your complaint?
Hearing negative news. Coming to some kind of negative conclusion about myself. Feeling like a negative future is inevitable. Possibly lack of sleep.
What makes the complaint better?
Hearing a more level explanation of things that I’m worried about especially if the explanation is not something that would be permanent or severe. I will seek something to try to put me in a state that will get me out of it. I will search and search the internet trying to find something that will get me out of it (ease my fears).
At what time of the day or night are you at your worst? Conversely, when are you at your best?
Time doesn’t seem to have anything to do with it.
What symptom or symptoms come with the complaint, if any?
I notice that when I’m going off or having some kind of emotional effect from it, I get dizzy. When I had the really bad episode last week, I noticed I had a really bad headache later that evening. It sometimes makes me feel exhausted and emotionally drained. I get shaky from it.
Do you have an issue around weather or environment?
No.
Is there a position that’s aggravating?
There are certain positions when sitting or lying or bend a certain way that aggravate my back. Sitting or lying in certain positions can cause me to get hot.
Do you tend to be chilly or warm?
Hot. Sweat easily with an odor.
Are there parts of you that are colder or warmer; such as, cold feet, cold hands, cold nose, etc.?
Lower half of my body gets colder especially my feet.
Tell me about perspiration if you consider it a problem:
Under arms and forehead and neck. Sometimes smells like vinegar. Have had this smell since a baby.
Have a look at your tongue and tell me what it looks like–
Looks pretty normal. Pink in color. Maybe a little fat.
MENTAL/EMOTIONAL
Describe your nature.
Nervous. Self-critical. Artistic. Sense of humor, I enjoying laughing at things that are absurd/off the wall. Obsessive. Creative.
When you’re not occupied, what thoughts come to mind?
Too many!
What makes you very happy?
Talking with friends. The times when I feel good about myself. Times when I feel hopeful. If I feel excited about something.
What part or parts of your life should never have happened?
I can’t think of any.
What in your life makes you the most sad?
My mental issues hold me back from moving forward in life.
Tell me about the kind of entertainment you’re drawn to.
Comedy, drama, music, I don’t play as much as I used to, but video games. I like a lot of different types.
Tell me what’s peculiar about you.
Most people might say nothing, but I say everything for me. I have a different way of viewing things than most people I know. I can be interested in things for strange reasons. I can associate things with something unrelated. I can think of inanimate objects as if they were alive, but it’s not a delusion. I know it’s not.
What would you like to change about yourself?
I would like to stop my OCD. I would like to be more confident. I would like to be more decisive. I would like to stop worrying about everything so much. I have other things depending on my mood, but I’m listing the things that are constant.
What stops you from moving forward?
Indecisiveness and fear.
What are you most proud of?
My artistic skills. (drawing, music, writing)
What role do you play in relationships?
I don’t know, not sure.
What happens to you over and over again? (“The story of my life!” as they say.)
Sometimes I feel like I want to change something about myself that I don’t like. I might make progress, but after awhile it feels like I’m brought back and it always feels like it’s out of my control and I can’t do anything about it. Sometimes I can feel when it’s coming on, but if I try to stop it, I cant.
How neat are you?
I’m not the neatest, but I put things in their place. I don’t like leaving things lying around.
What makes you cry?
I don’t get to that point too much. Some things that would bring me close to crying would be the loss of a loved one (I would cry if it were my mom or dad), if anything or everything that I was familiar went away or if anything happened to a person or animal that was innocent and precious.
What’s taking your energy away, draining you of energy?
I don’t know how to answer this one.
What makes you angry? What do you do when you get angry?
Negative news. My issues like OCD, indecisiveness, etc., or anything that I feel like is holding me back can make me angry at times. If I mess something up I get angry at myself. I fantasize about having someone beat me up and I do nothing. I don’t really want that to happen. It’s only when I’m in that mood. It’s a way of coping for me. My anger and frustration can lead to me imagining the worst case scenario. It feels like a form of taking out my anger.
Do you have an emotion that predominates?
Most of the time I feel kind of neutral, but it’s like I go back and forth between neutral and it’s like very mild depression. It doesn’t quite feel like depression, but it’s like maybe an early stage of it, but if it blossomed it could be.
What fears do you have?
Heights, snakes, the economy collapsing and losing everything, losing loved ones, AI and robots taking over and humans becoming useless.
What was your childhood like?
Happy. We did everything together as a family. Mom read books to me every night before I went to bed. I played with my older brothers. We went to the park a lot. The only bad thing was my middle brother put me down a lot. It wasn’t anything too out of the norm.
What bothers you most in other people?
When people don’t understand me and give me a chance to explain myself. If too many people are in to something I can’t stand, because that means it will never go away.
What causes the most problems in your relationships–
When I’m not understood. I feel like I have to go on and on explaining myself. I have a different way of looking at things so it’s not always easy for people to understand what I mean. When I have issues with something, I won’t shut up about it and people get tired of hearing it.
What would you need to feel happy?
Fixing my issues like OCD, indecisiveness, thinking of the worst case scenarios happening, etc.
What do you do at your job–
I occasionally do music for video games.
If you were made president for a day, what would you change?
Too many. I would definitely put us back on the gold standard to make the economy better.
When people have criticized you, what was the criticism about? Similarly, when people have praised you, what did you receive praise for?
Criticism: Not being able to make up my mind. Praise: My artistic talents.
FOOD
Give an idea of what a typical day of eating looks like for you.
Eggs and bread from ancient grains for breakfast most days. On weekends, it’s eggs and organic rolled oats that have been soaked overnight in water and apple cider vinegar and sometimes uncured beef bacon. No lunch. Dinner is always steamed vegetables, salads or soups and some type of protein. Two cups of coffee a day with stevia.
What would you most like to eat if you could eat anything?
