I first saw K. in 2005 when she was 11 years old. She
had been referred to me from another naturopathic
doctor in the metro area for my homeopathy
experience. Her mother listed "emotional instability"
as her main complaint. She had been diagnosed with
bipolar disorder at age 5 after seeing numerous
specialists for prolonged tantrums and mood swings.
She became intolerant to the psych meds and her
parents put her on sedating herbs which seemed to
help to stabilize her. The previous ND had kept her
fairly stable but recently she had had such a temper
tantrum that she had fractured her arm while pushing
a door shut.
This is her mother's description of
her tantrums: ". this was one of numerous, huge
blows... throwing stuff at us, endless screaming, she
would burst blood vessels near her eyes from the
screaming, throwing her body around, and she was so
violent with the door that she did break her arm... other
tantrums when she was younger would usually end
after she a)screamed and cried herself out or b)hurt
herself (I remember she was kicking a closet metal
door (those bifold) with both feet and just freaking out -
she ended up getting one foot in the door and kicked
with the other foot and the metal door sliced her toe
pretty good - that ended that tantrum. I think she did
the closet door thing when she was about 7 or 8."
She is very upset with her "blowups" and
finds them embarrassing. after a "big blow" she is
remorseful and upset.
She is very teas-y with her
sister. She also tends to exhibit silly and annoying
behavior while she is spiralling up into a "blowup".
After a few remedies that did not seem to effect
her I chose Hyosciamus for her. She was " as good as
K. gets" on that remedy. She does better when she is
homeschooled since she has trouble getting along
and making friends with the other girls. They find her
annoying and needy. We kept her on a daily dose of
the Hyosciamus, adjusting the dosage gradually when
she started "acting out" again. That would often settle
her.
January 2007 her remedy picture appeared
to shift. She was not raging so much as experiencing
an intense fear and anxiety and neediness and really
wanting company. Her therapist thought she was
exhibiting more "narcissistic" behavior. At that point I
changed her homeopathic remedy to
"Hydrophobinum" or a remedy related to rabies.
She began to exhibit less fear and anxiety at that
point, and slowly started making friends and doing
better in school. She improved gradually even more
when the whole family went gluten and dairy free due
to health issues with other family members. Her
remedies were lasting longer and we did not seem to
need to adjust the dosages as often.
Today we
are up to Hydrophobinum LM42, a daily dose and she
continues to do well while on the diet restrictions as
well as keeping the potency of the remedy adjusted. A
dietary indiscretion can still trigger an episode, but
there is so much more stability now. That is more the
norm. She is now 16, has a boyfriend, friends and a
job and continues to do well in school. She attends a
high school now and her grades are good and she is
involved in theater. Her mother
often ponders what her fate would have been had they
taken a more traditional approach to her
healthcare.
More telling, here are more of her
mother's recent thoughts, in her own words regarding
K.:
"I actually have no
doubt that she'd have been inpatient by now. This is a
child who, before psychiatry, we took to occupational
therapists, an audiologist, a neurologist, a
psychologist, a nutritionist, and a host of others that
I've forgotten. We were DESPERATE not to medicate.
Her behavior had gotten so bad by the age of 5
(tearing out her own hair, sleeping only 6 hours a
night, scratching her arms til they bled, wild and
massive mood swings, no natural fear of any kind) that
we had no choice for our sanity and hers but to try
meds. Even then, she went toxic with her first psych
(had her on too much depakote trying to balance out
the paxil he had her on) and we had to start with a
new one. The second one kept her from toxic, but he
was the one that had her on 3 meds. We
supplemented the kava on our own - daily, 2x,
adjusted to her weight. When we took out the kava,
the bottom fell out.
He wanted to put her on 5 meds, we said no. I told
him we were going to try homeopathy for 6 months to
see if we could help her (we had nowhere to go but
up). I asked him, "How many patients do you lose to
natural medicine?" He said, "None. They all come
back. You'll be back."
Well, that was Jan of 2001 and it's now March of 2010
so I'm pretty sure we won't be back. ;-) "
"Without homeopathy, I shudder to think of where
she'd be. It's still work to keep her balanced and it's
not always easy, but her life (and ours) is a dramatic
departure from where we were heading."
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