maintaing cause?

[d_rona2000]

Working with a lady that traditional medicine would easily classify as hypochondriac. The list of complaints goes on and on and every time I get an email from her - it is another 3 to 5 pages of complaints. I've taken and retaken the case 3 times now since she 'reveals' new details as we go on. She gets wonderful relief from acute symptoms and begins to make progress on chronic issues until she revisits her psychologist. They have a 'break through' and the old symptoms return with more vivid details. I certainly do not wish to advise her not to see the psychologist, but something in those visits is not healing but rather reigniting old problems. She is also doing 'body work' with a therapist that seems to be giving more psychological advice than massage therapy and it also seems to revive symptoms that were just beginning to resolve. Has anyone delt with this issue - and if so - how did you handle it?

Thank you in advance for your assistance.

Donna

D C Rona, PhD, ND, DHM

[Bill Giman]

Hi Dona,

I would offer the patient a temp choice:
Stop the Homeopathic treatment until she finishes the Psych treatment,
Stop the Psych treatment for a short time until you get a better handle on her Homeopathic treatment.

Same for the massage therapy.

You didn't say how old this woman is, depending on her age there are many things you can due with Ars Alb and vitamins & minerals and alkalizing compounds.

Bill Giman

____________________________________________________________
Turn any room into a work of art. Click now for beautiful oriental rugs!
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[d rona]

Thank you Bill,

I am reluctant to put an individual in the position of choosing homeopathic treatment OR psych treatment (no matter how I might believe the therapist is raking her over the coals and not resolving but rather reviving old problems). And while I would prefer she see a massage therapist that stuck to massage and did not always offer her own version of psych input, that too is a part of her choice/personal empowerment that I don’t wish to step into the middle of. As to nutrition – I am also her naturopath – so she has a list of dietary changes, supplements, lifestyle changes, etc. that we are working on – although even in that she is inconsistent – having ‘so many stresses’ in her life – and then complains that she still has symptoms. Overall she seems to make good progress, until she re-visits the ‘therapists’- she even remarked that her therapist was so amazed that she was consistently able to make wonderful ‘breakthroughs’ since she started homeopathy. I’ve had individuals with compliance issues before – but this pattern of other therapies actually aggravating or re-initiating the old issues (but not moving toward resolution) is a new twist.
Donna
________________________________

From: minutus@yahoogroups.com [mailto:minutus@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Bill Giman
Sent: Friday, June 26, 2009 11:48 AM
To: minutus@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Minutus] maintaing cause?
Hi Dona,

I would offer the patient a temp choice:
Stop the Homeopathic treatment until she finishes the Psych treatment,
Stop the Psych treatment for a short time until you get a better handle on her Homeopathic treatment.

Same for the massage therapy.

You didn't say how old this woman is, depending on her age there are many things you can due with Ars Alb and vitamins & minerals and alkalizing compounds.

Bill Giman

__________________________________________________________
Turn any room into a work of art. Click now for beautiful oriental rugs!
http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL214 ... asIx3jRWw/

[Shannon Nelson]

But if it is interfering in the way that you seem to be observing, you
would be doing her a disservice *not* to make that suggestion! For one
thing, you need to be able to see whether it really *is* the other
therapies that keep causing relapse--or whether there's something in
the pacing of the remedy, or whether the remedy is simply wearing off
too soon. How can you tell, unless you ask her to give you a
simplified playing field for a while?

I agree it would not be appropriate to give her an ultimatum, but if
you explain your confusion to her (and I'd *put* it as confusion, not
as "your other therapies keep dragging you down"), she might be
perfectly willing to go along. in fact, if it *is* as you seem to see,
she might even be *relieved* at having a reason to take a temporary
break. You won't know unless you ask!