This is not something I can answer because I’m not the type of person who has a consistent dish. It changes with my mood. Store bought juices, pasteurized milk, microwave popcorn, my dad used to make “Wendy’s Frosties” once a week as a treat.
Is there a food you simply MUST have or you’d feel deprived?
Beef
Is your preference for creamy, tart, salty, spicy or sweet or any combination thereof?
Depending on my mood, it’s usually creamy and sweet or spicy and salty.
Is there something you like to eat that most people would consider odd, like vinegar or lemons, pickles, radishes, candy bars, alcoholic beverages, etc.?
Not really.
Are there foods that you love but they don’t agree with you?
No
What foods do you have an aversion to?
Cantaloupe
Describe your thirst.
It has to be cold. I would say my thirst is normal.
SLEEP
Any issues about sleeping?
Occasionally I have nights where it takes longer to fall asleep. Most of the time I don’t have any issues, but sometimes I go through spells where I have trouble falling asleep several nights in a row.
What do you do during sleep–
I prefer to sleep with a fan on. The room needs to be cool. I don’t talk in my sleep, but mom says I always used to laugh in my sleep.
What position do you sleep in?
Either side or stomach.
HEALTH HISTORY
What medications are you on now or recently got off of?
None
What homeopathic remedies have you had? Please include the potency and dosing schedule. Did any of them help you?
Oscillococcinum for the flu. Yes, it helped. Just started Argent Nit 30C once a day.
Are any of your problems caused by a vaccination, antibiotic or other drug?
Never vaccinated. No prescription drugs other than one time taking antibiotics and there were no noticeable symptoms at that time. May have been given Tylenol too.
Any surgery?
No surgery
Any head injuries? When? Any lingering effects?
I hit the back of my head hard once while working with my dad and brother. I had a headache for a few days after that. I kind of feel like it made the way I think worse, but I’m not sure.
Talk about your skin:
I have a dry patch below my knee. I’m not sure what that is. I have a couple of moles on my neck. I recently had a really dry scalp with big flakes. I’ve been using an organic castor oil/rosemary oil on it and it’s not completely gone yet, but much better.
Any discharges?
No
What diseases run in your family?
Heart disease, high blood pressure, hiatal hernia on mother’s side. Cancer, high blood pressure, one grandfather had diabetes on father’s side.
Time-line.
I played softball when I was 5 and the coach was really grumpy and I no longer wanted to play in any sports after that. Lost my paternal grandmother when I was 17. The family never got together for special occasions after that. Lost our home just before I turned 19 and had to move to Texas so my dad could find work in his profession, but I did enjoy our time there. I got to have personal art lessons with a teacher who worked with people who have issues like mine. Had the best vacation of my life in the Smokey Mountains when I was 29. Lost my maternal grandmother at the age of 30.
SENSITIVITY
What are you sensitive to?
Music mostly in a positive way. Some in a negative way. Some criticism. I can get it with injustices and failure. I don’t like it when I mess up. I especially don’t like it if I mess up something for other people.
MISCELLANEOUS
When you have to wait in line, how do you feel?
I find it annoying. I don’t like standing still too long.
How do you respond when a family member is sick?
I’m always apprehensive it will lead to their death.
Any issues with sex?
No
How do you react to consolation and sympathy?
Some sympathy is okay, but not too much or to be pitied.
What sorts of things do you consider to be ordeals?
Death of a loved one. I don’t like it when things are too out of the norm or unfamiliar. I have a lot of hypothetical things, like what if there was a world war, what if the economy collapsed, it’s not safe to go anywhere because of crime, if AI took over everything, etc. I don’t think of the hypothetical things all the time, but they do enter my mind at times and I would consider them to be a big ordeal.
What are your hobbies?
Drawing, music, photography, reading, writing
Where would you go if you could go anywhere?
(This is a difficult question for him. It’s taking awhile for him because he’s thinking too deeply about it. I’m waiting and waiting for an answer.) Okay, we’re not going to get an answer here. He just cannot make up his mind.
Anything note-worthy about your face? Freckles? Haggard expression? Frown? Acne, etc.?
No
Anything note-worthy about your voice; such as, stuttering, slow speech, hasty speech, whining, etc.?
I stammer at times, but no stuttering.
Who in your life is a very difficult person and why?
I don’t really have any.
If you won the lottery, what would you do with the money?
Buy things that I can’t afford right now, like musical things, expensive computer programs, a better quality camera. I would give money to my parents and some people in need. I would love to give my dad a car he’s always wanted. I would give mom the money to open up a heath food store.
Describe your energy.
I’m not sluggish, but I feel like I could have more energy.
Is there anything that really gets on your nerves?
When people don’t understand me. I feel like I have to keep explaining myself until they do. I don’t like being interrupted. If someone is talking too much about a subject that doesn’t interest me. I don’t like it when someone tries to tell me how to do something before I have a chance to figure it out myself.
Are there any topics you seem obsessed with?
(Again, he is having a difficult time answering this question. He can’t decide whether any of the topics are an obsession.)
What was your ambition in childhood? What’s your ambition now?
I wanted to design video games. I wanted to be a musician. I’m too afraid of heights, but I wanted to be a snowboarder for a short time. Anything to do with my artistic talents.
End of Questionnaire
***********
He heard something on the news again today that set him off, but not as bad as the other day. I had to talk to him for a little bit to calm him down. As I mentioned before, he always goes to the worst case scenario. Then he got mad at himself for being a “big baby” and I had to try to get him to stop being so hard on himself.
He doesn’t always stomp his feet or hit himself in the head. That episode last week was particularly bad. Most of the time he just raises his voice, swings his arms up in the air and rants on and on and you have to keep talking over him telling him to calm down so you can talk to him. He says he needs us to talk to him to ease his fears and convince him it isn’t as bad as he thinks. Sometimes he can just come and ask us about whatever he’s heard or read online, but other times he acts like I described above.
