Carb-animalis.
Anhängsel
[Maja Letić]
Carbo animalis belongs to
the group of small remedies and we may rarely think about it, because its
sadness and nostalgia are covered by polychrests.
With good knowledge of repertory, we can easily use small rubrics to better
understand specific states, which lead us to the specific remedy.
We can find many homeopatic remedies that
dwell on past unpleasant occurrences. Unpleasant occurrences and experiences
can leave a person with deep wounds, which is a main cause of illness for most
people. The patients often feel loss, anger, unjustice.
3 homeopathic remedies have the problem
of dwelling in the good old times which makes them ill: Carb-a.
Carc. Sachh-a.harum
[Georg Vitoulkas]
“The feeling of homesickness is particularly prominent in this remedy.
In the repertory we find it in bold letters, and rightly so. Very
characteristic of Carbo animalis
is a strong emotional attachment to the family, which is the only place he feels
secure, and he always returns to this safe place, his home (Kaslium).
In Carbo animalis people,
there is such a yearning for the childhood love of their parents that was
experienced while at home and eventually lost in the challenges of life, that
they return again and again to these feelings with an almost irresistible
desire to return home.
The homesickness of Carbo animalis
is so acute that it is painful“.
[Clarke]
Compares it to Calc-p. because it consists in itself a high percentage
of Calc-p. and both remedies have indurations and suppurations, while Carb-v. doesn’t have indurations which Carb-a.
has.
He explains the similarity to Cocculus because
they have the same weakness and exhaustion, but points out the difference
between those two. The weakness of Carb-a. is caused
by the loss of fluid, while the weakness of Cocculus
happens as a concequence of the general state of the
remedy.
[Hahnemann]
Puts it in the antipsoric remedies.
Other authors point to the bad, changeable mood, the feeling as if
everything has changed and they are forsaken from those dear. They want to be alone and they are indolent
and passive.
Many authors say that Carbo animalis dwells in the past happy moments, in the morning,
when they wake up. However, Carbo animalis
has a lot of bad symptoms in the morning, and if we are
only looking for the good mood in the morning as a key symptom, we could
miss this remedy. For a better illustration, let’s take a look at some of his
rubrics:
MIND: ANGER - morning (on waking)
ANXIETY - morning [after on (rising)/on waking];
on
ANXIETY - waking, on
FEAR - morning/on waking
FORSAKEN feeling - morning
HOMESICKNESS - morning
VIOLENT - morning
SADNESS - morning/on waking
MOROSE - morning on waking
IRRITABILITY - morning/on waking/waking, on
WEEPING - morning
While Materia medica
offers the skeleton of the remedy, we still have the hard task in connecting
the words with the words of the patient. Sometimes it can be hard to recognize
the remedy from the patient’s description. A few cases will help clear the
image of this remedy and make it more recognizible in
practice.
Case 1
In the middle of January, an old patient asked me for help. A woman 72
years old, she got a spasm in her chest and complained about having bronchitis.
She had the feeling of dry lungs and she felt that if she coughs, her lungs
will tear up.
Her constitutional remedy was Plat-met. and it helped her many times (hysterical
conditions). In acute states like this she was given Lobelia, because she often
had the feeling of spasm in her chest and gave herself the diagnosis of
bronchitis without medical consultation. After two or three doses of Lobelia,
which had a fast and strong effect, the spasms disappeared and the next day she
felt perfectly fine. This time she was given Lobelia again and it helped her at
the moment, but the next day the problem returned. The potency was raised to
200C and the patient had a short-term improvement again. After that, she
started feeling even worse than she felt at the beginning, and this time it
really seemed as if she had the pneumonia.
The next idea Plat-met- again, but that would be a rote prescription. The patient was asked if
something happened before she got sick, and she told me this:
Life situation
Her daughter got divorced two years ago, got a job abroad and moved away
with her children. The children had a hard time dealing with their parent’s
divorce and moving to another country and
the patient was worried about them. The kids were usually eating fast
food and they had digestive problems. She often traveled
to see them, took care of them and cooked for them. The daughter complained how
she didn’t have enough money, so she took an airplane and brought food for the
children. She was more often absent from
her job and the number of her clients started to fall.
