Case study Dictamnus
By Mr. J. Scholten, physician.
A 40-year-old woman comes with cystitis. She has had many antibiotics for it, but it keeps coming back again and again. Suddenly it's there, fires when urinating especially at the beginning and at the end of the urination. And she has to urinate a lot, so much so that she doesn't sleep well. The urine smells like a diaper that has been lying for too long. Drinking lots of water with lemon helps well. It is the worst at the end of the afternoon and especially at the beginning of the evening. She has a slight increase. It has come from worry, fear and jealousy because she has just divorced her husband. She had little support and care from him. He was authoritarian even though it was well-intentioned. When she met her husband about 15 years before she also had a period of bladder infections. She also had it about 2 years ago, when her husband was absent for the third time on her birthday. She is in love with someone else, she hasn't been happy in her marriage for 5 years.
As a child she suffered from bedwetting until she was seven years old.
At the age of 18 she had headaches when she had her first serious boyfriend.
Temperatures: chilly.
Sweat: with bladder infections at night.
Time: < 19 hours.
Preferences: pickle (2), sour (2), cheese, sweet.
Disgust: tomato. > Lemon.
Menses: regular, no complaints.
Sleep: good.
Psychic: She doubts whether she did well with the divorce. "I've decided for 5 people, have I done it right?". "Choosing for yourself is not easy, has many consequences". She is faithful until she stands with her back to the wall.
She has passed herself by for the rest of her life. Her father only appreciated boys, "girls couldn't do anything". So she has always done her best to become a boy. Her father was hard and authoritarian, he abandoned her emotionally. He beat a lot as a punishment and they were forced to eat. There was little room in her youth for self-existence, she had to keep everyone a friend. She had to offer herself to everyone as a staff and turn herself in. There was little concern for herself, but "they can't get me under it. She felt inferior, had little right to exist. She was ashamed of her own opinion, because then she would have to take responsibility and could be rejected.
She is closed, had to be big, not nagging. She took care of it all. Only recently did she learn to show her soft side with the help of relationship therapy and gestalt therapy. She has a great need for safety.
Her mother didn't stand up for her either, left her out in the cold. Mother is now angry with her because of the divorce. At the age of 7 her parents divorced and that was a joy for her. But she had to do the housework half the time because her mother had to work.
Since her adolescence she hasn't seen her father since he didn't want her to come because of his new wife. When she was 26 years old she wrote her father a letter, but she didn't get an answer.
She has 3 children.
Dreams: (regularly) she is chased, walks into a dead end street, wants to go through a hedge, but that's not possible.
Dreams: (night before the first consultation) I drive a car, but I'm not allowed to brake, otherwise the car explodes, I have to stop it against a wall because the handbrake doesn't work, it's a bit anxious.
Analysis
We see many themes of the Rutaceae: work, fear of failure, being abused (under the snow, personnel), identity problem (handing in) and relationship problems. Typical is the improvement of the inflammation with lemon, one of the Rutaceae and that brought me to the idea of the family. Ptelea also has the improvement by acid and lemon. But Dictamnus is more known for cystitis and hence that choice.
Reaction
A month after Dictamnus MK the bladder infections are a lot better: "It's a bit of annoying burning whining, I whine". It's more dormant than a real inflammation, "It's good to keep now".
She feels much better psychologically, especially now that she is divorced. It feels as if she has lost a lead coat, as if she has watered herself again. She is much less worried, has more self-confidence.
After 5 months she feels very good and has no more bladder infections. She has a lot of support for the Dictamnus pills. She is much more herself, can choose much better for herself; "I'm there too, this is important to me, I'm in favour of it". She feels firm and won't let herself be snowed under anymore. She is much less worried. The children had much more support for her.