Then, there’s the odd things he does because of his OCD. He has to put his weight on one foot and then the other several times before opening the refrigerator door. At the same time, he bends his hand against his chest and pops his knuckles. He does this before doing other things as well. He has to grab at things, like the salt shaker, like he’s about to pick it up several times before he actually picks it up.
Sometimes people get aggravated at him when he’s out in public and he gets in their way trying to get out of their way. Sometimes he cuts directly in front of them trying to get out of their way because he panics and isn’t sure which way to go. He’s not trying to be rude. He will sometimes have trouble completing a task because he can’t decide how to do it or what’s the best way to do it.
What do you mean “trouble following directions”?
Like if we ask him to do something he’s never done before. You have to go over it slowly step by step and it helps if you explain why it needs to be done that way. Sometimes he still gets it wrong and you end up having to show him. It’s understandable if it’s something a little harder he’s never done before, but he will often do this with things you would think would be simple to follow.
One example that comes to mind right away, we have a reverse osmosis water system. I usually keep four jugs filled at a time. We keep one in the refrigerator and fill up the empty one when it comes out of the refrigerator. I rotate the jugs on the counter so we’re not using the same jug over and over while the others sit there too long with water in them not being used. I tried to explain how I rotated them and he got confused until I physically showed him exactly which one I took to put in the refrigerator and where I moved the other ones to be next in line.
He says God is teaching him lessons, what has happened that has caused him to say, “I needed for that to happen because it was God teaching me a lesson.”
Remember the riots that happened in 2020? He mentioned a couple of months before those riots happened that there hadn’t been any riots for awhile and he didn’t think they were going to happen anymore. He knows it can’t be is fault, but yet he still feels like it’s his fault because God let the riots happen to teach him a lesson.
So, what would constitute “bad news” for him?
It can be anything that’s happening in the world like the economy, crime, AI, wars, etc. It can also be something as simple as me shopping for some Christmas bows to put on presents. I complained that I didn’t like any of them and there were no good bows this year. He got angry and said that’s the way it’s going to be from now on!
That’s Christmas bows for you!
And there will never be anything good again.
It all starts with Christmas bows!
Always to the extreme….
I’m ready to prescribe now: ________________200C, one dose.
OK, I’m going to order that remedy now.
______
Dec. 2nd
I have good news for you, Elaine:
He woke up this morning after taking the remedy the night before and he said he felt excited in a good way.
Really?
He said it was hard to describe, but he said he felt different; again, in a good way. He said he was still doing his OCD things, but more out of habit, whereas before he said he was doing them when he would have a bad or worrying thought in order to prevent whatever he was worried about from happening.
Dec. 3rd:
He heard something about AI today. He was concerned, but he didn’t lose it.
Dec. 6th:
He heard something on the news he didn’t like today. It worried him and he asked me about it and then he was okay, where usually it’s “this is going to happen and that’s going to happen and everything is done for and we’re all doomed!”
He said he’s still doing his rituals, but he can complete it sooner. By that, he meant that he had to blink his eyes so many times for each negative thought, but now he can just blink his eyes four times only once and he’s done. He still feels like he needs to do that to keep something from happening, but he said he can think about it logically and talk himself out of it.
Dec. 16th:
Hi Elaine,
There were a couple of stories in the news that concerned him and he was worried, but he didn’t get too upset. He didn’t go to an extreme and it didn’t take long for him to calm down. He said he still has worries, but they don’t linger.
He only asked me “what if” once in over a week. And he no longer has tormenting thoughts. He hasn’t had any grumpy moods so far either. It’s unusual for him to go all night and all day with no negative thoughts. He was tormented by them all the time and it had been getting worse.
Is he still talking about religion–“God is teaching me a lesson”, etc.?
He’s not talking about God teaching him a lesson anymore.
That is really big, Pandora! Almost every case of mental illness has some aspect of “God” to it: talks to God, thinks he’s God, God talks to him, God is punishing him and so on; so, if this has stopped? Let me put it this way, if our remedy hadn’t stopped this, I’d be re-thinking my remedy choice for sure! This is a great sign, a tremendous sign!
Dec. 18th
One positive thing is, he made a mistake today. He got mad at himself at first, but he didn’t go on and on with it. The best part is he didn’t start saying he deserved something bad to be done to him or something bad to happen to him because of it.
Well, that really is a good sign!
Normally, he would be telling me I should do something to him, like punch him in the face, shun him, make him sleep outside, etc. When I would refuse, he would usually say I’m too nice and he might learn better if I weren’t so nice.
Wow, this is really quite stunning! I’m glad it’s over!
_________________________
Well, OK, everybody! It’s your turn now! What was “Dobbin’s” remedy? Write to me at [email protected] and let me know, the answer will be in the January ezine.
Mom! Need I remind you? The Birthday Shout-Out?
Guess who has a December birthday?
Um….
Jerry Butler!
And as it’s Christmas, I suggest we play Jerry singing “O Holy Night”. Happy Heavenly Birthday, Jerry!
_____________________________
VOTES:
Argent-nit.
Aurum
Lachesis
Carcinosin
Anacardium – 2
Rhus tox
Gelsemium followed by Calc-carb.
We are honored to have a new Quiz participant with us today!
Hi Carrie!
Hi, Elaine,
Arg-nit 200C
and Merry Christmas
Carrie, you made a good guess! Argent-nit, the “what if” remedy, is a logical choice in this case! But, “Pandora” already tried that on her own and it apparently did not work. So, what we have to do here is make a list of the Elements of the Case, the defining symptoms, and we would start, needless to say, with our diagnosis: Obsessive/Compulsive Disorder.
And then, when we think we’ve sufficiently made our list, we can try to find rubrics for the ones we’ve picked and then repertorize. Do you want to try to do that? Or would you rather just hear what I came up with?
