As we learned in the first part of this article on homeopathy, treating someone with these types of remedies goes well beyond giving someone a tincture made from a mineral or herb and being told that it will help us get over whatever health condition we are dealing with. Instead, homeopathic doctors tend to have a very holistic view of their patients and try to cure the person rather than the symptoms.
In order to illustrate this point, let’s talk about how homeopathy can help us with stress and anxiety. With stress, homeopathic medicine contends that a lot of other health issues like hypoglycemia, high blood pressure, and digestive disorders are manifestations of stress, so treatment might be more long-term and addressing more than one issue. But in cases where stress is due to a more obvious reason like too much work, a divorce, grief, or other more commonly considered reasons for stress, there are a wide variety of remedies that can be used.
I was struck at how specific the remedies are for differing symptoms of stress. Rather than being told to take one drug that will cover stress in general, homeopathy gets really really finely honed to the person’s specific issues.
For example, according to Holistic online’s website, the remedy Ignatia imara might be prescribed for someone who was feeling emotional strain and mental stress and negative effects of grief and worry, which are made worse from things like tobacco, coffee, or smoke, or better from things like warmth, walking, and hard pressure. But the remedy phosphorus might be useful for someone with restlessness, an overexcited state that involves feeling weak and exhausted, the sense that something bad will happen and fear of being alone, which is made worse by cold or heat. Interesting stuff, huh? It seems like these homeopathic remedies can get super specific to whatever types of stress you are feeling, and that in the world of homeopathy, all kinds of stress are not created equal.
The same is true for anxiety. Millions of people are dealing with some form of anxiety and like stress, it is not an umbrella term that covers everyone. Some anxiety is chronic and requires more long-term care from a homeopath, but other forms are more short-lived and may be treated over a shorter period of time.
For example, Acontium napellus, or aconite, may be useful for a person dealing with panic attacks that come on suddenly with a very strong fear element. They may feel intense anxiety with heart palpitations, shortness of breath, and facial flushing, among other things. And Argentum nitricum may be helpful for the person who is nervous about an upcoming event, like a job interview, a public speech, or a wedding. If you are anxious about your health, a homeopath might suggest you take arsenicum album. If you are interested in more examples of specific homeopathic remedies to treat anxiety, please check out the holisticonline.com link below in the reference section.
I’ve tried some homeopathic remedies over the years and I have to say, I was really impressed with how well they worked. I bought mine from a natural foods store after researching my symptoms in a homeopathic book. But I would think that if you met with a homeopathic doctor who was well-trained in listening to very specific symptoms, you could get even better results. Have you ever used homeopathic medicines? If so, how did they work for you? I’m eager to learn what you think of this practice to treat any type of ailment, but especially stress and anxiety.
References:
www.homeopathic.org
www.holisticonline.com/stress/stress_homeopathy.htm
www.holisticonline.com/remedies/Anxiety/anx_homepathy.htm