Shannon

[kali]

i would take everything you just mentioned and make it the chief complaint even though that's not what she came to you for (filtering out what is "unhelpful" or grouping those that seem very similar to one another). i would not give an ultimatum but rather work with it. and if you feel that your rx is the correct prescription but you feel that its not sticking because of some maintaining cause then try giving a very low potency such as 6c every day for a week or so and see if that makes a difference. i think the right rx will help her become less of a "Hypochondriac"

kali
--- In minutus@yahoogroups.com, "d_rona2000" wrote:

[Chris_Gillen]

Hi Donna,

It does sound like there is a deep underlying unconscious impediment that is
serving as a maintaining cause in this case. Hard to say without knowing the
case details and the prescriptions, but I'll offer these general comments.
My feeling is, it is the life experience itself that ultimately moves a
person from one "stuck place" or "cycle of repetition" to another
destination in themselves. I think if you try to speed people up out of
their own timing, you simply create more havoc and that really is about
trying to prove something to yourself, or remove your own discomfort about
what you see happening in the other person, than it is about offering
genuine assistance. It is possible that these other therapists are
unwittingly being manipulated by the force of her psychological patterns.
But sometimes what that person needs more than anything is the
non-judgemental patience from another trusted person. I guess you're caught
between a rock and a hard place because you can see that her psychological
therapy might possibly be counter-productive but you can't very well insist
she stops therapy, that's her choice, and frankly, why would you? It is
obviously serving some purpose even though it may appear to be a very very
slow progress.

At least, that's what I always come back to when these situations arise with
patients, not only hypochondriacs, in my practice. I've seen several cases
where the women got so deep into their sense of 'victimization' from child
abuse that it became an overriding element in their self-identification.
They'd go to victim support groups and the whole ordeal would be reinforced
rather than reduced. You can't ever really know for sure what purpose lies
behind another person's life experience. Sure, we have opinions and even
judgements about the life-choices they make, but it would be extraordinarily
arrogant to assume what is a waste of time for one, is a similar waste of
time for another.

It seems we're all destined to keep "re-visiting" personal experiences until
enough understanding is reached to allow us to let things go, or to make
better choices which lead to positive change in behaviours. I often hear
people say they don't feel anything ever really changes, but of course,
that's not true, life goes on and we accrue more perspectives and experience
over time and we can make different choices and decisions from the past.
When we're in the thick of things it's hard to see, so I follow the advice
in the desiderata that its best to nurture strength of spirit in the good
times I would hold fast to the knowledge that if she keeps returning to
you for treatment then what you offer is something she considers very
worthwhile and useful. On the other hand, if you feel you're just being
manipulated, then the only thing to do in integrity is to tell her the
treatments are not serving any useful purpose and let her go on her way.
That's what I do.

Hope useful,
Chris.

[Joy Lucas]

Dealt with this many times and I would stick my neck out and say this might NOT be maintaining cause at all but just (!) symptoms that are staring you in the face but they haven't been either read properly or prescribed on accurately, i.e. the simillimum with correct potency/dose etc has not been given.

These sorts of situations bring up countless sx and countless remedies all seemingly to fit the picture perfectly but they do not act. This is often because the prescriber is taking the sx at face value and not grouping them together and being necessarily more lateral in their thinking.

Without knowing the case more intimately this is all i can suggest.

By the way, have you used the rubric 'loquacity' in your repping? If she has reacted well to acute situations maybe look at that rx or those rx that she has responded well to as they could indicate a chronic relationship.

Joy

http://www.joylucashomeopathy.com
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/homeopathystudy/

[Shannon Nelson]

Yes, I agree that's a very likely possibility--I do find it hard to
imagine how "talk therapy" could repeatedly cause relapse. But again,
if she would agree (and she *might* agree easily!) to stop the other
therapies for a *limited* time, you'd be able to see whether the
pattern of relapse is truly related to the other therapies, or whether
it only looks that way because of the timing. IMO that's the main
reason for doing "one thing at a time"--not so much because they're apt
to interfere (tho that does sometimes happen), but more because it's
more difficult to evaluate what's doing what, when there is so much
going on!
Shannon

[Joy Lucas]

I wasn't implying that 'talk therapy' could cause a relapse but we often encounter a problem when more than one healing method is being applied at a time - there is too much going on and this can cause concerns even if it just that you cannot tell what is doing what. But as I said I have seen this many times and the client will often come to homeopathy saying that nothing else has helped them thus you discover that the situation was there all along and that continuing with those other practices probably makes no difference whatsoever - each case is different though.

Joy

http://www.joylucashomeopathy.com
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/homeopathystudy/

[Shannon Nelson]

Believe it or not, I was simply agreeing with you.