What about Nux v? I am an amateur, but thankful for all that homeopathy has done for our family!
Nux vomica is in Bold under “Obsessive Compulsive Disorder”, so, another good choice!
But here’s the thing, there are 24 remedies in that rubric (in Murphy’s Repertory); the question is, which one of the 24 is it? Well, I’ll show you how simple this is.
Let’s see if we can pick out Dobbin’s most limiting symptom. What’s the worst thing? We’re always trying to cover the worst thing in a case. To my mind, it’s his “superstitious” behavior—you can’t touch certain items; you have to blink your eyes 4 times or bad things will happen; you can’t say the number “one” if you’re doing math and if someone says “wimpy”, you have to say “awesome”! And on it goes!
So, you go to your “superstitious” rubric in the Mind Chapter, and you ask yourself, are any of these superstitious remedies in the OCD rubric? Well, let’s see:
Argent-nit and Medorrhinum are tied for first place. She’s already tried Argent-nit, leaving us with Medorrhinum. Now, all we have to do is see if we can confirm Medorrhinum! Can we do that?
Does Medorrhinum have restlessness? Yes! Does Medorrhinum reproach (blame) himself? Yes! Does Medorrhinum have the delusion that he’s being watched? Yes! Does Medorrhinum have the delusion that all is doomed? Yes! Does Medorrhinum have the fear that something bad will happen? Yes! And so on and so on! This is why you have to make a list of the elements of the case. Do you see that?
I do have a daughter whose therapist says is obsessive compulsive…
Well, do you see how possible it is, then, for her to be cured?
soli Deo gloria,
Carrie
It looks like Linda Santini is here—author of the book
Goodbye, Quacks, Hello Homeopathy!
Elaine, I did read your interesting quiz about OCD. As far as figuring out the remedy, the only thing that stands out for me is the etiology: his condition began after they moved to a new house. Was it homesickness? depression?
We don’t know, Linda, it’s all speculation. I don’t think that moving can make you mentally ill.
At this point, my guess is Aurum but it’s just a guess. I don’t even know how to look up Dobbin’s symptoms in my Repertory.
Having no etiology, we move down in our Hierarchy Of Symptoms to Diagnosis, which, as we all know, is “Obsessive Compulsive Disorder”. It’s in the Repertory in the Mind chapter. Now, since there are too many remedies to choose from (24), we need to move down to our next category, which is….. well, OK, let’s first have a look at our Hierarchy of Symptoms:
_______________________
The Hierarchy Of Symptoms
- Etiology
(“Ailments from”/”Never Well Since”)
- Diagnosis
(What’s wrong with you?)
- Sudden Onset?
(A sudden onset might lead to an immediate consideration of Aconite or Belladonna.)
- “Characteristic Symptoms” (Delusions, Striking/Strange/Rare/ Peculiar and, if relevant, Most Recent Symptom/complaint—because according to Hering’s Law, healing takes place in REVERSE ORDER; hence, the need for the remedy to cover the most recent thing. Think of this as most likely being an acute or emergency you might think should be ignored in favor of the “constitutional case”. But no, that would be wrong. Treat the most recent thing first.)
- Mentals
- Emotionals
- Physical Generals–symptoms that start with the word “I” (I’m hot, I’m cold, I’m thirsty, I feel sorry for myself….)
- Local symptoms–symptoms that start with the word “My” (My nose is running….)
___________________________
“Sudden Onset”. That’s what’s next in our Hierarchy of Symptoms. And why do we have a “Hierarchy of Symptoms” anyway? It’s based on the concept of: “The biggest to the smallest”; you can think of it as a kind of “ladder” where the top rung, or platform, is the “biggest”, and, therefore, over-rules everything that’s underneath it!
So, your remedy that matches the symptom at the bottom of the ladder, the “smallest”—the “local” or “particular” symptom—may cure that symptom but not anything above it! Whereas, the remedy that matches the “General” symptom above it, will not only cure that symptom but the local symptom below it as well! And so it goes up the ladder, with whatever being on top, over-ruling or “covering” what’s below!
Quickly, here’s a perfect example: Your patient sprained her ankle. You’re inclined to give her our main remedy for sprained ankles: Rhus tox. But you observe that your patient has “mentals”: She’s crying! She’s scared and she wants you to stay with her and hold her hand. You try to reassure her that she’ll be fine again real soon, but your assurances fall on deaf ears. She keeps asking, “When will I be better? How soon? How do you know?” All this questioning and stalling to keep you from leaving, brings you to the inalterable conclusion that the patient’s “mentals” match Arsenicum! Hard as it is to believe, if you give Arsenicum, the ankle pain will go away!
So, we always want to start at the top; because if we can cover the top, whatever is below it will be taken care of as well!
So, starting at the top in our current case, and with no known etiology, our next rung on the ladder is “Diagnosis”. 24 remedies listed under “OCD”, we can’t choose, so, we have to keep scrolling down. Sudden Onset? No. We move down again.
“Delusions, Striking/Strange/Rare/Peculiar and most recent symptom”? Do we have a new symptom or complaint in the case? No. Do we have delusions? Yes!!!!! OK, so what is our plan? We’re going to hope that one of Dobbin’s delusions will enable us to single out one of the OCD remedies! “Delusion, doomed”, “Delusion: watched, being”. (We’re all doomed, according to Dobbin.)
But there’s more. We should make a list of the elements of the case. What are they besides our 2 delusions?
Superstition,
rituals,
tormenting thoughts about bad things that only his rituals (blinking, etc.) keep from happening;
learning disorders,
awkwardness,
religious affections,
restlessness,
hot, wants the fan on,
sticks his feet out of the covers
desires cold drinks
and…
according to his mother, he always goes to the extreme, the worst will always happen. Here’s a revealing quote from his questionnaire:
“Sometimes I feel like I want to change something about myself that I don’t like. I might make progress, but after awhile it feels like I’m brought back and it always feels like it’s out of my control and I can’t do anything about it. Sometimes I can feel when it’s coming on, but if I try to stop it, I cant.”
