Do you struggle choosing between two remedies?
This happens all the time when using homeopathy. You are trying to help someone for e.g. with an earache, or upset stomach. You take all the symptoms you can and look up remedies and then you are left with two or more remedies that seem to fit the bill. How do you decide?
Make sure you have the right information.
- Sometimes we can have too much or too little information and that makes it difficult to narrow down remedies.
- Look for symptoms that are different from the person’s normal state. Discount symptoms which are normal for that person. g. if they are thirsty, but they are normally thirsty then remove this symptom.
- Is there a striking or unusual symptom? For e.g. Dry mouth with no thirst.
CAMELS is a helpful acronym to help remember what information to collect:
- Concomitants – main symptom plus a secondary symptom that occurs alongside, but may not seem related. For e.g. Main symptom of headache with back pain.
- Aetiology – Is there an identifiable cause for the complaint. For e.g. was there a shock or accident, did they get chilled or get bullied before the complaint started?
- Modalities – what makes the symptoms worse or better. For e.g. stomach pain that is better for putting heat on it, headache that is better when lying down on left side.
- Emotions – the emotional state of the person suffering is important for e.g. a child wanting to be carried or clingy, fearful, anxious etc. See which remedies cover the emotional mental state. This will often help you to come down to one remedy.
- Location of the ailment – where is the main complaint? E.g. sore throat on the left side. Does the ailment extend to another location e.g. sore throat pain extending to ear? Does it move from left side to right side or vice-versa.
- Sensation – what type of pain or feeling? For e.g. throbbing pain, tight feeling in chest.
Once you have the right information:
- Prioritise the symptoms – what are the most important ones e.g. the main symptom and/or the strongest symptoms. Is there a striking or unusual symptom? Put these high on the list. Your chosen remedy should cover these symptoms. This will often help you to come down to one remedy.
- Go through the rest of the symptoms in priority order and compare your remedies and see which one fits the most important ones.
- To compare remedies you can look through a book about remedies(known as a materia medica) such as Boericke, or you can use an app to help you choose for e.g. Homeopathy at Home App
- At the end, if it is still difficult to narrow down to one remedy, trust your intuition. You will have a gut feeling about which remedy is right to use. Go with this remedy.
Don’t put too much pressure on yourself to pick the right remedy. If the first remedy doesn’t help, the symptoms may be clearer now or you can try the other remedy that you didn’t try the first time. Good luck.
My photo above of my little sausage dog, Milo, choosing remedies is a bit of fun. But did you know that animals have an innate ability to self medicate, choosing plants or substances such as clay from their environment to help treat themselves. This ability is called Zoopharmacognosy.
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***** 5 stars Couldn’t Put it Down
by Shazzie
I love homeopathy, so when I saw this book recommended on a homeopathic FB page, I thought I’d give it a try. I am not a fiction reader, so didn’t think I’d be pulled into it. I was mostly interested in seeing how the author could blend homeopathy into the storyline. I received the paperback version yesterday and finished it already! That’s unusual for me as I usually fall asleep when I read and lose interest and never end up finishing a book. I loved this book! So exciting from start to finish! Would love to see that sequel come out.
Read more about it here.