Healing with Homeopathy

by Judyth Reichenberg, ND, LCSW, and Robert Ullman, ND

Homeopathic Treatment of a Sensitive Woman with Insomnia

Sleeplessness tends to evoke strong reactions in patients. A sound, restful night’s sleep is a birthright – an essential requisite for a peaceful, healthy life. Sleep deprivation, if minor, can produce fatigue and discomfort. If major, patients often present with exhaustion, significant anxiety, and even desperation. We have found homeopathy to be of great benefit for many patients with sleep complaints. Lily is a 43-year-old musician whose case will teach you quite a bit about the homeopathic treatment of insomnia.

A Revved-Up Mind

I’m a musician … a guitarist. My mind really gets revved up. Two years ago, I started having absolutely sleepless nights. I have tried a lot of things, including valerian. I thought maybe I was in a restless time. At first I hadn’t pinpointed that it normally happens right before my period. I have been taking one Tylenol Simply Sleep ever night for some time now. My sleep doctor told me to just keep taking it. When I play a music gig and I’m out late, I take two. It can get down to half a pill right after my period. This has been my cycle for the past year. I don’t like taking pills.

I just don’t go to sleep. I lie there. Usually my mind has a song in it. Lately it’s a nursery rhyme. I’m very, very sensitive when I sleep. I lay down. Then I fade in and out. I’m kind of foggy, but my mind is still thinking. There’s that sound going round and round. Then I get frustrated. I’ve been through cycles of worry about my father’s cancer. There were a number of other family stresses, too.

We asked Lily to tell us about her sensitivity, which we suspected could provide the key to finding the right homeopathic medicine for her.

I’m very sensitive to noise. There is a pond outside our house that trickles water. it bothered me so much that I had to turn it off. I can hear all kinds of noises. Some of them I love. I just listen … I am a professional classical guitar player and I love to do improvisation. It’s all about listening. Being tuned in is so much about what’s happening around me musically. Spontaneous. chords. I go to a different place with the music. I can hear what the music is supposed to do and I just do it.

We inquired about listening.

Being in the moment and responsive to every sound. Playing with the sounds. Resting in them. Making I exciting. Reaching all of the emotions of the music. All of the emotional extremes: mournful, lively, energetic, relaxing. Music for me is an emotional release. It’s a wonderful release. If I’m creating beautiful music, I’m making it as beautiful as anything we can image visually. The essence of beauty in music, bringing that gift to the listeners. So, I’m able to take listeners to that place, too, of absolute pureness and beauty.

The music can make us really excited. Very, very alive. Spontaneously alive.

We asked Lily what she meant by excited.

Full of energy versus lethargy. Ecstatic. Joy! Just feeling the happiness all the way through my body. Stimulated. Connected with others. Energized. A rush of excitement and energy through the body. Boundless energy. Like I could go for a walk or hike and go and go and go. I love being pushed like that, being challenged. I thrive on it. Sometimes I get so filled with boundless energy that I try to get too much done. I can get frazzled. It’s hard to slow down. In order to keep up my organization, it takes boundless energy. It’s a constant coming back to the drawing board as to how much I can take in and take on as far as daily activities.

As a teenager, I had more mood swings. I felt out of whack. As a child, I was really emotional but we weren’t allowed to talk about our feelings. So I would bottle up. Then I would get emotionally or physically sick. Once I left my guitar on an airplane. It was so emotionally traumatizing for me. I remember lying on the couch and being sick as a dog. I felt out of place as a child because I always wanted to talk about the deeper meaning of things. I was always looking for a feeling of connection, for a creative outlet. One of the most life-changing moments for me was going to counseling and realizing it was okay to talk about emotions.