Do you see that? “I can’t do anything, I can’t change anything, I’m powerless!” That’s the language of the Sycotic Miasm! “There’s nothing I can do!” Let’s look at Sankaran’s description of the Sycotic Miasm from an article posted at Hpathy.com titled: “Summary of Sankaran’s Miasms”. Here’s what he says about the sycotic miasm (and by the way, a miasm is an inherited predisposition to get sick in certain ways):
- I cannot change but I will not let others see my weakness.
- I cannot do anything about it, so I must accept it and live with it.
You see that? “I cannot change, I cannot do anything about it.” And what does Dobbin say?
“Sometimes I feel like I want to change something about myself that I don’t like. … but after awhile … it always feels like it’s out of my control and I can’t do anything about it.”
The same words! He’s letting us know right there, he needs a remedy from the Sycotic Miasm! So, let’s go back to our diagnostic rubric, “Obsessive Compulsive Disorder”. Do you see any remedies there from the Sycotic Miasm?
Oh wow, look! Medorrhinum is in Bold, our main sycotic remedy!!!! Now let’s take a look at the elements of the case we just enumerated: does Medorrhinum have the delusion that he’s doomed, that all is doomed? Yes! Does Medorrhinum have the delusion that he’s being watched? Yes! Is Medorrhinum superstitious? Yes! Learning disabilities? Yes! Restlessness…? Yes! Is there anything here that does not go for Medorrhinum???? No! So, what’s our remedy, then? Medorrhinum! Do we need to keep scrolling down to ask, “Are there any ‘Generals’ here? Are there any ‘Locals’?” No!!! That’s the whole point of the Hierarchy of Symptoms! What’s above covers what’s below! As soon as you’ve singled out the remedy from the top-most rubric, don’t keep scrolling down to, presumably, “cover the whole case”; stop!
Wow, Elaine, thanks for the advice on how to take a case, I’ll be printing that out! And please tell Shana she did look awfully cute in her “bathie.”
I know! That’s what I tried to tell her!
Can you believe how fast life goes by?
Here’s an idea, let’s not talk about it!
Oh look, Gabi from Canada is here!
Hi, Elaine. All I could notice from the case you presented is his fear of snakes and also, doesn’t shut up about it when he wants to be right; he’s hot at night, has to sleep with a fan and has trouble falling asleep often. That’s Lachesis right there!
OK, so here you’re making the classic mistake of starting at the bottom and the middle of the Hierarchy Of Symptoms when we should be starting at the top, because here’s what happens: We all know that Etiology Over-rules Symptomatology. Etiology (the cause of an illness) is at the top of the hierarchy. If we know the cause, we’re done! Try and imagine that this whole thing started after a head injury! We would give Nat-sulph right away! (“Ailments After Head Injury”) It wouldn’t matter that his sleep was poor or he had a fear of snakes or his sweat smelled like vinegar or anything else! Here is the all-important…
Hierarchy Of Symptoms
- Etiology–the Cause
(“Ailments from”/”Never Well Since”)
- Diagnosis
(What’s wrong with you?)
- Sudden Onset?
(A sudden onset might lead to an immediate consideration of Aconite or Belladonna.)
- Delusions; Striking/Strange/Rare/ Peculiar/ and Most Recent Symptom or complaint
- Mentals
- Emotionals
- Physical Generals–symptoms that start with the word “I” (I’m hot, I’m cold, I’m thirsty, I feel sorry for myself….)
- Local symptoms–symptoms that start with the word “My” (My nose is running….)
****
Now, OK, we have no etiology. I think he did have a head injury? But, he was already mentally ill before that. So, if we don’t have an etiology, what do we do next? We move down to #2: Diagnosis! Our Diagnosis is OCD. But guess what? Lachesis isn’t there! There are 24 remedies listed under OCD and Lachesis isn’t one of them. So, we can’t use it, even though it covers certain things very well. Let me put it this way, we don’t want to be dogmatic, so, we’ll just say we’re putting Lachesis to the side for now.
What’s next? Sudden Onset? Not relevant. There’s no sudden onset here. What’s next? Delusions, striking, strange, rare, peculiar (what Hahnemann calls “characteristic symptoms”).
I’ll tell you what I think is possibly one of the strangest symptoms in the case. It’s a delusion: He thinks that God is watching him 24/7, passing judgment on his every thought, and if he’s thinking wrong, God will make something bad happen to teach him a lesson! Have you ever heard of anything more bizarre? So, in other words, God is not happy with Dobbin, and he’s very punitive. Dobbin must be punished! And this is when you know that your patient has gone over the edge! All the “insane” remedies have this in common: they’re all talking about God!
They’re either talking to God, or God is talking to them, or they are God, or God is watching them, keeping tabs on them, following them, and so on. So, here’s the rubric:
“Mind: delusions, hell, is going to, because he has committed an unpardonable crime”.
There’s only one remedy listed: Medorrhinum! Oh yes, Dobbin believes that! He thinks he needs to be punished! He thinks his father should hit him and his mother should make him sleep outside! So you look around the case, and you say, “Does anything else go for Medorrhinum here? Does he have learning disabilities? Yes! Is he restless? Yes! Is he socially awkward? Yes! Hot? Yes! Superstitious? Yes! Does he think he’s being watched? Yes! Followed? Yes!” So now you go back to the “Diagnosis” rubric (OCD), because it’s at the top of our Hierarchy now that “Etiology” has been eliminated, and you ask, “Is Medorrhinum here?” Oh wow, is it ever! It’s in Bold!!!!! Who could have imagined?
