Case 1: This 36 year old mother of two young children started her treatment for eczema, and weariness since one year. She is sent to me by a psychotherapist. I gave her Carcinosinum cum Cuprum 30K every week during eight months. Right from the beginning she feels better, has more energy, is happier, quieter, etc. and her eczema is slowly ameliorating. Then after eight months she complains that she feels frail, powerless and shouts all the time. She says: ‘I have the feeling not to be seen, not to be there, that I have to shout to be heard, I don’t have contact with myself, I have to go deeper.” She complains of restlessness, tiredness and a feeling of having lost herself. She feels vulnerable and powerless. I prescribed her Lac maternum 30K once a week. Two months later she says: ”I am very angry that people don’t see me, that they walk over me and don’t listen to me. I always was apathetic and inert, I thought it was me, but now I am alert and sharp and that gives me energy. I feel more at ease among people. I always felt insecure, as if everybody could take me over, I didn’t have borders, or protection, so I was afraid when away from my family. This remedy gives me borders, it covers me. I felt like a bus full of mud. In the past I was an easy target for teasing, so my feelings were injured. I am afraid of losing my ability to feel other’s feelings and to perceive the ambience in company. But again two months later whether her energy is still increasing and her anxiety lessening, she has a strong desire to be warmly enwrapped. She avoids company and is afraid that people talk to her or that she has to say anything. She feels frail, timid and uncertain. She feels chilly and wants to be hold. When I ask her what the Lac maternum did for her she said: “I feel more energy, but I cannot go outside naked, I am too small, too frail, I need to be hold to prevent me from falling. This state clearly asks for Vernix caseosa and I prescribed this remedy in a 200K every two weeks or more frequently if necessary. Six weeks later she tells me: “The first days after the remedy I feel resistance against what this remedy provokes in me; it makes me weary, irritated and short-tempered, which makes me feel guilty toward my husband and children. Then I feel good for some days and at the end I feel again a kind of emptiness and I start again to shout to be heard. I feel angry because my mother never enveloped me as a little child.” The treatment with Vernix caseosa was continued. Here we see how close sometimes these remedies are, Lac maternum and Vernix caseosa. You can find her follow up under Anacardium case 1.
Case 2: Sven is a 7 year old boy now and had severe problems from his early days on with vomiting whenever there was a little bit of stress in his life. The parents were desperate with this behavior. I gave him Saccharum officinale, what helped him a little bit but never cured him. Then he got Carcinosinum, Chocolate, Cuprum arsenicosum and Arsenicum album. But it took several years until I was able to understand that he needed Vernix caseosa. It cured him completely. He can stand now every level of stress without vomiting or getting whatever digestive problem. What made me understand finally that he needed Vernix caseosa was that he was unable to separate his own emotions with those of others and fantasy from realty. He was completely unprotected. This caused so much stress that he was vomiting at the least problem he met. With Vernix he became relaxed and anxieties took normal proportions. He is again a normal child.
Case 3: This forty years old lady complained that after four months of CCC30K her emotions became so strong, that conflicts entered directly her solar plexus, which caused a lot of tension. She became hypersensitive to noise and all the restlessness around her entered directly in her energy. I prescribed her Vernix caseosa 30K once a week. Her first reaction to this remedy shows clearly what Vernix can do. She felt very strong willed, knowing exactly what she wanted and what she didn’t want. She stopped the relation with her friend right away. She never had that feeling before that she herself is now deciding and that it is her turn. She feels that she needs time for herself and she takes it. She realizes that she has swallowed too many things.
Case 4: This 46 year old lady, mother of two children, went already through the layers of Carcinosinum and Lac maternum. But at the XMK of Lac Maternum she started to complain that she becomes very restless in company, that she has not enough space; that people approach her too much. When she is in town she walks there where she has to cross the less people. She is unable to protect herself against the tension of other people. She feels oppressed by them. She can hardly watch TV and dreams of a house in the nature with hardly people around her. A place where she can be creative and work with her hands. This is a typical Vernix state. She got Vernix caseosa 30K, once a week and all these specific Vernix problems disappeared as snow in the sun. Also her eczema disappeared, because in her energy it had a strong connection with a border problem. The next case is another example of a skin problem, caused by a lack of protection.
Case 5: This 54 year old man lives in a difficult relationship. Some years ago he was suffering from severe overstrain, mainly due to relation problems with his wife. He decided not to divorce and to start relational therapy. He has the feeling that she does not allow him to be himself. She is heaping him with accusations because some years ago he fell in love with another woman and he doesn’t feel capable to affront his wife. He is afraid of her and feels vulnerable. When I see him he is suffering since two weeks from severe rash with an intolerable itching over his whole body. The itching is aggravated during the night and better by a hot shower. He feels less tense also since the rash. I prescribed him first Rhus-tox because I suspected him from a lot of suppressed anger, but there was no better and Rhus venenata because of the amelioration by a hot shower didn’t change anything. His vulnerability and the threatening attitude of his wife lead me to Vernix caseosa, which cured him within a few days from his rash.
Case 6: Wouter who has nine years, is dominated par his older brother and he has the tendency to let others exploit him. He is anxious in his bed in the evening. He feels responsible for his younger sister and feels easily moved by the grief of others. He is helpful and attentive. He abhors disharmony and is irritated by noise and has an acute smell. He is quite sensual and likes to cuddle with his mother in a sensual way. Since the Vernix caseosa 200K and MK he bites back and others don’t exploit him any more. He is more independent and able to stay in his own energy. During the night he still doesn’t like to stay alone and easily slips in the bed of his parents.
