2.1.4 Lithium sulphuricum, Case 1
A 30 year old woman has epilepsy. It wakes her up at midnight, her eyes are wide open, her body is convulsing, she stops breathing and bites her tongue. There is no loss of urine. Afterwards she is confused, depressed, shaky and dizzy, and has a headache. The epilepsy started when a relationship with a boyfriend broke up.
She often has a feeling of distention and tension in her bowels, especially if she eats too much or too fast, worse after leeks, cabbage, onion or peasoup. When she feels stressed she gets large red lumps on her skin. They are usually on the left side, often in the neck and they leave a sort of scar. She suffers from headaches, pressing outward in her forehead, worse in the sun and after exertion, better from pressure.
She frequently changes boyfriends, going from one relationship straight into another. This is because she feels so unsure of herself, especially with regard to her looks. She feels she has too many spots and she is too fat. She gets jealous when her boyfriend so much as looks at another woman. It makes her feel she is worthless. She has many mixed feelings about sex too. Her present boyfriend is impotent and she doesn’t like that. In her first marriage she was very afraid of sex, she used to think ‘Oh no, God is looking at me’
Things in that marriage did not go very smoothly, which is why she got divorced. Afterwards she had a spell of heavy drinking and smoking hash. Then she went to live with another man, but he turned out to have an even greater drink problem.
She started to have palpitations and felt herself heading for a nervous breakdown. So she went to her sister for a break and then went to live with her parents. There she got to know someone who lived in the same street, but he turned out to be very possessive, and wouldn’t even let her voice her own opinions. But now she has a boyfriend who does stimulate her to do her own things.
She was brought up in a very protective environment, where she never had to work anything out for herself. Her parents sacrificed everything for their three daughters, and later made sure their daughters knew this too: ‘Look at everything we have done for you..’ Unfortunately the other daughters aren’t bringing them much happiness either, as they are both divorced as well, so all three of them are ‘problem children’.
She often has feelings of guilt. She lacks self confidence. As a child they called her ‘fatty’ at school. She hates crowds and hectic activity around her. She likes going to lonely places like Scotland. She hates lies. She loves nature and animals.
She can be very cheerful, but this can change abruptly into depression. She often dreams that she is crossing a hanging bridge over a raging river and when she has nearly reached the other end the bridge gives way and she falls into the water.
When she was younger she had trouble with the blood circulation in her calves: they would hurt and give her stitching pains when she was out in the sun.
Frequent urge to urinate, she has to get out of bed at least three times every night. She gets palpitations from smoking and from hash.
Generals
Weather: cold; -> frosty weather; -> summer, heat, <- storm and thunder.
Time: < 4 pm, 1 am.
Desires: savoury, sweet.
Aversion: snails, crab, creepy things, fish, fatty meat, milk, bitter.
Food: < cabbage, leeks, pea soup.
Analysis
The epilepsy started after she broke up with her boyfriend. This points to the Silicon series, and to Sulphuricum in particular. The strong feeling of jealousy is a confirmatory symptom for Sulphuricum, with the added symptoms of having been teased at school for being fat and her anxiety about having spots.
So we have the Sulphur theme linked to another theme The question is: which?
her relationships are always changing, as she goes from one to the next. This would indicate Lithium, which leads us to the combined theme of Lithium sulphuricum.
We can see the lack of self confidence (Lithium) about her looks (Sulphur).
Her jealousy (Sulphur) is made worse by this same lack of self confidence (Lithium). Her friend is impotent (Lithium). Her partner (Sulphur) was an alcoholic (Lithium). She can be very cheerful (Sulphur), alternating (Lithium) with depression. Her parents gave all their love (Sulphur) to their children, but wanted some back later on (Lithium). We also see the feelings of guilt, changing sexual feelings, fear of sex and a possessive husband.
Sulphuricum symptoms: palpitations, circulation problems, distension in abdomen and bowels, -> sweet.
Large red lumps when under stress. Lumps on left side, in the neck, resulting in scars.
Lithium symptoms: -> tobacco and hash.
Reaction
After Lithium sulph there is a great improvement. She feels calmer, not so threatened, more self acceptance, less depression. Not so jealous anymore, her friend may look at another girl and it doesn’t bother her. She had a dream in which her boyfriend chose another woman. But she saw clearly that this was the result of her own jealousy, which drove him away to look for someone else.