So, even though not every case is as straight-forward as this, and luckily, the case was uncomplicated by drugs, thank God, so it was pretty easy, and we got results really fast; still, you nevertheless could have arrived at Medorrhinum through numerous paths, but the idea here of the Hierarchy of Symptoms is that there are levels of pathology, from major to minor, and you always want to be aiming your remedy at what’s major, what’s most serious, what’s the biggest, the worst. Your remedy has to cover the worst thing. And if you can cover the worst thing, everything below will follow as well.
Oh look, it’s the gang from Slovakia!
Dear Elaine and Shana,
before you read our solutions to the December quiz, please accept our wishes for a Happy New Year, good health and success in your work.
Thanks, Miroslav and Jitka, same to you!
Miroslav chooses – Anacardium
Well, it was a challenging task, I sweated a lot to defend my choice of Anacardium:
Among other symptoms, I was most intrigued by the delusion that he was the object of divine vengeance. I feel as if there were two beings inside the patient: one causes him suffering in the form of compulsive destructive thoughts and the other rationally recognizes the senselessness of this suffering, leads him to self-blame for his inability to stop these thoughts and, in a more pronounced form, forces him to physically harm himself… I choose Anacardium.
Miroslav, I don’t want to say that this case is totally unrelated to Anacardium, but, the biggest feature of Dobbin’s case—and I think you’ll agree—is “Superstition”, all the inappropriate things he does to ward off evil from taking place. Have a look at “Mind: superstitious behavior”. Anacardium is only a 1.
“Dobbin” thinks he has to blink 4 times to keep bad thoughts from coming true. He thinks that before he can reach for the salt shaker, he has to pretend to reach for it 3 times! To open the refrigerator door, he first has to lean to the left, then lean to the right, then lean to the left, then lean to the right…and… this is just not what you expect to see in an Anacardium case. Actually, Argent-nit was a good choice, but, it didn’t work.
What is Anacardium known for? Cruelty, hate, anger, vengeance and low self-esteem. How does a person get into this state? Usually by being raised by an alcoholic father or a mean step-father who inflicts non-stop punishment, harm, including beatings, humiliation and terror. If you would care to see an Anacardium case, click below. It’s called “Hell Is Right Here!”. It may have been my first case as it came out in 2003:
Hell Is Right Here!
Jitka chooses – Carcinosinum
I wasn’t sure if I could understand your very detailed case, but I’ll try. In this case, it seemed to me that you emphasized the God aspect the most, so I looked for remedies that might be relevant and that are most often considered for OCD. From this and other symptoms in this case, the most similar remedy seems to me to be Carcinosin. Carcinosin is meticulous, very sensitive to criticism and has high demands on himself. He has trouble setting boundaries and carries the emotional burden of childhood trauma or family pressures.
That’s true, Jitka, but, Dobbin has very nice parents, supportive parents. He’s been mentally ill since before the age of 6 when he showed an aversion to touching certain random objects, and it just got worse from there.
Carcinosin tries to meet the expectations of others , too much pressure; is demanding of himself.
Carcinosin is over-responsible. Great demands were placed on him in childhood, to be a care-giver, to care for sick parents, or to care for younger siblings. He grows up thinking he has to take charge of and care for, and rescue others. People impose their problems on him, and in the end, show no appreciation for his sacrifice. People quickly learn that Carcinosin can’t say “no”; so, they return, always, for more favors and as always, offer no thanks nor any reimbursement for his trouble.
“Mind: responsibility, over-responsible”
Carcinosin is in Bold for that, outdone only by Calc-carb. We don’t see any of this in Dobbin’s case. What we see, as I mentioned to Miroslav above, is an abundance of “superstitious behavior”. Carcinosin is only a 1 in that rubric.
So, what we want to do, first of all, is go to:
“Mind: obsessive compulsive disorder”.
There are 24 remedies, we need a way to narrow this field down. So we ask ourselves, what is most striking about this case? To me it’s the superstitious behavior, it’s lasted his whole life!
To keep bad things from happening, according to Dobbin, you have to blink 4 times. If someone says “Wimpy”, you have to say “Awesome”, and so on. So, if we cross “Mind: obsessive compulsive disorder” with “Mind: Superstitious”, 2 remedies come to the fore, tied for 1st place—Argent-nit, which he’s already had, and Medorrhinum. Indeed, Medorrhinum is in Bold for “OCD”!!!!!
In addition, there are two small details pointing to Carcinosin – he loves music and has moles.
Medorrhinum has moles and a love for music as well; and remember, nothing is less “striking, strange, rare or peculiar” than a love for music. According to Aphorism 153 of The Organon, Hahnemann only wants us to consider what is striking, strange, rare and peculiar. So, where so much exists on the mental/emotional plane, including superstition, delusions, self-injury, awkwardness, learning disabilities and so on, should we really be looking at love of music and moles to solve this case? Even so, as it turns out, they both support Medorrhinum. Thanks for writing again as always!
Hey, we have another new Quiz solver with us today!
Hi Elaine and Shana,
Hi, Michael.
Great quiz this month!
It really is, isn’t it?
For this month’s quiz I think he’s constitutionally a Calc carb, based on:
News, bad, shock from
Indecision
Fear of heights
Fear of snakes
Eggs for breakfast every day
Wants cold drinks
Slowness of mind (taking a long time to answer certain questions)
He seems to be very family and home oriented, and anxious at the thought of losing the safety of home.