“I’m very worried about my job”, she told me. “I was walking down the street where my
daughter used to live with her children. I saw the house where they lived and
the memories came back to me. I remembered when they were younger and they were
here. We went everywhere, we were on holidays together, we ate together and
everything was alive. In that moment I realised that they were gone and they
will never return. I felt crazy from sadness. I was scared of dying on the
street. I barely got home. After that, bronchitis appeared. I have nothing
left. I’ve lost my perspective. Everything went to hell. I don’t believe I’ll
ever have clients again. I wrote myself off.”
“The hardest times for me are the ones when I don’t have enough work. No
new clients, old ones go away. I ask myself where would I go, what would I do,
I’m worried that I’ll sink. I’m afraid that I won’t have enough money to pay my
rent. I’m afraid of poverty.
“One stage in my life is over. I’m alone, useless”.
The key of sensitivity
Nothing recognizable of Plat-met. appeared in that statement. The case had to be taken again from the
beginning. A few things were pointed out
as important:
Patient stated that after
recalling the memories of the good old days when her grand children were there,
when she had quality time with them, travelled with them and shared their joy.
That was the key to her sensitivity.
She felt sadness and she was
worried.
She felt abandoned and
Nothing was the same.
Everything changed.
We can easily follow this state through the following rubrics:
Prescription: Carb-an 30C, split dose.
The next morning she felt much better. Asked how she feels, she answered
“Detached”.. I detached myself from the feeling that overcame me.” “The only
thing that matters is that we are all alive and healthy. What happened,
happened.”
She needed a few more days to physically recover completely, but nothing
was prescribed for her physical state. She was asked to take herbal teas and
syrups. She wasn’t worried about her physical symptoms anymore, so she took my
advice.
A 1½ month later, she was in a similar condition.
She wasn’t happy because of the way things go, but she accepts that. She
said: “The new phase of life cycle has
begun. What can I do, it’s normal”. She’s still worried about her grand
children and she helps them as much as she can, but she’s not overtaken with
fear and worry about them anymore.
2½ months later she claims that she feels very
well. She slowed her travelling to her daughter’s and she’s not depressed
anymore.
Case number 2
A woman nearly 60 years old, long term patient, was given Sulphur
constitutionally which helped her in almost every situation. She asked for help
when she had herpes which had spread almost over her entire forehead. As she
felt very well a few months before, it was shocking to see her in that
condition. She complained about exhaustion, sleepiness, headache,
forgetfulness. She was asked about the things that happened before the herpes
appeared.
This woman was living the high life. Her husband was very successful
businessman. Three years ago, her son married a girl she wasn’t content with.
At one point of time, she realized that her daughter-in-law is actually a good
person and caring mother. She realized that her son is not as perfect as she
thought he was before, and she even started to take her daughter-in-law’s side
in some situations, but it was too late. They already had divorced. She felt
guilty about that.
She got sick during the Christmas holidays. She loved the tradition of
family gatherings over the Christmas table, and being together. This was the
first holiday after son got divorced. She faced the fact that some chairs will
stay empty for the first time, because her daughter-in-law went to her
mother’s, and the patient won’t see her granddaughter until the next day.
She remembered what the Christmas table used to look like when they were
all together, happy and smiling and how she used to play with her
granddaughter. Now she doesn’t have that anymore.
“My husband retired a few days ago and now he’s sitting at home all day.
I look like unicorn with this herpes. My granddaughter became spoiled and
disobedient, she refuses to eat. It’s typical behaviour of a child from the
torn family. Nothing is the same.”
Repertorisation
Prescription: Carbo-an 30C, split dose.
