6.6 Tungstenium, Case 1
This is the case of a 30 year old woman who has come complaining of migraines. The attacks start with frequent urination and occasional diarrhoea. She sees little black threads before her eyes and flashes of light in all colours, purple, pink and blue. She also gets trouble in the right side of her body, her arm leg and particularly her hand feel stiff and swollen. They feel as if paralysed, as if they don’t belong to her. Her face gets the same sensations. The right half of her face is swollen, stiff, numb and tingling. It stops her from speaking, she can’t pronounce the words properly anymore. At these times she cannot bear to be touched. All these symptoms are awful and she is very relieved when they go away and she gets a bad headache instead. This headache is stitching, pressing and dull, above her right eye, as if it is being squeezed tight. It feels as if the pain comes from her neck and back. The pain is also situated in her jaws, the eyeballs, temples and occiput. It is sunglasses, = noise, < storm, < before menses. Before an attack she usually gets a strong craving for sweets. She prefers carrying on with her work. Movement makes it bearable, but when she goes to lie down in the evening it gets much worse. Carrying on with her work can also postpone the headache but it will reappear even worse later on. The migraines started when she was 12, shortly before her first menses. After these severe attacks she often has an other sort of headache for days, a constant nagging sensation, like a faint replica of the violent attacks.
Until she was 12 she often got bad ear and throat infections. She often had her eardrums punctured.
When there is much pressure at work it affects her headaches. She is a busy type of woman who often takes on more than she can manage. She always thinks: ‘if others can do it, so can I’ and she was given a managerial post when she was only 21. Because she was so young, and because she was a woman, she had to work hard to prove herself. At first she occasionally asked for advice from an older colleague, but after she had been given some rather curt replies once or twice she decided she wouldn’t bother in the future. She has a full time job, but it is really more than one person can manage. She feels she can’t say show that it is a bit too much, so she works extra hard to stay on top. She likes to have things perfect, so that others can’t find fault with her. Her director is very dominant and everybody listens to what he says. He is the sort of person who likes to have something to complain about, so she is never sure whether the work she has produced will be to his liking. She is afraid he will say she hasn’t thought it through properly.
Besides all this she also has a family to run. She has one child and is expecting a second. She doesn't’ want her children to suffer because of her job.
She likes challenges, but she also has fears that she won’t succeed. She was brought up with the motto that you should do things properly and not make a fuss. Her father was a very warmhearted and happy man who was keen on equality for men and women. She is a very cheerful and optimistic person herself, she laughs a lot during the consultation. She doesn't talk about her personal problems with others, nobody knows anything about her headaches. But as far as her opinions are concerned she is happy to discuss them with others. She speaks openly about her work and what she thinks about it. It doesn't matter to her who is present when she offers her opinion, even if it is the highest boss, because ‘work is work’.
She has a repeating dream that she has to get into a high building, but she should use the most difficult route. She has to climb along a dangerous ledge to reach the balcony, which she manages to do after several fearful moments. She often dreams about having to fulfil a difficult task, but she always succeeds.
She hates being restricted in her activities through illness or similar circumstances.
She has a strong fear of heights. When she was little she did not dare to cross a bridge even if it was only a foot above the water. She is afraid or rats and cats, because they come towards you even if you don’t like them.
Generals
Weather: cold, hands and feet stiff with cold; outside, > sea (2), <- mountains; < ley lines.
Perspiration: little.
Time: < morning, < 4 pm.
Desires: sweet.
Aversion: potatoes (3), milk.
Food: < warm food, smell of meat (2), orange (3), apple (3), tangerine (3), alcohol, coffee (2), cucumber (3), onion (2), leeks (2), peppers; < fasting.
Menses: nausea and headache before menses, < late menses.
Sleep: has to go to bed early because she feels very tired.
Physical: motion, working.
Analysis
Her managerial task indicates the Gold series. The fact that she feels she has to prove herself and wants many challenges indicates the sixth stage. Together this means we need Tungsten in this case.
Other symptoms of the Gold series: independent in her opinions, doesn’t like to be restricted, > work, < rest, < cold, fear of heights, <- restrictions.
Symptoms of the sixth stage: feeling she ‘must’ do things, being ’squeezed’ (headache).
her repeating dream is also quite typical: she has to (Stage 6) enter a very high building (Gold series), but doesn't this in a very complicated (Stage 6) way, via a ledge along a steep drop (Gold series) to the balcony.
Reaction
After a few doses of Tungsten 1M the migraines start to decrease and a few months later she hardly has any headaches. She has started to look at her work from a different perspective. She has changed her job, the tasks are being shared by two people now, here she has managed to hold on to the parts she likes best. She would like to take it easy for a while, she is even contemplating being just a housewife for a while. But his is going a bit far, she doesn’t think she can do without the challenge altogether.