2.1.5 Lithium muriaticum, Case 1
A 25 year old woman suffers from frequent colds. Much mucus in nose, throat and ears especially in the morning and evening, worse in the winter. She also has polyps, which have been removed once by surgery.
She says she has an inferiority complex. She doesn’t stick up for herself at all. She is afraid that people will notice her lack of self confidence. She tries to live up to the expectations of other people and she agrees with everything they say in the hope of being accepted. She feels that ‘if I say what I really think I’ll be rejected’. She feels as if she is all blank inside: she’ll say one thing to this person and something else to another person. She can’t wear a mask; she feels she has to choose between people. She feels that whatever form she has was given to her by her parents, but there is nothing there that is her own. Her father used to beat her, so she doesn’t like men. The image she has of herself is very negative and certainly not feminine. Her mother was unstable: she cried a lot and got incredibly angry if something in the house got broken. Her mother used to make the children feel guilty and they all felt the constant threat hanging over them of her having to be taken to hospital for psychiatric treatment.
Her mother always wanted something back from her children, using tactics like: ‘If you really loved me you would do such and such for me’.
She is the youngest of 10 children. Her father was very dogmatic and moralistic and used to beat her brothers. When the children were still very young he used to be very kind, but as soon as they were old enough to have their own opinion he used to beat it out of them. She herself was very easy going, she never rebelled, until she was 19 and then she ran away from home. She trained to be a nurse and worked in that profession for several years. But after a few years it all became too much because she used to take on everyone else's problems too. She spent six months in a psychiatric hospital. She felt extremely guilty and unsure of herself, she never dared to say ‘no’. She was always afraid that others would think she needed help, that she couldn’t manage on her own. She was afraid of other people’s sympathy or pity. She was always looking around but never said anything, afraid that others would see her and would look straight through her. She can be very spontaneous, idealistic and sociable. But there are also moments when she is very proud and doesn’t want to agree with anyone. She hates it when others call her ‘that sweet little sister’.
She now works as a secretary.
Generals
Weather: easily cold and warm; > outside, sea, mountains.
Perspiration: < night, axillae, back and face.
Time: < 8-9 pm, < morning; < November till January.
Desires: Dutch food, potatoes, vegetables, meat, sweet, yogurt, milk, buttermilk.
Aversion: Broad beans, kidney beans, eggs.
Food: < egg: empty, nauseous feeling in stomach and abdomen; < starchy food: heavy feeling in stomach.
Menses: pain in abdomen during first two days of menses.
Sleep: good; on stomach.
Analysis
The situation with the mood swings of her mother made me think of Lithium muriaticum straight away. The mother who gets angry very quickly, who uses blackmail on the children and who needs frequent psychiatric treatment.
The confirming symptoms for Lithium are the inferiority complex, the lack of self confidence, a ‘blank’ personality, not knowing herself. Beryllium would be another possibility because she can’t say ‘no’. But her spontaneity points more strongly to Lithium.
She agrees (Lithium) to everything in the hope of being accepted. ‘If you give your own opinion (Lithium), you might get rejected (Muriaticum)’.
Other muriaticum symptoms: lack of feminine feelings, fear of being pitied, outside, sea, < starch.
Reaction
One month after Lithium muriaticum 1M she felt more cheerful and much more clearheaded, not nearly so confused when she talks about herself. She finds that she is able to phone someone to talk about her feelings, something she had never been able to do before. The memory of the psychiatric treatment is still there, but she is better able to discern her own part in it all. She realises how difficult it was for her to make decisions for herself.
After another two months, and two doses of Lithium 1M she feels even better. The past doesn’t oppress her anymore. She wants to enjoy herself and do her own thing. She has left the Bible-reading course she was attending and chosen a new one, because she likes the new one better. The people of the old club accused her of being selfish, but she still did what she felt was right, as she has had enough of all these strict rules. She wants to live life for herself instead of living for other people, as she did for her mother.