He could be a Calc-carb, but, that remedy’s not going to help us now. Did you ever read Paul Herscu’s book Stramonium? Everyone should read it. It’s a book about insane people, and in it, he tells us that in a “crazy” person’s case, you’re going to see keynotes of all sorts of remedies! You’ll see keynotes from the top layer of the case, the layer underneath, the constitutional layer… and you’ll be thinking, “Oh look! He eats eggs every day! It must be Calc-carb!” But you can’t think that way. You have to prescribe on the “worst thing”. Surely, insanity would be the worst thing. What are the elements of the insanity layer? That’s what we need to find out. It’s not desire for eggs or desire for ice cold drinks, or things that are common to most of us like fear of heights and fear of snakes; and for the other things you mentioned, they aren’t always what they seem to be. Take “indecision”, for example:
Do you know why Dobbin is indecisive? He’s afraid if he makes the wrong choice, God will make something bad happen as a way of showing him that he made a bad decision. Consequently, he agonizes over decision-making. This is not the indecision of Pulsatilla. This is like, “Oh, I don’t know what to choose! If I pick the wrong thing, God will make something bad happen to teach me a lesson!”
Do you see that?
All mentally ill people have some form of this. They’re all talking about God, or God is talking to them, or they are God, or God is watching them, or they hear voices that are calling them or telling them what to do, or insulting them…. So, this is the reason for the “indecision” here. “If I pick the wrong thing, God will do something bad to teach me a lesson!” This “indecision” is better understood as the delusion about being doomed. “No matter what decision I make, it’s going to be the wrong one, and God will know about it, and there’s nothing I can do!”
His “ailments from bad news” isn’t really what it seems either! This rubric is for people who actually experience bad news, like they get a bad diagnosis from a doctor and they become weak and shaky. What’s the remedy? Gelsemium!
Dobbin believes that all is doomed, the worst will happen, and the news on TV only serves to verify that. The rubric is, “Mind: delusions, doomed, being”. So, even though this seems like a case of “ailments from bad news”, it’s more aptly understood as a delusion that everything is doomed!
This is why he would have anxiety about his home and the safety of his home and loved ones, because, “everything is doomed!” We can’t really think of it as a Calc-carb love of home. Actually, Calc-carb feels very safe at home. Dobbin does not feel exceptionally safe at home, he is consumed with thoughts of misfortune and negativity.
I don’t think you gave Calc-carb, as his fear of God’s vengeance is Striking, strange, rare and peculiar.
I found the rubric: ‘Mind, object of God’s vengeance, is the’ — Anac., Kali brom.
In what Repertory? I don’t see that rubric. Here’s a similar one, “Mind: fears, damned, being”. The remedy I gave is there.
Of the two I think Kali-Bromatum is the best match, so I think that’s what you gave. I also think a dose of Nat Sulph might do some good, in case he’s right about the head injury making his mental symptoms worse. No idea if I’m right, but this is my best shot.
Mike, let me show you how easy this is. First of all, it’s largely easy because the patient is on NO drugs, thank God, which only makes curing these cases that much more difficult! So, the first thing we have to do is apply “The Hierarchy of Symptoms” to our case-solving:
Hierarchy Of Symptoms:
- Etiology–the Cause
(“Ailments from”/”Never Well Since”)
- Diagnosis
(What’s wrong with you?)
- Sudden Onset?
(A sudden onset might lead to an immediate consideration of Aconite or Belladonna.)
- Delusions; Striking/Strange/Rare/ Peculiar/ and Most Recent Symptom or complaint
- Mentals
- Emotionals
- Physical Generals–symptoms that start with the word “I” (I’m hot, I’m cold, I’m thirsty, I feel sorry for myself….)
- Local, “Particular” symptoms–symptoms that start with the word “My” (My nose is running….)
What this hierarchy suggests is that some symptoms are more important than others, some symptoms are more pathological or life-threatening than others, some symptoms represent the thread by which, if you pull it, all the other symptoms come out along with it!
Specifically, if your case has a known etiology, you can give the remedy that matches that and the whole case will be cured! For example, if he had said, “I got this strange behavior after that head injury I told you about,” we would give Nat-sulph immediately without even a second thought, and we’d be done! We wouldn’t have to concern ourselves with “What’s the remedy for fearing God’s retribution?” or, “What’s the remedy for fear of heights?” None of that would matter anymore, it would all be covered by “Ailments after head injury”!
Most people know that, but they don’t know that the same holds true for all the levels of the hierarchy! If you can match the Physical General symptom with a remedy, the “particulars” below it will resolve as well!
Everything “above” covers what’s below! Therefore, when you’re starting your case, don’t start from the bottom! What is the highest level you can cover? Start there!
In this case, we can’t cover the etiology, but, what’s next in the hierarchy? Diagnosis? That we can cover! It’s Obsessive Compulsive Disorder! We go to that rubric, there are 24 remedies, too many, no way we can choose, so, we keep scrolling down. What’s #3? Sudden Onset? No. There’s no sudden onset. Keep moving down. Striking, Strange, Rare and Peculiar? Do we have any of those? Yes! So many! But remember, we want to find the worst one! Don’t pick “sticks his feet out at night”, don’t pick “desires ice cold drinks” or “loves music”. What does he do that’s the absolute strangest thing, the most limiting thing? It’s his superstitious behavior!
He can’t even open the refrigerator door without first stepping to the left, then stepping to the right, then stepping to the left, and stepping to the right…. He can’t even reach for the salt shaker without first pretending to reach for the salt shaker 3 times! He has to blink 4 times to keep a bad thought from coming true. This is really weird, and really limits his ability to be out in the world! What’s the rubric for that? “Mind: superstitious behavior”.
So here’s what we want to do now. We want to see if any of the superstitious remedies can be found in the OCD rubric. And look:
We have a tie for 1st place between Arg-n. and Medorrhinum. Argent-nit has already been tried. Do we have to go any further? No! We’re finished! Even so, it turns out Medorrhinum covers everything in the case! Hot, sticks his feet out (needs a fan on at night), desires ice cold drinks, fear of heights, delusion: doomed, learning disabilities, awkward, fear of being damned, etc., it’s all there.