The case was taken on Friday. She took the first dose immediately, and
the second one before she went to sleep. She gave me a call on Monday. She said
that she had a long and hard night, full of nightmares after taking the remedy.
She was in pain, and that state remained the next morning. At 10 o’clock the
next morning she was desperate because she wasn’t able to make a family lunch
for her older son and his new girlfriend who was coming to her house for the
first time. One hour later, she suddenly felt relieved. It was like coming out
of a dark cloud, she said. She thought it was temporary, but the good condition
lasted. She regained power and brightness. She covered the herpes with her
hair. The lunch was prepared in time and she was in a good mood. The same day,
the herpes started to retreat, leaving the scab. On Monday, when she called,
the scab fell off leaving nothing but a reddish skin in the place where the
herpes was. She felt great. Today, two months later she still feels great.
About her sons’ divorce she claimed: “I shouldn’t have done that, I was wrong.
But I’m not the only one to blame. If they really loved each other and were
strong, I wouldn’t be able to do anything. They are to blame, too, it wasn’t
only me.”
The symbol of family table
Families are much more than family relationships. In them we find love,
peace and shelter. Parents go to work every day, kids to kindergarten and
schools. The family table is a place where the whole family gathers and has an
opportunity to share emotions with other members.
In the first case it wasn’t pointed out, but I was familiar with the
fact that the patient used to cook for her grand children until they moved
away. Their mother didn’t realize the importance of taking care of her
children’s diet, while the patient cares a lot about that and thinks it’s very
important for children to eat healthy at the family table. She was successful
in her job, and she often didn’t have enough time for cooking, so she hired a
woman to cook for her and her grandchildren from time to time. When the kids
moved away, her greatest worry was if they will have enough to eat, and to eat
healthy food. The strength of this feeling can be described in the picture of
her carrying the frozen food in the airplane just to make sure the kids weren’t
hungry.
In the second case, the patient stated clearly that she makes the food
for her family, and how important it is for her to have the family gathered
around the family table. Her ailment started during the Christmas lunch time.
When we look at this from a sociological point of view, the family is
the basic unit of the society, and her role and function had changed over time.
Today, we can say that the family has:
Biologicaly-
reproductive and emotional functions in which members of the family meet their
needs for posterity and deep emotional needs for love and belonging between
spouses and children.
Economic function in which one
or both parents make a living and feed the family.
Protective function which
means raising and taking care of family, caring about their health, moral and
property protection.
Socializing function where the
social surroundings (family, in this case) has a strong impact on personality
development and socialization.
Home is a place where the family lives. Every member of the family has
his own obligations and activities and the family table is a place where all
the other activities stop and the family just sits together.
Food, referring to both physical and emotional, is the topic of the
first two functions, although we can come to that topic indirectly in the last
two functions as well. In the first emotional function, we have the need for
love and belonging. We have phrases like “hungry for love”, “hungry for
attention”. The family “feeds” with love
and attention. In economic functions we have material nutrition. Food gives us
energy and is the main requirement for our existence on this planet.
In both cases we heard the sentences: “Everything has changed”,
”Nothing’s the same“ and the rubric for
that is DELUSIONS - changed; everything is.
What is the delusion here? The first patient says: “Everything changed”,
the second says “Nothing is the same”.
The words “everything” and “nothing” are the objects of this delusion.
Objectively, things and relations in both cases did change. The situation in
life changed, but that can’t be everything in their lives. There are a lot of
things that didn’t change, a lot of family relationships that remained the
same, business relations or friendships that are still lasting.
Here, we can see the feeling that overtakes those patients and spreads
over all aspects of their lives, even over ones that objectively didn’t suffer
the dramatic change. The other side of this delusion is that both patients are
stuck in some moments and they can’t perceive properly the continuity of
relations, where everything has to change in every moment. Their delusion is
that the good old times were fixed, and they remember them “in one piece”, and
then they perceive the change as overall and violent.
