I am inferior
NATIONAL JOURNAL OF HOMOEOPATHY 1999 Jul / Aug VOL VIII NO 4.
Dr Parinaz Humranwala
'Nat-carb

Miss N S a 20-year-old girl presented with Oligomenorrhoea, ever since menarche - menstrual flow lasting for only 1½ day with intervening periods of amenorrhoea for 3-6 months. The flow is scanty, only in drops, leaving indelible reddish brown stains.

LMP 7/2/98 - gap of 2 mths.

Life Situation:
Patient lives with parents and has two married sisters. One of them got divorced around April ‘98 and patient was very much upset by this tragedy. She was in tears as she recounted. The story. Patient is very close to her sister, who is also her best friend.

Patient was also stressed because of the impending final year BSc exams. She had never worried about exams prior to this; this time the pressure to perform well was dictated by her desire to pursue further studies in MSc. Patient worked hard but unfortunately faired poorly in practicals. Her marks were much below her expectations and she could not therefore secure admissions for MSc. Instead she had to make do with admissions to DMLT.

Patient feels DMLT is not a respectable profession because you have to work under someone, and this makes her feel inferior. She feels she must have made some gross mistake (paap) to have gone through all this.

Patient As A Person:
Patient gets scared of practical exams. She is very sensitive when people underestimate her. "Even people with average IQs do better than me".

Patient recounted a recent incident to explain the same. Two weeks earlier, patient accidentally broke a test tube in the lab. Her professor scolded her and accused her of manipulating the procedure by using excess reagent. Pt pleaded innocence and started crying. All this happened in front of her friends, which made her very, embarrassed. She thought that all her friends would call her a duffer because she was careless, irresponsible and failed at a very simple experiment; she cried like a child. She felt "as if I have no brains". She wanted to go to her own room and felt like crying but wanted nobody to console her.

She always feels as if she is being watched and doing something wrong or feels as if she will break something or drop something. She lacks confidence and always underestimates her own capabilities. (Sense of inferiority)

She feels strangers, especially men, are like devils and are watching every move of hers such as how she walks, talks, etc. She finds it very difficult to trust people [men] and fears that they may harm her. (Fear of people - anthropophobia) (Fear, men dread of)

Pt is also very scared of water. She says she did not take a bath on her own till her 8th standard. She felt she would drown, or that there are many people/devils inside the bucket of water who would pull her inside and drown her. (Del, images, phantoms, sees) (Del, devils sees)

Pt says she is hot tempered and will always retaliate. She cannot tolerate any wrong and never forgives the person who has offended her. "I also have SOME value and if it is not my fault that I get very angry and am not aware of what I am doing. I am fully charged and can wound with words".

Physical Generals:
Appetite - Very good, loves to eat
Enjoys eating out Desires: Chicken (Roasted/Fried)
Aversion: Mutton (Patient cannot bear sight of raw meat, feels nauseated & hence doesn’t eat it.)

Family History: Father D.M
Mother H.T

Past History: Jaundice, Typhoid at 10 year
Typhoid (12-13yrs) with
tendency to recurrent URTI
Malaria (14 yrs of age)

Prescriptive Totality:
Fear of men/strangers
Protective towards her siblings
H/O Grief, silent (does not want to discuss)
Disappointment in life - esp studies
Occupied with sad thoughts
Inferiority complex (as derived from dreams and incidents related to studies)
Fear of being watched or looked at.
Delusions see devils
Confidence, want of self
Gourmand
Aversion to meat. [Boenninghausen’s]
Menses late and scanty
She was prescribed Nat-carb 1M one dose on 18th February 1999. The basis of selection of the remedy is explained after the follow-up.

Follow-Up

Understanding The Remedy:
Natrum-carb is a remedy, which is timid and not confident. They have strong likes and dislikes when it comes to people and are scared of certain people especially men. [They could include males in her family or her own husband too. This could lead to an estranged feeling from her own family]. These patients are lively and talkative but their behavior at times can be foolish, [awkwardness due to deep- seated timidity] making them feel further inferior. They can be so irritated by an ordinary provocation that they speak with the most vehement violence until they are exhausted. [Blasphemy and cursing] Sensitivity towards people, music, and noise and food errors is well exhibited in the proving.

They get easily frightened and startled at the least noise. Like the Magnesium group, which has a forsaken feeling, this remedy feels a sense of separation and a feeling of not belonging to the society and hence prefers to separate themselves. They resort to alcohol and have the passion to gamble as seen in the Magnesium group.

(I thank Dr Bijal Moroo, who has helped me in writing up this case.)