As a homeopath I see a lot of people with chronic illnesses, debilitating them and sometimes having a huge impact on their lives. I am not suggesting that any of this is self inflicted. The body is a dynamic force that responds to stimulus, this stimulus comes in the form of many guises.
What we say, think, speak, and do has an affect on our bodies. What we eat and drink has physical repercussions or rewards. But what I see in practice, is the damage that is done by the stuff we aren’t aware of. Our subconscious behaviours. Now I realise some chronic disease is genetic, and we can’t change what life has dealt us, but for those conditions that come out of nowhere, that start as an acute condition, but never leave us, these have a start point and I do believe that they can be addressed.
The body will only tolerate so much, then it reaches a point where we start to see symptoms, sometimes many of them. Often we are not deliberately keeping secrets, most times we have ongoing suppressed behaviours and thoughts that we are completely unaware of. This is why I believe Homeopathy has huge potential in chronic issues. My last Colitis blog is a perfect example of this suppression in action.
Homeopathy works on many levels, it can address the physical issues caused by such an illness, but it knows that unless it can bring awareness to the cause then it will do nothing more than palliate. Now as a homeopath, I am not a fan of just palliating someone’s illness, I do not want a patient taking a remedy day in and day out. I want to lead them to a realisation about why they are sick. This is why I may give more than one remedy at a time. A support remedy for the physical side but also a constitutional remedy that could help them to see a deeper cause. In the case of Colitis, the ulceration and pain are unbearable, they need to be soothed whilst the constitutional remedy works alongside, addressing the cause.
Secrets and suppression do a lot of harm, when we feel unable to emotionally express our pain/anger/grief/sadness then our physical body may seek an outlet for this instead, creating a loop of chronic symptoms that we become trapped in. The longer we are trapped there the more this becomes our normality. We start to live in a compromised way, unable to find a way out.
Now you may be thinking that this is madness, but it’s usually fairly easy to see an example of this in action. Look for a time in your life when you were under a huge amount of mental stress. These acute states of stress will have had an impact on your physical health. We all have our susceptibilities, our Achilles Heel if you like. Usually the stress passes and we regain our sparkle. Our IBS calms down, or our panic attacks abate. The pressure is off and the body breathes a sigh of relief, but what if that outside stimulus of stress didn’t pass? We would just learn to cope living with it, it would no longer been seen as stress, it would become our normal life and our bodies adjust accordingly. This is Chronic illness and this is what keeps us sick.
It’s not always possible to walk away from what drags us down, but it is possible to recognise how it takes its toll on our health, and with this awareness we can find outlets.
Expression not Suppression