Case, Bismuthum phosphoricum
A woman comes after a vacation in New Zealand. She went for 6 weeks in November and comes back in December in the cold dark climate in Holland. She has a sever jet-lag, cannot get used to the times of Holland. She cannot sleep anymore at 3 am and so gets up at 5 am to start breakfast and read the newspaper. But at 7 pm. she’s so tired that her eyes close and she has to go to bed. In general she feels very tired.
She has problems with her eyes, cannot read the small letters anymore unless she makes the lights very bright. This is more so with her right eye than her left. She has her neuralgic, nerve pain behind her right eye when the lights are too bright. She has in general problems with the dark in Holland in the winter. She has difficulties to get used to it after the beautiful light in New Zealand. Light and dark are very important for her. Darkness makes her feel depressed. Although she’s a very lively person she always has a winter depression in December. She feels very lonely and forsaken, thinks a lot about death and has a big fear of losing friends and relatives.
Her mother and sister are so full of self-pity that she cannot communicate about the death of her father and brother. She misses that a lot.
This has also to do with the fact that her brother and father died in the month of December. Her brother died 6 years ago from a perforation of the intestine. He was a “punker” that could find his place in society. He was very intelligent, had completed his university study, but was too sensitive and nice to fit into the society. He joined a group of punkers that was busy with music. His favorite was Frank Zappa. She had good contact with him, they understood each other without that much had to be said. He had did not have much contact with his mother and other sister. The last months before his death he retired more and more on his own, did not want to have much contact with friends. He even quarreled so much with her and his other friends that she had the feeling to leave him alone for a while, but she couldn’t understand why he was so aggressive. Afterwards she thinks that it was a kind of suicide and that he wanted others not to feel guilty by make quarrels with them. Life was too hard for him. When he had his perforation he did not call for a doctor, died on his own and was found dead only a day or so later. When she tells about this story she starts weeping saying “I thought I was over that”. It makes her feel more alone, “as if things go backwards in time, against the clock”. She feels then as a hopeless, lonely girl of 5 years old, when her father died. She also gets stomachache, a knot feeling in her stomach > bending forward and keep quiet.
She thinks that his problems also had to do with the early death of their father. He died when she was 5. She was very fond of him and missed him very much. Her feeling of loneliness started there she thinks. When her father was sick, she was end to an aunt for some weeks. When she came back her father was gone, but no-one told her that he died. She thinks she found out when the general practitioner said to her that she had to take care of her mother now because her father was dead.
She is working as a manager in an organization for the resocialisation of delinquents. She was hired to promote the communication in the management staff. The old male managers did not communicate out of a fear of losing their power. She has always been working in the social help institutions. She has always thought that she had to be needed in order to be allowed to be in this world. These jobs also fit with her open and sympathetic character.
She has the feeling that her brain keeps moving when she moves her head.
She also has flushes of heat and arthritis of fingers, elbows and shoulders.
Weather: chilly, cold hands and feet !!, fear thunderstorm !!.
Time: < 3 pm
Desires: fish, wild animals, sweet, salt, raw vegetables.
Aversion: milk, spicy.
Aggravation: milk, milk products, alcohol.
Analysis
The mental problems of depression, loneliness and forsaken feeling have much to do with the loss of brother and father. Her brother died of a perforation of the intestine, could very well be saved probably with an operation, but did not call for a doctor, so he died. This looks like a kind of suicide. She feels that also in some way. Life was too hard for him. When we combine this we come to Bismuthum phosphoricum, Bismuthum (suicide) of the brother (phosphoricum).
The of Phosphor of communication is very strong. There was no communication in the family, she had only contact with her brother and she’s working in order to promote the communication. In her job we can also see Bismuthum phosphoricum: promoting the communication (Phosphorus) between the managers (Goldseries) did not communicate out of a fear of losing (Stage 15) their power (Goldseries).
Other confirmations for Bismuthum: chilly, desire fish, desire raw.
Other confirmations for phosphoricum: sympathetic, open, fear of death and losing friends and relatives, fear thunderstorm, desire fish and salt, aversion spicy.