We asked Lily what tended to make her emotional. “Movies always make me cry. Tears come easily. Even sitting around telling funny jokes, I’ll be crying.” When we inquired what Lily did for emotional release, she replied, “I play music, exercise, and I garden. I love to be with plants. They invigorate me. To plant seeds and watch them grow. It’s exciting. Joyful. I love the sun and fresh air. I love beauty. I love to create beauty visually. And I love the depth of different kinds of people. I love to travel.”

At this point in the interview, we felt sure about the prescription and asked a few confirmatory questions, such as Lily’s pain threshold. “Ooooh, I don’t like pain. Childbirth was almost superfluous. I guess you endure it. Going to the hospital and hearing the women scream. I just didn’t want to go there.”

We also investigated dreams. “As a kid, I had wonderful flying dreams. We asked about claustrophobia. “Yes, I have had that tendency since my sister locked me in a closet when I was small.”

Finally, we questioned Lily about her caffeine consumption. “I’ve totally eliminated black tea and coffee because of the sleep.”

Kingdom, Miasm, and Family

If you have been reading any of our previous articles, you will know that, in choosing a single homeopathic medicine from the more than 2,000 possibilities, we narrow the field of choices by deciding first whether to prescribe a medicine from the animal, plant, or mineral kingdom. Those requiring animal medicines exhibit animal themes, including competition, survival of the fittest, attractiveness, victim and aggressor, and sexuality. Patients needing medicines from the mineral kingdom have predominant issues of structure, performance, relationships, identity, and security. Those who need homeopathic medicines made from plants are highly sensitive, reactive, adaptable, and tend to be interested in art, music, and plants. Lily clearly needed a plant medicine.

Since there are millions of plants, and hundreds of homeopathic medicines that have been made from plants, we differentiate which plant family according to the sensation. That process was also very easy in Lily’s case. The Rubiaceae family has as its primary sensation or theme the following characteristics: aggravation from overstimulation and from an excess of joy, a preponderance of ideas, plans, and activity, creative pursuits, excess of activity, fatigue, and sleeplessness. The polar opposite of these tendencies is tranquility and meditation. Selecting the specific medicine within the Rubiaceae family was quite straightforward in Lily’s case. She needed a medicine from the tubercular miasm, due to her propensity for excessive mental activity, claustrophobic feelings, and her desire to travel.

A Perfect Prescription

Even if you knew nothing whatsoever about homeopathy but were familiar with the principle “like cures like,” you might be able to guess the medicine that we prescribed for Lily. Consider, for a moment, her chief complaints of sleeplessness and feeling “revved up.” She lay down to sleep at night and her mind would be filled with music. She was so sensitive to overstimulation that she had voluntarily given up tea and coffee. The homeopathic medicine for Lily was Coffea cruda, or coffee.

Individuals needing Coffea are extremely sensitive, especially to emotions of all kinds – sorrow as much as joy – and to pain, which can be experienced as excruciating. They are creative, generous, artistic, benevolent people, and desire acceptance from the group. They tend to be artists, writers, filmmakers, and so on, who have a high intake of coffee. They are known for having abundant ideas and making many plans and can have dreams or visions of beautiful landscapes. Coffea, even when prescribed for acute sleep disturbance, is the first medicine to think of for insomnia, especially when the patient describes being wide awake and alert at 3 o’clock in the morning. What is so beautiful about Lily’s story, and makes it an ideal teaching case, is how perfectly she fits the picture of Coffea in all ways. We first prescribed Coffea LM5 to take up to once a day. It is not surprising then, that the medicine helped her tremendously and has been the only one she has needed for the past four and a half years.

A Wonderful Response to the Medicine

One-Month Follow-Up

“I now get sleepy around 9 PM. The homeopathy definitely shifted something. I’m feeling calmer, rather than coming from a place of reaction. I know things will work out.”

Ten Weeks

Lily walked into the office and immediately gave us a hug. “You’ve helped me so much! I’m sleeping. I’ve just been ecstatically happy that I can sleep. Even when I traveled, I slept like a baby. I go to sleep at 9:30. I’ve been feeling great! I’ve been really healthy. Such a difference in every part of my being. I’ve had energy throughout the day. Just a really fun time. Sleep makes all the difference.”