According to this, we can find Carbo animalis in two different stages:
1st when he hasn’t
faced the change yet. Although he’s conscious about the changes that happened
in his life, deep inside he lives a double life in which he fails to accept
them, and continues living like nothing has happened. In my opinion, the
patient won’t come to us in this state, or he will do it rarely.
2nd occurs more
often. It comes when for some reason the patient gets the insight about things
that really happened. In the first example: “They moved out, and they’ll never
come back”, although that was a year and a half ago, or in the second case when
the patient who knows that her son and daughter- in- law were separated for
months, faces the facts when she realizes that some chairs will remain empty.
Although different, those two cases share the same topic. The family has
torn apart, everything has changed and they are no more making and having meals
together. That makes this remedy suitable for old people who have lost someone
and can’t continue with their lives, so they dwell in the past happy moments
and that increases their suffering.
Let’s look at some Carbo animalis
rubrics:
ANXIETY - eating - after
EATING - after - agg.
WEEPING - eating - while
Every memory of a family that is no longer there, gathering over family
table which is the symbol of unity, harmony, concord, family happiness, causes
aggravation for Carbo animalis.
No more food, no love, support, protection, safe place as a base. From this
state, it’s easy to develop the feelings of being abandoned, sad and worried.
Empty chairs at empty tables
During the work with patients we should avoid prejudice. The potential
trap for this remedy is that we will often search for Carbo
animalis patients between old people who have lost a
lot in their lives. If we specifically connect this remedy to the idea of
family table, we could miss some other Carbo animalis patients. Table is a place where not only family
meets, but friends as well. Friends can meet at other places too, but the
friendship, sharing of emotions, information and ideas almost always happen at
some table, family, business or restaurant, so the topic of table is as well
the topic of gathering and sharing mutual emotions. And that is not connected
to the specific age. This topic is universal.
In literary work, “Les Miserables“ from Victor
Hugo was set at a theater and movie screen as a
musical. In a movie version Eddie Redmayne sings the
song “Empty Chairs At Empty Tables” and
describes the picture of Carbo animalis.
The video with this song can be found on Youtube.
Here are the lyrics to the song:
“Empty Chairs At Empty Tables” (performed by Eddie Redmayne)
There’s a grief that can’t be spoken (1)
There’s a pain goes on and on
Empty chairs at empty tables
Now my friends are dead and gone
Here they talked of revolution
Here it was they lit the flame
Here they sang about tomorrow
And tomorrow never came.
From the table in the corner
They could see a world reborn
And they rose with voices ringing
I can hear them now! (2)
The very words that they had sung
Became their last communion
On the lonely barricade..
At dawn.
Oh my friends, my friends forgive me.
[The ghosts of those who died on the barricade
appear.]
That I live and you are gone (3)
There’s a grief that can’t be spoken
There’s a pain goes on and on
Phantom faces at the window
Phantom shadows on the floor (4)
Empty chairs at empty tables
Where my friends will meet no more.
[The ghosts fade away.]
Oh my friends, my friends, don’t ask me
What your sacrifice was for
Empty chairs at empty tables
Where my friends will sing no more…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbjhOK5b6eg
Carb-a. in the rubric DELUSIONS - town, he is in
deserted. The city was abandoned when people had left. The city is a much
broader concept than family and it’s not made only of members connected with
blood. The feeling of Carbo animalis can spread from
families to people around them, friends and others who are gone. “I’m alone in
this town which everyone had left to be forgotten are the verses of the
song “Don’t give up Ines“ from Arsen Dedic. This song also has
the same topic - past, happy moments and refusing to let them grow old and
fade. Although he talks about the time that was decades ago, he says: “Don’t
give in to age, my Ines, to different
moves and habits,
Because your room is still warm; Cozy setting
and rarities”. “ I won’t have anyone to stay young with if all of you get old,
And that youth will be difficult for me”.
Let’s consider a few more rubrics of Carb-a.
REMORSE
Remorse is the feeling of being extremely sorry for something wrong or
bad that you have done. The definition can be expanded to being extremely sorry
for something that you haven’t done and now you think you should have done it.
