In my 10 years of practice I have seen clients who would always ask me why you ask so much of questions? It doesn’t make any sense.
Homeopathy considers not only the physical symptoms but also person who is susceptible to those symptoms. As we know our mind and body are connected, so homeopaths need to understand different conditions in which the mind is responding to symptoms in addition to what conditions the body is experiencing in the state of a dis-ease. For e.g. the sensation narrated by patient along with what makes it feels better or worse (called modalities) helps us to understand which organ is involved and the modalities are important in differentiating remedies.
In the ancient medicine, they would say if you eat well, piss well, shit well, sleep well you are healthy. These are the vital signs of healthy states. Hence checking on general symptoms like any alternation in appetite, thirst, sleep, activity, mood since origin of the complaints is very essential. This uniqueness navigates towards selecting most suitable remedy from thousands of remedies.
There so many questions that help us to be more attentive towards our body. These questions makes us listen to our body’s signal in the form of signs and symptoms. As we know every individual is different not only in genetic, cellular makeup, but in thoughts, perception, intelligence and morals. The psychological questions are aimed at understanding your individuality.
That apart, the case taking also includes questions on basic functions - appetite, likings and dislikes of food, thirst, thermal preference, etc. While it may seem to be insignificant; every person is different in functionality. Moreover, all these are vital functions of a healthy body and are governed by the highest organ: our neuroendocrine system - the hypothalamus in the brain.
In chronic cases or long term issues, person who is suffering since long time with recurrent issues has more questions to think about; right from their childhood till present day. Their relations with family, social, work, likings, dislikes, religion, hobbies, habits( smoking, alcohol), diet, daily routine, patterns of sleep, dreams, past health history and family health history. All these help us understand the root causes and the progression of the issues and not just the immediate symptoms.
Some questions we often ask....
Religion
Some clients may get hurt and ask what’s the intention of asking this question. It looks like these are racist question. How does treatment depend on this? There are some diseases which are common in some races and communities, which helps in statistical data and tracing patterns. Tracing these patterns helps in deeper studies further at research level.
Source— A Manual on Clinical Surgery, by Dr. Somen Das
Smoking
Do you know that apart from lung cancer (that we all know) there are other lung conditions like COPD, risk of heart diseases. It can also cause gangrenous conditions of lungs, cancer of nose, sinuses, voice box etc. Not only that, but many other diseases have smoking as a risk factor.
Alcohol
We all know what it does to our liver (cirrhosis) but do you know that it also causes other medical problems
1. High blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, liver disease, and digestive problems.
2. Cancer of the breast, mouth, throat, esophagus, voice box, liver, colon, and rectum.
3. Weakening of the immune system, increasing the chances of getting sick.
4. Learning and memory problems, including dementia and poor school performance.
5. Mental health problems, including depression and anxiety.
6. Social problems, including family problems, job-related problems, and unemployment.
7. People can suffer from cirrhosis liver caused by ADR i.e adverse drug reactions.
Cravings for foods
People who love more sweets, cheese, fatty food coupled with sedentary lifestyles are more prone to diabetes. Those who often consume smoked meat reportedly suffer from gastric cancer, because of the formation of nitrosamines during smoking/grilling the meat. Diet with lack of fiber are prone to carcinoma of colon.
Daily routine
This helps us in understanding habits of person. Our habits has big impact on our body. Habits and diseases are said to be congruent with diseases for example sedentary lifestyles.
In short, we try to understand a bigger picture of that person’s life as a whole i.e. physical (signs and
symptoms), emotional (Nature), mental (Intellectual) and spiritual (Energy level).
Why after all?
If we try to introspect a little, don’t you think different types of emotions create different expressions in our body? When we are happy, we are generally healthy. When unhappy or stressed within we are susceptible to unease or disease. So, answering all these questions helps us to understand every individual’s journey of life through their own eyes in an unprejudiced, unbiased way which has immense importance in selecting your constitutional remedy.
In one of my cases, a client lost her job due to downsizing during the 2008 recession. When asked what she felt she said she felt insulted as there is no dignity, but she can’t react. Instead she choose to suppress her anger with trembling and started developing some skin eruptions and headaches. Here the causative factor taken was indignation that led to skin eruptions and migraine with extreme sensitivity to noise or even someone talking around her. Here we would understand that the belief of patient makes her perception of indignation in that situation. This made her suffer. If she could rationally think that there is possibility that the company might be in a difficult position and may have lost projects due to recession, she would have moved on in search of different job without any suffering. This is called suffering due to your beliefs. Here we selected remedy called staphysagria, which healed her causative factor : the sense of indignation, suppressed anger leading to headache and brought her back to normal health mentally as well as physically.
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