Hi Elaine,
Thank you for such a detailed reply! I’ve not read Stramonium but it looks really interesting, I will add it to the long list of Homeopathy books I want.
Now that you point it out, Calc does seem like much too mild a remedy for a severe mental problem,
Exactly, this is what Herscu was trying to say. You’ll see keynotes for all kinds of remedies in a mental case, but you’re only concerned with the worst thing, the most severe, the most limiting part of the case.
…and I can see that I was trying to solve it from the bottom up, rather than working from the top down with the hierarchy of symptoms. Thanks for the help.
You are so welcome!
The rubric is in Murphy’s third edition, ‘Mind, Delusions, God, object, of God’s vengeance…
Oh! I see it now! It’s a sub-rubric. No, it’s a great rubric! God really does have it in for Dobbin, according to Dobbin! God has to teach him a lesson. That’s a theme in this case. He begs his father to hit him! He even hits himself in the head! He tells his mother, “I’m such a baby, I’m a loser!” I picked the rubric, “Mind: reproaches himself”.
The problem with the rubric “Delusions, object of God’s vengeance”, is that the 2 remedies listed—Kali brom and Anacardium—are either not in the OCD rubric or are there only as a 1.
And then the other thing is, if you check the Materia Medica on these 2 remedies, you can’t find the rest of the case there. If you make a list of the elements of the case, you can’t find them in Anacardium and Kali brom. For instance, “Superstitious Behavior” is a huge element of this case, but Kali brom isn’t there and Anacardium is there only as a 1.
I thought the rubric was a good match…
It was a great match! But the rubric is under-populated. The 2 remedies given can’t be confirmed.
It would have steered me in the wrong direction.
Only because the rubric is under-populated. Well, I hope you will buy and enjoy reading Stramonium by Paul Herscu. We really don’t have enough books on solving mental cases. Speaking of which, you might want to read my “Difficult Children, Teens and Adults” article:
Tidbits-14: Difficult Children/Difficult Teens/Difficult Adults
Thanks again for your time, looking forward to next month’s quiz.
Thanks, I’m looking forward to seeing you again too!
I think we may have just enough time for one more contestant and then we really do have to go:
Hi Elaine,
Hi Edina!
Wow, that is a long and complex case!
You got that right!
First, I would try Gelsemium for the acute episodes for ailments from hearing bad news, with dizziness and trembling.
See, that is very interesting. I was just talking to another one of our Quiz participants about that, about the “ailments from bad news” thing. It’s tempting to take that rubric, isn’t it? But I don’t think that Dobbin had “ailments from bad news” at all. What does he have? He has a delusion that all is doomed! And the news only serves to emphasize that. His mother even said so. Let me see if I can find that part. OK, here it is. This is after he took the remedy:
“He heard something on the news he didn’t like today. It worried him and he asked me about it and then he was okay, whereas usually it’s, ‘This is going to happen and that’s going to happen and everything is done for and we’re all doomed!’”
You see what I mean? “We’re done for! We’re all doomed!” Nothing good is going to happen, ever! The “news” is just “proof” of that!
The rubric “ailments from bad news” is for people who have lost a loved one, or gotten a scary diagnosis from a doctor, and, yes, very often, Gelsemium is the remedy. But what is the issue here in Dobbin’s case? Is he getting “bad news”?
I asked his mother that. “What is the ‘bad news’, exactly?” She said it could be anything, crime, wars, even the fact that there were no decent Christmas bows this season. Yes! Christmas bows!!!! He said, “That’s how it’s gonna be from now on!” No decent Christmas bows! Ever! Get used to it! Now, what does that tell you? Does he really have ailments from bad news? Or is he just looking for confirmation that his world view is correct—that we’re all doomed!? I think it’s the latter! The rubric is, “Mind: delusions, doomed, being”.
After that, he looks like maybe a Calcarea carbonica that’s gone pathological (Since there is no known etiology, can’t think of what could have caused it. No vaccine injury or medications. Unless it’s the head injury, then nat sulph? But we can’t be sure, also mold is a perhaps.)
We have to face the fact that there is no known etiology.
My picks for Elements Of The Case:
Worse from watching the news.
Anxiety about his loved ones, the future, poverty
Generous (wants to buy his mom a store)
Conscientious about trifles
Fear that something bad will happen
Sour sweat on upper body
desires eggs
desires cold drinks
Hope I’m not too far off….
Well, Edina, I think you’ve made this more complicated than it actually is; believe it or not, it’s an easy case, but only if you remember our Hierarchy of Symptoms! Otherwise, it’s a literal blizzard of symptoms, as you’ve pointed out! The Hierarchy of Symptoms, do you remember it?
Etiology,
Diagnosis,
Sudden Onset,
Delusions/striking/strange/rare/peculiar,
mentals,
emotionals,
physical generals,
physical particulars.
We’ve got no etiology. We do have a diagnosis: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. No sudden onset. We’ve got delusions: Delusion all is doomed, and Delusion he is being watched. Yes, God is watching him and making note of all his (poor) decisions. What is most striking about this case? His superstitious behavior! It is way over the top! To stop bad things from happening, he has to blink 4 times, and it goes on from there. And let’s pick one more thing that we are absolutely sure of: he sticks his feet out at night. OK, let’s repertorize that.
Do you see what comes out on top? Medorrhinum. All we have to do now is go down our list of symptoms and see if Medorrhinum covers all or most of them. Desire for cold drinks? Learning disabilities? Wants to be fanned? Awkwardness? Fear of misfortune? Fear something bad will happen? Yes! Medorrhinum covers all of that! There were many paths to Medorrhinum in this case.
Thanks!
I’m sorry I have no Gold Stars to give out today! But do try again for our January Quiz! See you again in February!
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Elaine Lewis, DHom, CHom
Elaine takes online cases. Write to her at [email protected]
Visit her website: https://ElaineLewis.hpathy.com
