Natrium nitricum Case
A man of 35 comes because of sneezing attacks. Once every 4 or 5 weeks he spends whole day sneezing. It always happens on a day off work. He can usually postpone it for a while by 'willing it to stay away', but eventually it comes anyway. He sneezes all day, walks bent double, sweats a lot, has a watery, acrid discharge and his eyes become very red. Lying down and sniffing salt water ameliorates; daytime, getting up, washing and dust aggravate.
Past history: pain under left knee, stitching, ever since straining it while playing volleyball.
General characteristics:
Temperature: warm, needing fresh air.
Perspiration: easy, on the back, < exertion and getting nervous.
Desires: vegetables, milk, yogurt, salt, coffee, alcohol.
Aversion: meat (because of the factory farming), sweet, asparagus (3).
Sleep: good and refreshing; sleeps on right side.
Mind: He is a quiet and sociable type of person. He doesn’t like discotheques. He is introverted.
He is sensitive and definitely not ambitious. Last year he had a temporary promotion at work, but this gave him sleepless nights. He was upset by not being able to handle things properly.
He has a 'weekend relationship' with his girlfriend. They had lived together for 5 years but this did not work well any longer. Both have a busy job and they expected too much from each other. He is very disappointed and his complaints started at the beginning of this relationship.
He has a good sense of humour and he dislikes unreasonable demands made by students.
He was never allowed to make any noise as a child.
Work: he is a systems analyst. He likes his work, because he likes solving problems with his mathematical knowledge. He likes helping people and he likes travelling.
Analysis
His complaints are obviously linked to his relationship. This makes us think of the Sulphuricums, but also of the Nitricums. The Nitricums especially have the aspect of having a good time together. And this is the aspect that has been disturbed in this case: there is not enough time for each other, they can’t do nice things together anymore. The possibility for this has been lost, which reminds us of Natrum. His introverted character fits with this too. A few more symptoms for Nitricum are: warm, need for social life. For Natrum we find: warm, <- meat. The general complaints are however difficult to find in any description of Nat-n.
Reaction
An initial prescription of Magnesium muriaticum brought no change. But after Nat-n 1M he felt 80% better within one month, mentally as well as physically.