When we manage to understand this, we will understand the meaning of our
patients’ claims: “Since he’s gone, my life doesn’t have a meaning anymore.
Why didn’t I die with him? I should have died when he did”. Although it
is not in our power to chose when we should die, the feeling of regret in these
patients can be so strong that we can choose this rubric, the following
symptoms, instead of facts. Because these people have strong regrets for
staying alive.
Let’s find out some other situations in which we could use Carb-a:
Probably every one of us heard
for some case in which the person goes to the cemetery daily, or every Sunday,
and talks to the person who was long gone, as if he/she were still alive.
Grandma who makes coffee for
two, or makes bed every morning and evening on both sides, many years after her
husband died.
Grandpa who buys flowers every
year on the 8th of March for his wife who was long gone.
When a person keeps one’s
partner’s possessions for too long, holds onto them, reminiscing the good times
and occasions of happiness
DELUSIONS - hearing - tone - world; as from another.
We can understand this rubric now in a context of Carb-a..
Those people communicate inside their heads with their loved ones. They even
hear their voices from inside, for real. In a way they are already there.
WHISTLING - involuntary
First, we’re going to explain the term “involuntary” by comparing it to
a word which has a complete opposite meaning. Let’s take a look at both terms
in the Oxford dictionary.
INVOLUNTARY - an involuntary movement, etc. is made suddenly, without
you intending it or being able to control it
VOLUNTARY - done willingly, not because you are forced.
When we do something involuntarily, we are not consciously making a
choice to do that, we’re somehow forced to those things and that kind of
behaviour. On a conscious level, we don’t have
control over our behaviour.
WHISTLING - technically, whistling means making a high sound or a
musical tune by forcing your breath out when your lips are closed. But here,
the point is not about the technical meaning of this word, it’s about the
meaning of this act in our emotional life. When we’re sad, we can cry, run away
from people and crowded places. When we’re angry - we can scream and shout, we
can fight, start hitting and banging things, we can become destructive. But
what do we do when we’re happy? We laugh, we sing, we make jokes, we whistle.
Whistling is always a sign of a good temper.
When we manage to understand those terms, together we can come to the
meaning of this rubric: A person who unwillingly whistles has an internal urge
to be happy, or precisely, he/she refuses to accept circumstances as they are.
That person is not capable of facing sorrow. This rubric actually talks about
the mental state of the patient, about her unconscious mind. Now, the rubric
dwells in the past happy moments, gets even clearer.
We could use an example of a girl who was overweight. She had problems
in school and relations between her parents were very bad. Her life was hard
and sad in so many ways. It looked as if food was the only thing that could
make her enjoy life. She was describing so vividly every meal she ate that day,
or the day before. She could describe her meals in the correct order, taste and
smell of the food, the feeling that she had in that moment. She remembered how
hot or cold the meals were, even if the meal was juicy or crispy. If you listened to her, you would have a
feeling as if she was eating it again and enjoying every bite, at the moment
she was talking about it. If the girl was my patient, I would give her Carb.a., with a lot of confidence.
Here is another interesting claim that could lead us to this remedy.
When I asked a girl why she had such a big belly, she laughed, patted her tummy
and asked me: “Do you know how many beautiful things there are inside?”
Rationally, of course there are not such beautiful things in there anymore,
they are either implanted to the organism in the form of grease, or they left
the body as faeces. But for her those beautiful things were still inside and
she was enjoying that feeling.
CHEERFUL # sadness
ALTERNATING - means do things or
people follow one after the other in a repeated pattern.
If we take a look at two opposite terms like CHEERFULNESS and SADNESS,
which are the two most distant positions on a scale, and when we manage to
understand that they appear alternately, that one alters the other, then we can
understand that Carb-a. lack those stages in between,
which are present in other people’s everyday lives, such as being a little
satisfied, a little unsatisfied, a bit sad, or a bit happy. This person doesn’t
have the capacity to bear the sadness and to get through it. Instead he/she
runs away in pleasant memories, and stays there.
