Mamma I Wanna Be Married.
NATIONAL JOURNAL OF HOMOEOPATHY 1994 Jan / Feb Vol III No 1.
Vishpala Parthasarathy.
Cases.
` Cann-i / Verat.

This is every girls dream: Prince Charming whisking her off on a white stallion to the land of eternal happiness!

But what happens when this dream sours? or becomes a crazed lust when just any man would do for marriage?

It was the year 1987: Kalandi had just turned 20 and was on the threshold of a beautiful life. She had just finished her architecture course and had the Howard Roark dream. School had been a period of fun time for satisfying the many and varied interests of this multifaceted person: studying, cooking, music. All the world was an adventure! Her mother was a teacher in the same school and had kept in close touch with her activities.

The Evolution In retrospect, there had been just a few signs of abnormality.

Born in 1965, one was the first born of her parents. At 1 year of age she developed convulsions and was put on Gardinal for some years. Milestones were all delayed: teething at 8th month, walking at 14th month, talking at 2 years, plus abnormal hair growth which led later to a diagnosis of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome.

Emotionally, the only warning of a later disorientation, was her slavish attachment to a domineering girl in the school for one year and her disproportionate outburst of disappointment, when a school holiday trip was cancelled by her parents as her grandmother was seriously ill; but the grandma recovered and all was fine again.

The next discordant note was struck in 1986-87 when she met Muni. He was 15 years older with no family, no responsibilities, no proper respectable job and with no compatible upbringing. Her parents tried to talk her out of this romance, but it was of no avail. She kept meeting him. After completing the architecture course, she got a job in Bangalore in 1988 which seemed like a God-send. The parents thought that Bangalore would be a good distance to break off this undesirable relationship and hence agreed to her accepting the job. She went to Bangalore and stayed with some of her relatives for a few days. Then she wanted to be independent and so moved to a flat her parents had bought in Bangalore. She also kept a roommate (a girl she had met while on the train from Bombay to Bangalore), who would share the expenses.

Then the trouble started: unknown to her parents, Muni had been visiting the patient frequently in Bangalore. Eventually she got pregnant and had to have an abortion. Secondly, the roommate turned nasty and ran up a huge telephone bill but refused to pay. This latter incident the parents were told about and their help sought. Finally her parents went there to sort out the problem. When they found that the patients health was not in good shape, they brought her back to Bombay in 1990. At this stage, they also got some idea of sexual relationship. Her father gave her an ultimatum and said that he would allow Muni only over his dead body. This strict stand gave her a jolt and the patient broke off her relationship with Muni.

At home in Bombay, she became jealous of her sister who was clever and good looking. Gradually she started developing unreasonable behaviour.

She later took up a job in a teaching college but got involved with the boss. Later she had another affair with a boy who sponged off her and took money from her. The patient told me that she had undergone two more MTPs; the parents seemed unaware of these; till today we dont know if it is imagination or reality.

Gradually she lost hold of reality, started smoking, lost concentration, ate cigarette butts, shoe polish and became violent. There was a strain on the family too. The father lost his job, grandfather died and mother had to take leave from school. All this pushed her closer to the edge. She was placed under treatment of 2-3 psychiatrists.

When the patient came to me in February 1994, she was brought by her maternal aunt and maternal grandmother with whom she was living currently, because the parents were both working and she could not be left alone. The aunt said that someone had to be with her constantly and knives, scissors etc. were put away as she hurt herself and others with same. She and her nephew aged five, constantly fought (because both had the same mental age). He was picking up some bad habits from her such as licking shoes, eating filth, etc.

When the patient talked to me, the distinct impression I got was, as if she was high on drugs: she talked about the beautiful atmosphere, the wonderful acoustics of my consulting room, the wonderful doctor, the pervading peace and gratitude to the aunt in bringing her to this healing place!

Her main focus was on boys, sex and marriage she would marry anyone, even my assistant, who, poor fellow, was mortally scared to be left alone with her! She backed off only when I told her that he was already married. At the clinic at the first visit I gave her a dose of Cannabis-ind 1M.

She jumped from topic to topic every second and I could not get head or tail of the story. So, I called her parents who related to me the complete history as given above. Based on the case details 1 followed up the Cannabis-indica 1M by Veratrum-alb 1M one dose the following week.

The rubrics selected were -

1. SRI 49 Anger, violent
2. SRI 158 Concentration difficult, thoughts wander
3. SRI 1016 Concentration difficult, thoughts vanish
4. SRI 159 Confidence want of self
5. SRI 160 Confusion
6. SRI 140 Childish behaviour
7. SRI 1576 Homesickness
8. SRI 728 Obsessed by the idea of marriage
9. SRI 785 Nymphomania
10. SRI 717 Loquacity insane
11. SRI 1061 Wander desire to
12. SRI 974 Suicidal disposition.

The remedies which emerged from repertorisation were-

1. Natrum-mur - 26/13
2. Hyos - 21/12
3. Verat-alb - 16/12
4. Kali-c - 20/12
5. Nux-vom - 22/11
6. Staph - 19/11
7. Anac - 20/9
8. Platina - 14/8
9. Cann-ind - 10/6

Though in repertorial analysis Cannabis-indica is low it was selected for the reasons that-

1. The patient was on a high.
2. Confused
3. Thoughts vanishing
4. Delusion, bewitched she is
5. Loquacity.

Verat-alb was considered because she was amative, wants to kiss, interested excessively in sex, ate excreta, had suicidal tendency, fear of sharp instruments. Delusion pregnant she is and delusion unlucky she is.

There was a marked improvement after the remedy was given. In two weeks, she could talk 4-5 sentences on one topic. We made a pact not to talk of marriage till Nov. 1994 (i.e. after she became well).

She still has an obsession with dates, sun signs, boys, fixed ideas, attachment to people she likes, loquacity and obsession to constantly making telephone calls.

But she can do normal work, can be left alone at home and she smokes only 2-3 cigarette per day. She has started writing articles for an architectural magazine. The allopathic medication is gradually being reduced.

On 5th April 94 (i.e. after 6 weeks of placebo) it was noticed that her conversation was again jumping from one topic to another so she was given Verat-alb 10M one dose.

On 11th April 1994 she was off to Goa for a week with her family. Today, she is far from completely normal but well on the way to it.

Conclusion:

In this case, the duration being short and brief, originating from the definite cause of rejection and cheating and the girl being young, the prognosis is very hopeful.

I have treated four other cases of Schizophrenia where the causative factors started operating early in life almost from infancy with a tyrant father, quarrelling parents, neglected and abused childhood, poor school performance. Strangely, all were young men with similar backgrounds. In all those cases the improvement is very slow and prognosis poor.

My sixth case of a 50 year old school teacher; Schizophrenia was caused by the death of a son 10 years ago; this also showed little improvement. A seventh case was discussed in the NJH - (1st issue 92-Mind). Eighth case of a young man going schizoid after living alone in USA is also doing well.

So, improvement in two out of eight cases in the last 5 years is not a very high average. I request readers to send in their statistics.

Summary: 8 Cases - 2 able to lead a normal life, 1 improving, 2 very slow improvement, 3 given up treatment.