Reaction
After Bismuthum phosphoricum 200 K she feels much better, her depression is almost gone, even tough the weather and darkness are still the same. She feels much lighter, can think of her brother without feeling hopeless. Her eyes are much better, she can see normal again and says “I got the light back in my eyes. As a reaction she felt her eyes very much, as if had looked into a bright light like a photo flashlight.
After a month the complaints came back a little bit. She got a repetition of the remedy 3 times each month. With the first 2 repetitions she felt again an amelioration. The third repetition did not do anything anymore. She had the feeling that the problem was gone: the depression, her eye and stomach problems were over.
She stopped with her job and found another one. She did not feel the responsibility or need anymore to keep the communication going on.
The flushes of heat and arthritis were not affected at all by Bismuthum phosphoricum.
Case Sjoukje, Bismuthum phosphoricum
She has complaints of moaning. She feels a kind of dyspnoea and as if there’s something inside her that has to go out, but can’t go out. It was only when she was alone, in company she could control it, fortunately. It’s also a moaning and pain psychologically. The moaning was hindering her very much, for example in singing in the open air.
Sciatica, extending from the sacral region to the front side of the thigh and to the knee with a feeling of a band around the knee. It is more right than left sided. It is > massage, acupressure, >> pregnancies, > lying down, < lifting too much, < stooping, < turning her body.
Hemorrhoids. Varices.
She is a very religious woman, straight in her religion with a desire to help people. She works as a volunteer for other people. She is very sympathetic, feels much when She has 7 children and during the pregnancy of her fourth child her younger brother became suicidal. Her mother couldn’t handle at home and asked her to take care of him. She took him in his house, but it was very heavy for her, having him hanging around and saying “I’m going to end my life”. She felt responsible for preventing him doing it. At the same time she had to take care for her 3 children, do the household and was pregnant. After the pregnancy she was very tired. And it became worse due to the fact that her daughter turned oout to be very difficult to handle, always discontent. She did not tell her daughter about the suicidal brother. She told her that she had had a difficult pregnancy with a lot of illnesses in the family.
Weather: chilly, < too cold, < too hot, < wet weather, < draft.
Time: < 9 pm.
Food desire: salt herring !!, sour !!.
Food aversion: kidney
Food: < sour.
Dream: walking downward on moving staircase, which suddenly ends in nowhere.
Dream: trying to walk away, but her feet are stuck.
Analysis
The cause was that she had to take of her suicidal brother. This leads to Bismuthum (suicide) phosphoricum (brother). We also see the responsibility and heaviness of the Goldseries. Her sympathy fits the Phosphor. As a keynote for the Bismuthums we also see the aversion salt herring. The walking downward fits Bismuthum as downward motion, although it’s not a falling.
Reaction
After Bismuthum phosphoricum 200 K she feels much better. She says the remedy is a “hit”. The moaning was gone after a day and after 2 weeks it returned a little bit, some 10%, for a few days. A second dose did not change that.
She got an strong urge to talk about the situation of her suicidal brother, how she felt during that pregnancy and about her daughter. And she did with people that she felt she could trust. She wanted to tell about how good she felt after the remedy. She feels that the problems are solved, she doesn’t need to tell it anymore. After 3 months she also told the story to her daughter. The daughter reacted quite relaxed.
She feels much more happy, can sing again.
In general she has more energy, has more desire to do things in the evening, visit friends
She got old complaints back. First a heat, glowing in her right knee and thigh. She had that complaint during her pregnancies and when she had a sciatica.
Secondly a tingling in her left foot for a few days. Then a trembling of her left under eyelid.
She had a kind of nodule in the proximal interphalangeal joint of her right ring finger. In the past she had that under the sole of her foot, so that she couldn’t walk. Especially the first hour of walking was very difficult, but when she forced herself it became better after an hour. She had ice cold feet back. She got her old hemorrhoids back for a few days. For these complaints she had taken in the past Calcium fluoratum with success. Of these complaints only the heat in the thigh is sometimes still there after a month.