Five and a Half Months

“I had a sleepless night last night. If I get into a heated conversation late at night, my mind gets whirling. It revs up and doesn’t slow down. Or if I practice guitar quite late. It’s hard for my mind to shut off. Even though it’s all great, exciting stuff. My periods, all of a sudden, have gotten quite heavy.” We raised the potency of the medicine to Coffea LM6.

Eight and a Half Months

“I sleep great, except when I ovulate. You hit it on the money with that homeopathic remedy. Music is great. I’m teaching like crazy.”

One Year and One Month

“I’m doing well. What happens to me is that I am really sensitive. Overly sensitive. When I’m around anger, I tend to get bottled up with it myself.” We increased the potency to Coffea LM7.

16 Months

“I am really sensitive to sugar. I’ve been doing well. I had a bizarre rash. I am sleeping well. I just count my blessings.”

21 Months

“Last night I had a really restless night. I’m having the mood thing before my period. I haven’t seen you for five months and I’ve only been taking the remedy once a week.” We suggested that Lily start taking the Coffea more often again.

Two Years

“I’m playing tons of music. If I’m not out late at night, I sleep fine. I’m just a sensitive sleeper. If I’m too cold or too bound up in bed, sometimes I get up and go to another bed. All of a sudden, starting this fall, I have a shooting pain in my shoulder while playing the guitar and leg pain when I’ driving. It reminds me of when I had a pinched nerve during childbirth.” We raised the potency to Coffea LM8.

Two and a Half Years

“I’m doing some physical therapy for my back. My music is wonderful . I love my teaching. I haven’t been taking the remedy regularly.” We reminded her to start taking the Coffea more often and raised the potency to Coffea LM9.

Three Years, Eight Months

“Really great. I’ve been off kilter the past two weeks. My system is so sensitive. I’ve been taking Coffea LM9 up to once a day. I’ve had no sleep issues until recently. I’m playing two to three music gigs a week. Plus the family All the details are just too much. Tracking so many bits of information. My system just needs to relax. I’m running around like crazing during the day. And I’ve started to get hot flashes.” We prescribed Coffea LM10.

Four Years, Four Months

“I’ve never taught more. My only issue with sleep is right before my period. Otherwise I’m feeling good.” Lily continues to take Coffea LM10 with considerable benefit, despite an active, packed, creative home and family life, teaching schedule, and career. Her activity level would be enough to tire nearly anyone, but she manages to pull it off quite well with only occasional interruptions in her sleep.

Different Medicines for Different Patients with Sleep Disturbances

We hope that you have learned, from Lily’s case, how effective homeopathic treatment can be for insomnia, when Coffea is indicated, and how to manage a homeopathic case over a long period of time. Do remember that there are over 2000 homeopathic medicines and that Coffea happened to be a highly effective medicine for Lily. Another individual with sleep problems is likely to need a completely different medicine, perhaps from a different kingdom and family.

Judyth Reichenberg-Ullman and Robert Ullman are licensed naturopathic physicians, board certified in homeopathy, and live on Whidbey Island, Washington, and in Pucon, Chile. Their books include Prozac Free; A Drug-Free Approach to Asperger Syndrome and Autism; Ritalin-Free Kids; Rage-Free Kids; Homeopathic Self-Care: The Quick and Easy Guide for the Whole Family; Whole Woman Homeopathy; The Patient’s Guide to Homeopathic Medicine; and Mystics, Masters, Saints and Sages: Stories of Enlightenment. They teach and lecture internationally and practice at the Northwest Center for Homeopathic Medicine in Edmonds, Washington. They treat patients by phone and videoconference as well as in person, and can be reached at 425-774-5599, drreichenberg@gmail.com, or drbobullman@gmail.com. Their website is www.healthyhomeopathy.com.