By Dr Pushpa Singh
Mob.: 9027143084
Bed – Bed is a place, a space where an individual rests and sleeps, a location where he is comfortable, cozy, relaxed and at ease without any worry or botheration, a place where he rests and rejuvenates and invigorates himself. Every being has some attachment, some fondness towards his bed. He feels himself to be sheltered and secure in his bed, no matter whether his bed is an ordinary or a luxurious one.
Remain – Not wanting to leave or let go; wanting to hang about there only.
In this rubric we can understand the concern and reaction of each patient. This rubric tells us that something has happened in the environment and ecology of the patient that is forcing the patient to leave his secure and comfortable state but the patient is not willing to give up this cozy, warm, and comfy state (his bed).
In this rubric, every remedy has its own bed, i.e. its secure and cozy state and every remedy has a different objective and intention to stay in its bed. If we understand the concern of the patient in regards to his bed, then we can easily get to the right similimum for that particular patient.
PULSATILLA – The bed of PULS is caressing and affection. This patient desires constant, unceasing care and affection and she does not want to leave this person from whom she is getting this continual warmth. This need of a PULS patient increases during sickness and when this person does not get the amount of caresses and affection that she desires, then she gets irritated. At that time, she craves that someone should love her a lot in the way she desires in a soft, soothing manner; someone should take care of her tenderly, nurture her, and caress her (CARRIED - desire to be carried – caressed; and, CARRIED - desire to be carried – slowly). The patient is actually a selfish person with a great need to be caressed. To achieve this, the patient can even feign sickness (FEIGNING - sick; to be). She will actually refuse to leave her bed even if it means putting others to hardship to fulfill her wishes.
CONIUM – Conium is a very narrow-minded individual. He has a lot of suppressed desires, there is an excessive control excised by the patient himself. His mind is full of fixed ideas and this is his soothing and safe state; his bed. He does not like anyone approaching him because he thinks that if he allows others to approach him and come up to him, they may tend to throw light on his problems and this may change his thought process and perception of the issue; this is something he is averse to. This change is what he is averse to and detests and hence does not want to change. He prefers living with his own convictions and is happy doing so. He prefers to stay in dark and does not desire any kind of light. (DARKNESS - amel., LIGHT - aversion to – shuns).
SILICEA – A Silicea person always needs support and grit; the patient lacks stamina, he is in a state of weakness and dread (COWARD, MAGNETIZED desire to be, SPINELESS, UNDERTAKES many things perseveres in nothing). He always has a fear of failure (FEAR - failure of). He does not have the nerve to accomplish anything new (FEAR of undertaking a new enterprise, INITIATIVE lack of). He lacks self confidence (CONFIDENCE - want of self-confidence). He hesitates and falters while appearing in front of people (TIMIDITY - public; about appearing in), as he feels that his weakness would be exposed in front of others and his pride would be knocked down in front of those people. Everyone would come to know that this person would earlier perform all said tasks perfectly well (FISHING – aptitude, for) and that now, he is not capable of executing his responsibilities any more. Contemplating these thoughts, he gets very anxious (ANXIETY – health; about - own health; her/his - menopause; during her). Consequently, he desires to stay in the midst of those people among whom he feels strong and solid. So being surrounded by his own known people, wherein he need not hide his shortcomings, is his bed.
HYOSCYMUS: In HYOS, we get two contrasting states. In one state, he wants to stay in his bed (BED - remain in bed; desire to) and in the other state, he wants to leap out of bed (ESCAPE, attempts to - jumps up suddenly from bed).
Let us try to understand this journey of HYOS:
Say for example, a HYOS patient is suffering from fever and is under allopathic treatment for the same. This is his bed. One fine day, he gets to know that these medicines (which he is taking for his fever) can produce a side effect, in the form of erectile dysfunction, in the human body after prolonged usage. Now, he is extremely worried regarding this scenario and desires to get out of his bed, and discontinue his allopathic medication. Now he has a fear of being injured (FEAR - injury - being injured; of). At this moment, he is restless in his bed and wants to shift to another trustworthy and reliant bed (RESTLESSNESS - bed - go from one bed to another; wants to). During this phase while he is on the look out for a new bed, he has a fear of being deceived and let down (FEAR - betrayed; of being) and so he does not want to give up on his former bed till the time he does not feel convinced and assured that his new bed is safe and the right choice for him. As soon as he gets this guarantee and reassurance, he jumps from his old bed to his new bed (ESCAPE, attempts to - jumps up suddenly from bed - change beds, to). So, he does want to leave his bed and at the same time, due to his fear of being duped, he wants to stay in the same former bed.
In our clinics, a HYOS patient’s say would be like, "Doctor, I want to take treatment from you for my fever but do not ask me to discontinue my allopathic medication. When I feel that I am better and recovering with your medicines, then I will stop taking the allopathic medicines. HYOS desires a bed of confidence and trust.