Good old times
The tendency to dwell on the good old days is also present in young
people’s lives, who used to live better. We could carefully expand the topic to
the trans generational level, where where our ancestors,
primarily parents, lived in better times, had a happier childhood, lived a
better life. What we have now is only torment and anguish, because times have
changed. This feeling is especially present in the case of children who have
grown up in families that were well-off, and then because of business,
political or other circumstances, became impoverished. Those children aren’t
able to make peace and accept their situation and they are looking for someone
to blame. They can’t adapt to the new circumstances. This feeling is close to
Nat-mur patients, with one important difference: Nat-m.
lives in the past unpleasant moments and doesn’t have the ability to separate
himself from the bad memories, while Carb-a. lives in
happy ones, although it is not his reality anymore.
It’s not important whether the person is physically far away from her
home or it’s about time or mental distance. When we miss the good things,
especially love, harmony and support, when the person feels abandoned and
useless, when nothing is the same - the solution is Carb-a.
Although this remedy dates from Hannemann’s
time and was described in the Materia medica Pura, the mental picture
wasn’t clear enough. Now we can understand a lot better the mental state of
a Carb-a. and we know the symptoms which can
lead us to this remedy. Now we can emphasize the rubrics as key symptoms to
understanding this remedy. So, those rubrics are:
DELUSIONS - changed; everything is
WHISTLING - involuntary
DWELLS - happy moments; dwells on past
WEEPING - eating - while
CHEERFUL - alternating with - sadness
REMORSE
DELUSIONS - hearing - tone - world; as from
another
[Edward C. Whitmont]
Carbo animalis could be
understood as the difficulty of acceding to the demands of aging and maturing
on the instinct and affect level. When receptivity, tolerance and the inability
to change come to a halt, the result is isolation, rigidity and anxiety.
The Materia Medica
describes a state of isolation, rejection of people, withdrawal and withering.
These people become slaves to their own rigid views and routine; they respond
with anxiety to the threat of any disturbance of their accustomed way of
thinking or living. The result is a gradual failure of adaptability per se.
One interesting detail is the symptom of confused hearing, of confusion
and failure to locate the direction from which sounds come.
Adequate hearing reflects the capacity of receptivity. In hearing we
take in from the outside. If this function is disturbed, we lack orientation to
the outside, to our fellow beings.
The personality type may be described as introverted, indrawn, scrawny,
thin, dark, sometimes heavy-set, rigid, retiring, antisocial with an aversion
to people, desiring to be alone.
Carb-a. are poor mixers, though they may enjoy the
company of one or two individuals to whom they are accustomed.
Newcomers are not admitted. Throughout the symptomatology
runs aversion and incapacity to deal with change. The symptom of homesickness
is actually the state of not being content away from
the accustomed known, rather than any expression of human attachment.
There is aversion to conversation, taciturnity, shyness, a feeling of
isolation, often heard in the words, "When I was young ...":
a mournful reflective state of discouragement and gloominess, obstinate
irascibility, ill-humor, a feeling of being
abandoned, thoughts of death and hopelessness.
The reaction of the psyche to this state of repressive isolation is
anxiety, fear of the dark, fear in the evening, fear when going to sleep: fear
breaking in whenever ego control weakens. Then the
repress-level rises. The same incapacity to adapt expresses itself on
the physical level also. The slightest change of routine is intolerable.
Weakness, exhaustion and aggravation result.
The patient finds it difficult to get started and resents being prodded
or hurried. The slightest disturbance in physical health is aggravating.
There is a lack of adaptation also in the digestive system, expressed in
frequent intestinal upsets. Almost anything may upset the digestion. Even
normally harmless food will present problems which
the weak assimilative power of the organism cannot handle.
The general constitutional state expresses a tendency to "stay
put," to stagnate, to harden. Foremost is the cancerous hardening.
