Depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity. It can affect a person’s thoughts, behaviour, motivation, feelings and sense of well-being. It may feature sadness, difficulty in thinking and concentration and a significant increase or decrease in appetite and time spent sleeping.
Depression can affect you at different times in your life, affect different people differently (child, teenager, male, female) and have different causes and presentations. Life circumstances can play a large part as to how you are affected (orphaned, death of a loved one, hormonal imbalance, environmental toxin, circadian mismatch). Something as simple as an inflammatory diet causing allergic symptoms can precipitate depressive like symptoms. Finding the cause is paramount to healing.
As a functional medicine practitioner and homeopath, I am able to look into this web and help the patient to discern the root causes of the issue. How is this achieved? We can call on functional medicine lab tests for hormonal dysfunctions, or heavy metal toxicities, change eating menus, ensure sufficient regenerative sleep and even help the sufferer to change the way they see life. This all is directed by what the patient’s body’s vital force or defence mechanism shows us through presentation of body symptoms, and this is where homeopathy is superb at assisting the imbalance. We let the body tell us where the problem is. It takes a certain type of skill that is fostered over many years of study to ‘read’ the patient.
The homeopath considers the patient and which body (physical, emotional or mental) the disease is manifesting on, then treats that body with the appropriate remedy and potency. Illness on the mental and emotional body are more severe then illness manifesting in the physical body and can take longer to heal, depending on what support the body is given and what type of stress it is experiencing.
Let’s look at some remedy examples to make it clearer. Remember that the patient symptoms must be taken as a whole and must fit the remedy picture completely to have a healing effect.
- Should you be weepy continually, look to medicines like Chelidonium and Pulsatilla, esp. if you improve when you are consoled and ‘loved’ (given attention). (EMOTIONAL LEVEL)
- Should you not want to see anybody and prefer to be alone, consider remedies like Nat mur and Sepia, esp. if consolation aggravates you. (EMOTIONAL LEVEL)
- Depression with nervousness, fatigue and apprehension points to remedies like Arg Nit and Kali phos. (PHYSICAL LEVEL)
- Profound depression with melancholy and suicidal feelings, consider Aurum met and Psorinum (MENTAL LEVEL)
- Depression with resentment that life has not treated you better, consider Nat Mur (MENTAL LEVEL)
- Depression with lack of self-confidence, consider Silicea or Lyc or Psorinum (MENTAL LEVEL)
- In women, they may be constantly tired, weepy, easily upset, difficult standing, always pale, sensitive to noise and cold, consider Ferrum met and check their blood work as they may be anaemic or have an auto-immune condition. (PHYSICAL LEVEL)
- For fear of being killed, consider Plumbum and check for lead toxicity as many mental and emotional symptoms can be linked to a metal toxicity. (MENTAL / PHYSICAL)
- Depression of long standing with patient having used contraceptive drugs extensively, consider Folliculinum and support patient to improve liver clearance of hormones with Nux vom. (PHYSICAL)