ARGENTUM NITRICUM – Basically, Arg-Nit is a very lazy person by nature. He does not want to do any kind of work. He feels that he is sick and doesn’t feel efficient enough (DELUSIONS - sick – being). He believes that his disease can never get cured (DELUSIONS - disease - incurable disease; he has an). All these thoughts are fallacious, as he just doesn’t want to work. He gets frightened and anxious to do any kind of work. He feels that doing any kind of work will harm him (HYPOCHONDRIASIS, FEAR - work; of, DELUSIONS - work - harm; work will do him). To stay in his comfortable position, away from work, he will build up huge stories and tales of his problems (buildings/ forts) and reasons to save himself from work (LIAR - lies, never speaks the truth, does not know what she is saying). He tries to escape from taking up work by pretending to be sick with an intention to deceive and shirk work (FEIGNING - sick; to be). He deceives others (DECEITFUL, sly). He makes a lot of plans only to avoid work (PLANS - making many plans). He wants to stay in his bed of laziness and languor. If anyone makes him work, this patient gets a feeling that the other person is trying to take away his bed and he perceives that person to be a robber (FEAR - robbers, of).
A case:
A 12-year-old child was bought to me in the clinic for breathlessness.
Patient's mother: Doctor, he suffered from cough two months back and then he developed pneumonia. Now he has difficulty while breathing. He also needs to take nebulization and a puff. When his trouble increases, he needs to take the puff twice a day. Now, since he has settled down a bit, he is off the puff or at the most, he may need to take it once a day.
Doctor to the patient: What is your concern now?
Patient: My chest hurts and I tend to throw up phlegm every now and then. My stomach also hurts when I run about.
Patient's mother: He gets extremely angry and irritable. When we ask him not to do something that he wants to, he gets very angry. As long as we agree with whatever he says, he is fine but the moment we tend to unnecessarily poke him, then he gets angry as to why did we stop him from doing what he wanted to do. He feels that everyone should do only as he says; irrespective of whether he obeys anyone or not (ANGER - contradiction; from, IRRITABILITY - spoken to, when). In reference to this rubric, the meaning of the word spoken is conveying an advice or permission to a person through another person. The opposite person did not utter anything but just heard and there was no conversation among the two of them. In this case too, when the patient is told anything, he gets angry. No one says anything to him but yet he is irritated.
Patient's mother (contd): He has been suffering with this since the last one year; it started during the last winter season. We have to be vigilant about everything. We only give him warm foodstuff; we never give him anything cold to eat or drink. He also gets affected with oily foods, like carrot halwa. I have observed that he cannot tolerate anything. Even if I give him a small quantity of some fried stuff, that too causes him trouble.
Doctor (to the patient): And what else? During the time of aggravation, what do you do?
Patient's mother: He cannot breathe. He says, "Mummy I am not able to breathe." At that time, he is very much perturbed; he is very anxious and restless. He is unable to sleep and at the same time, he does not let us lie down either. He says, "Mummy you just sit next to me and keep scuffing (or does he mean, rub my back?) my back (BED - remain in bed; desires to). Bed is a comfortable, snug, and sheltered place where this person is wanting to stay; it is a warm, cozy place where he desires to stay. (When his mother is awake, he feels himself to be safe and when he asks his mother to scratch his back, he feels a great sense of relief and wishes to continue to stay in this state. This state is safe and comfortable for him.) (HELD - amel. being held).
Doctor: Tell me about his nature?
Patient's mother: He is unable to socialize with people around. He will behave as if he is a leader and that we all should obey him and abide by him. He starts hating the person who disobeys him. Like, only when his younger brother acts upon his orders, he will play with him but if the younger one refuses to comply with him, he gets angry with him and will run away while playing. If he is in a good frame of mind, then he will play or else he just cannot get along with people. He is only fine with those who agree to whatever he says or else he cannot co-exist and survive with others. He has a little 5-year-old cousin sister; when she does not obey him, he gets angry even with her (ANGER - contradiction; from, ARGUING – not arguing; convictions and keeping them: despite of having firm). Now he is such a grown up boy, but when he wants water, its me who has to give him water or else he will not even drink water. When he feels like, he may do some work, he will even complete work for others around but its very rare that he would feel like doing some work.
Doctor: And what else?
Patient's mother: He is just not interested in doing his studies. He used to study earlier but now he is gradually lacking interest in his studies. Even if we tell him that he has played enough or he has been on the television for long time, he gets annoyed, as to why did you interrupt me? (IRRITABILITY - spoken to, when). He would score good grades at school in the past but now his grades have drastically gone down. He remains sick very often; the moment the exam dates are declared, he falls sick. He gets apprehensive as he is never prepared for his exams. We never have to tell his younger brother anything regarding his studies or exams; he is very good with lessons and schoolwork. If at all we happen to praise his younger brother, he gets infuriated. Besides this, let him tell you everything else.
Patient: (In a hesitating tone with a smile on his face) When I start reflecting or thinking too much, my head hurts.
Doctor: What is it that you keep thinking?
Patient: Like, he does not get me the pen.
Patient's mother: When both brothers are playing on the roof top and if the ball flings on the ground, he will never go to fetch the ball. He always will command his younger brother to go and get it. If the younger one refuses to do so, he will throw his bat and dart away. He will finish his batting and run away when its the younger one's turn to bat; he gets provoked very easily.
Doctor: What does he do when he is very angry?
Patient's mother: He just sits in a corner and start crying. He would never cry earlier, off late, he has started shedding a lot of tears too.
The following rubrics were selected to arrive at the similimum:
• RESTLESSNESS - heat - during.
• HELD - amel. being held.
• BED - remain in bed; desires to.
This patient was given a dose of SILICEA 30. He was much better in the first week itself. He was totally cured in a span of two months. Now he does not lose his temper so easily and has also started taking charge of his studies!!