This is the area for which Carb-a. has been
used routinely, unfortunately so, in view of the much wider range of pathology
which belongs to its scope. If there were a simple description of
cancer, of the constitutional or psychological aspect of cancer, it
could be characterized as "life inadequately lived", of hardening
prematurely and one sided. Cancerous hardening, hardening
glands, hard scirrhous growths are leading
keynotes, but equally we have hardening of joints and muscles, chronic
rheumatism in any and every form. These rheumatic symptoms have not been given
adequate evaluation in our prescribing. We have arthritic stiffness,
gouty nodosities, tension in the limbs as if tendons
were contracted, numbness and spasmodic contractions all over.
The psychosomatic aspect of rheumatism is one of defensive rejection, of
stiffening against aggressiveness and emotion.
The weak joints, easily sprained, point again to the failure of adaptive
strength and flexibility. So do the venous congestions, ebullitions of heat
(circulatory lack of adaptation) and the already-mentioned lack of digestive
adaptation.
Among the modalities the general air hunger characteristic of both
carbons may express inadequate oxidation, inadequate cellular respiration or
combustion. We find aggravation from cold
and dry air, reflecting the lack of adaptability of the circulatory,
capillary system and of warmth regulation.
In the psychopathology of obesity which occurs to a certain extent in Carb-a., tendency to compensate for emotional starvation
with sweet, fat and starchy foods. The problem is that the Carb-a.
also lacks the capacity to assimilate these foods.
[Eugene Underhill]
All disease begins in the functional plane and, unless checked,
progresses toward structural change and incurability.
Materia Medica: Carbo animals "indicated in the aged when there is a
general enfeebled atonic condition with venous
engorgement". "Diseases of elderly persons with marked venous
plethora. Complaints in broken down, anemic
individuals with glandular infiltrations and much hardness and induration". "Circulation feeble, stagnated and
vital heat sinking to a minimum. Deficient reaction in elderly people".
Still in pathology, we note that "Carb-a.
is frequently the remedy in chronic ulcers and fistulous openings where the
walls tend to become hard and the discharge acrid. Swollen, painful, indurated glands in neck, axilla,
groin and breast. This remedy has been one of the most suitable for old,
stubborn, cancerous affections".
All of the above sounds very much like a case for the undertaker, but Carb-a. has a wide field in cases without
indurations/infiltrations/ulcerations or observable pathology. Like any other
remedy it may become indicated at any time of life.
Characteristic and reliable symptoms:
1st: exhaustion, weakness, enervation and general aggravation
from apparently slight causes and small depletions. A mild case of diarrhoea
appears to sap the patients vitality out of all proportion. A slight
leucorrhoea is described as terribly weakening. A moderate menstrual flow is so
depleting that it requires the next two weeks for the patient to get her
strength back. Breast feeding becomes impossible, it wears her down. A man of
32 actually dreaded the sexual act because of the utter exhaustion which
continued for days afterwards.
While night sweats in tuberculous subjects are
often exhausting, a non-tuberculous individual requiring
Carb-a. may complain that a very moderate amount of
perspiration actually drains away his strength. Incidentally, the sweat of this
remedy produces a very pronounced yellow stain.
Easily strained from lifting even small weights is a well verified symptom
and one that is perfectly true to form. slight straining or overlifting
causes dyspnoea, constriction of the chest and a feeling of debility out of all
proportion to the apparent cause. Objects seem much heavier than they are. The
ankles are easily sprained and turned while walking. Has to watch every step.
Carb-a. becomes slave to own routine. Any change
may upset them (involving any extra effort, whether mental, physical,
respiratory or digestive, whether conscious or unconscious). < change of altitude/climate/season.
Any abrupt change in the daily routine may disturb the digestion or otherwise
aggravate.
2nd: aversion to and aggravation from exposure to a very dry,
cold atmosphere. A dry, cold wind which put pep into lots of people causes the Carb-a. patient much discomfort. It makes him feel sluggish
and < in general. It is both the coldness and the dryness. He thrives best
in a relatively moist atmosphere. Markedly < in a heated room with dry air.