Case 7: This 55 years old lady went through the process of Carcinosinum and Lac maternum with a lot of benefit: her climacteric complaints, her palpitations and tiredness disappeared and Lac maternum made her more powerful, freer, expressing more what she feels and thinks. But she continues to complain that she feels invaded by too many things. That she is worrying about other’s problems. I decide not to finish the Lac maternum (she was on the MK) and to change to Vernix caseosa 30K, once a week. Three months later she complains that she feels not well. “I am too much occupied with myself, what makes me depressive,” she says. “I feel indifferent. Now it’s my turn, suit yourself”, but she feels guilty about such an attitude. She was educated with the idea that you had to be there always for other people. Everything you wanted for yourself was considered as egoism. She was unable to choose for herself and to receive for herself all her lifetime. She always was afraid that she didn’t give enough to her husband and children. But there was also a strong feeling of contradiction. With Vernix she felt imperatively to choose for herself what made her feel uncomfortable. Of course the Vernix is continued in the same potency, but less frequent to give her more time to adapt at the new situation. Three months later she feels much more comfortable and has the impression to be better protected. She continues the 30K still for three months and then a 200K is prescribed. She again has a quite strong reaction and feels torn between expressing her opinion or keeping it for herself. If she does the latter her throat is swelling, she feels a lump and has to swallow frequently. She has also difficulties not to enter in the problems of her daughter who will marry soon. It will take probably still one or two years before this aspect of her personality will be completely in harmony going also through the MK and XMK.
Case 8: Kim is a young woman of 21 year old. She came almost three years ago with bulimia with forced vomiting and the use of laxatives. If she stops the laxatives she can stay two weeks without stool feeling very irritable. Before her bulimia started she was already severely obstipated using enemas from time to time. Her mood is quite changeable, weeping easily or becoming angry. She can be quite compulsive if events take another course than she has planned. She lacks flexibility and wants to have everything under her control. She has a strong fear of failure, has high expectations of herself and others and is fanatic. She is very honest. She has cold hand and feet but is not particularly chilly (this is often due to an access of copper in the blood, what proved to be right, double the normal concentration). This picture fits to Cuprum metallicum, what was my first prescription. But she sleeps with ear plugs and is afraid in the dark, she ‘sees’ men all around her and is afraid to be alone, which are the first indication for Vernix already. She reacts well on Cuprum feeling more relaxed in her head. Her bulimia is better under control and she stopped vomiting. She is more relaxed at school and studying less. She is merry and more spontaneous and feels less dependant from her parents. But she is more anxious about her apprenticeship she has to do soon and new things in her life aggravate her tendency to bulimia. The treatment is continued with Cuprum arsenicosum 200K, once in two weeks. But her anxieties are coming more to the surface now. She has fear of the future and a more general anxiety. She has problems in the group; she does not know what to say and is doubting if she is welcome. She expresses it herself as: “something very deep is liberating itself. Cuprum arsenicosum MK is prescribed, every two weeks. But is doesn’t help her. She suffers from anticipation and weeps very easily and the beginning of every week is an enormous charge for her. She feels better if she is occupied. She is anxious, sleeps not well and has an enormous fear of failure. Arsenicum album MK every two weeks is given. Then she is much better, feels much less anxiety and is able to put things into perspective. Her sleep is much better, her irritability is gone and the weeping stopped. But she starts to have nightmares, dreaming of men with knifes pursuing her, especially when she waits too long with the repetition of Arsenicum album. The same medication is continued for another three months, but the same nightmares increase and she wakes up in sweat and is anxious with the strong feeling that men are in her room. When she closes her eyes under the shower she is afraid for men killing her with a knife. But during the day she feels better, is less anxious and more capable to stand up for herself. The same treatment with MK and finally an XMK is continued for another year. She becomes less fastidious, more relaxed, is spontaneous and does not feel the need to have everything under control. Her sleep is quite good, but she still has nightmares of rape and persecution and at the end of the treatment with the XMK she starts to see all kind of people in her house in the evening and has the strong impression that ghosts are around her looking at her when see wakes up in the night. Petroleum 200K makes her situation only worse, the nightmares have disappeared, but when she is awake in her bed she sees all kind of things approaching her out of the walls and ceiling: arms, knifes, plants, etc. she is horrified. Her mind is full and overflowing. She is forgetful, weepy again and has more physical complaints: palpitations, cramps in her abdomen and eczema in her palms. Then Vernix caseosa is prescribed to protect her, 30K twice a week. This helps her a lot. The fullness of her mind and the weepiness disappear. But once when she stopped to take Vernix during a week see saw a man sitting on her bed for at least ten minutes while she was awake. All her physical complaints are almost gone. Her forgetfulness is better also and her sleep is sound again, whether from time to time she has still a nightmare. Every time he images come back, they disappear with Vernix. But it is as if the ghosts will not leave her and she continues to see them as soon as the action of Vernix caseosa is finished. Finally I decide to prescribe her Cenchris contortrix and it helps her also for quite a time, but in the same way as Vernix. Her complaints don’t disappear completely and relapse all the time. In between she is married and when she has 25 years she decided to have a baby. So she stopped the contraceptive pill and when I saw her she was without it for two months without having her menses. Then she told me that she took this pill (Diane) already from her 14 years on, because of severe acne. This made me decide to give her a series of the Diane pill in 30K, 200K, MK and XMK, every potency twice over a period of 15 days to detoxify her energy. I told her that this would probably bring her menses back and that it would also be better for her future baby. The first 10 days she really felt horribly, emotionally and physically, but then it was amazing what happened. For the first time in her life she didn’t feel fragile any more and all her frightful visions disappeared as snow under the sun. Who would have suspected her contraceptive pill