< close, poorly ventilated room. Feels the need of plenty of fresh air to
breathe at night. Wants windows wide open but the head and neck must be well
protected from the least draft. Some of these patients will sleep with a scarf
or towel wrapped around the head and yet will complain at even a suggestion
about closing the windows. However, they seldom, if ever, desire to be fanned,
as is so characteristic of the vegetable carbon.
"Hearing confused, cannot tell from what direction a sound
comes." A number of people talking in a group is most annoying. Shuns
group conversations as much as possible. This confusion of sounds and difficult
orientation of hearing has been observed in cases with only slight auditory
impairment. It is probably of circulatory origin and on the venous side. Head
noises may or may not be associated with this condition.
Mentally Carb-a. is retiring, anti-social and
introverted. Aversion to company is often marked. Definitely not a mixer but
may enjoy the company of one or two good friends. Not inclined to seek out new
acquaintances. This is one of the most nostalgic remedies of the Materia Medica. Never contented,
never at ease away from home and the farther away he is, the worse he feels.
Nostalgia with a "mournful feeling of isolation." Anxiety and
apprehension when far from home. It is not necessarily homesickness for family
and friends. Home means a place, a local to a greater degree than with some
remedies. The wife of a Carb-a. patient put it this
way, "When we are on a trip my husband never feels contented until we are
well on our way back home".
Sluggishness and lethargy are two words that apply to the Carb-a. patient. He lacks the energy and consequently the
ambition to undertake activity of any kind. It is hard to get him started and
he resents being prodded or hurried. After a hearty meal there is a feeling of
congestion to the head and neck with drowsiness and loss of interest. This is
relieved by dozing off while sitting in an easy chair. Lying down may aggravate
rather than relieve. Only after the process of digestion is fairly well
advanced does the patient resume his reading or other interest. Associated with
the above symptoms an uncomfortable sensation of abdominal distension is
common.
If awakened during the night, a vague feeling of anxiety and
apprehension prevents easy return to sleep. Sometimes there is vertigo and with
this a mild suffocative sensation. These symptoms are relieved by lying on a
firm, rather high pillow, with the head and neck well protected from cold or
draft and with an abundance of fresh air. All of which is indicative of a
passive venous stasis, and inadequate venous drainage from the head and neck.
Coldness of the nose is often a very annoying symptom at night and may
interfere with sleep during the winter season. Holds nose and tries to breathe
through the mouth so the nose will warm and yet will not resort to the simple
remedy of closing the windows because it would make him feel stifled and cause
air hunger.
In the Materia Medica
we find the following, "repugnance to fat and tobacco smoke." The latter
we have verified many times. Tobacco smoke makes breathing difficult and causes
nausea, so that many Carb-a. patients find it
necessary to give up smoking. However, in the experience of the writer,
aversion to and aggravation from fat has not been observed, but rather the
opposite, desire for fat and it agrees.
This is one of the remedies to consider along with Carb-v.,
other antipsorics and the nosodes
for deficient reaction following some exhausting and debilitating illness -
never well since a severe typhoid, pneumonia or a bad influenzal
attack; pleurisy, whether pneumonic or tuberculous,
where there is a remaining stitch which fails to clear under the apparently
indicated remedy. It often requires the deepest acting remedies to completely
overcome a persistent disease hangover.
Tuberculous subjects young or old, may require
this medicine (tuberculous cervical adenitis where
the glands take on a coppery or purple color and
become hard and indurated, the typically sluggish
type of case).
Carb-a. is suited to many cases of syphilis in the
later stages of the disease. It has all the glandular indurations and
infiltrations of this disease and the copper copper colored eruptions as well as the night aggravation.
However, it will do nothing in absence of the grand characteristics of this
wonderful medicine.
Vorwort/Suchen Zeichen/Abkürzungen Impressum