AN A-Z OF EMOTIONAL PAIN: PAIN
Pain reminds you that you’re alive by bringing you down to a conscious level. Your body is screaming for help. It puts you on notice that your physical structure has been ignored too long.
There is an emotional element to all pain. The emotional pain may be too much for you to handle so your physical body takes the overload. We believe that you are laid flat on your back in order to make you look up!
If our lives are going in the wrong direction, destiny gives us a ‘tap on the shoulder’. It may only be gentle like a small accident which makes up stop and think: ‘Where am I going?’; ‘Is that where I want to be?’
If we ignore this tap, then the reminder becomes a much more painful experience when we are forced to take notice. There are many people who will tell you how a serious accident completely changed their lives. Intense pain prompted them to reassess their priorities in life. It’s a fact that we are sometimes forced to suffer before learning life’s lessons.
An example of this is Cry of the Damaged Man by Tony Moore. This is the story of a doctor who learnt from a very painful accident. For the first time he became the patient and his story of this experience is poignant.
We don’t have to hurt. By listening to our emotions, we learn to recognise the pitfalls awaiting us. Test yourself while doing a job. What is your overriding emotion? Is it anger or resentment that you have to do the task, or thankfulness that you have the capacity/intelligence/good luck to be asked to do it?
Pleasure is the opposite of pain. Finding how to handle one is often the path by which we find the other. Release resistance to pain, don’t run away from it, size it up. Pain can drive people to suicide, so it is important to diagnose the cause.
Therapies recommended for emotional pain come from the homoeopathic repertoire. A very detailed picture of the whole person’s background, the general and specific symptoms and knowledge of the chronic or acute situation must be thoroughly detailed before classical remedies can be prescribed. This is a
challenging and rewarding task when you involve yourself with this 200-year-old therapy. Homoeopathics recommended for pain cover pages of the repertoire. The dosage is also exacting as the more diluted the remedy, the more effective the treatment. Emotional pain is treated with the high dilutions of 200x or greater.
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AN A-Z OF EMOTIONAL PAIN: ACUPUNCTURE
Acupuncture is used to balance the energies of the body, by first diagnosing and then treating from the twelve pulses in the wrist. Acupuncturists talk in terms of earth, metal, fire, water and wood. Not enough fire energy can cause depression, while too much can cause excessive laughter (have you ever been driven insane by someone’s inability to stop laughing long after the joke is over), or giggling? This can bring on an asthma attack (I know because it used to happen to me as a child).Then again, not enough wood can cause tears and an excess of wood will bring forth anger.
Here’s a short list of emotions affected by each element:
Wood aggression, anger, irritability, restlessness, instability.
Fire joy, happiness, hysteria, excessive laughter, sadness (lack of fire energy
minimises our joy etc).
Earth sympathy, concern, worry, tension, depression.
Metal crying, grief, sorrow, negativity, parsimony.
Water groaning, reverence, awe, wonder, fear, alarm, timidity (again, appreciate the need for correct energy balance).
Too much or too little of these emotions can cause problems. Acupuncture is a simple means of correcting energy flow. By balancing these important energy levels we can ease emotional tensions almost instantly – just a few small needles quickly and expertly inserted. It’s so much better than drug dependency.
Susan’s story-Susan came to my clinic, very tense and shaken. She was teary and couldn’t sit down while she relayed her story to me. She had had a fight with her husband followed by a minor car accident. I gave her drops for shock and lay her down, then checked the pulses in her wrist to see how her body was coping. Stress, in my opinion, was the only real problem, and I quickly inserted acupuncture needles in the correct positions. Very soon after that she calmed down and her heartbeat returned to normal. I was quite comfortable that a day’s rest was all she would need — if her husband didn’t abuse her over the cost of fixing the car.
Homoeopathy takes in the total picture of the suffering person’s family history, the past health history, trauma in their life, medications masking illnesses or reducing immunity, sensitivity to weather, movement, heat and cold, sleep patterns, food preferences and so much more. These details give the homoeopath an overall idea of the type of patient you are, and the special picture you represent.
Tim’s story–Tim was brought to me for help with his attitude to school and life generally. I shook his hand and noticed that his grip was soft and clammy. He was a sandy-headed, freckle-faced boy, a little overweight (though that is not a problem in a growing boy who is about to shoot upwards and has no emotional problems). His mother told me that he was always forgetting things and could become very obstinate when he liked. He was quite well when he first woke up but by the end of the day everything seemed an effort. He often complained that his head was hot and developed a cold easily if he was caught in a weather change.
After taking a comprehensive case history, and checking his spine for structural misalignment, I decided to use homoeopathy, especially as he said he freaked out at the idea of needles! So we agreed on some drops under the tongue.
To a homoeopath, the diagnosis was obvious. Inability to absorb calcium in the young will often present these symptoms and more. Calcarea carbonica is a constitutional remedy par excellence and works very well indeed, especially with children. One dose a day for a week showed gradual improvement in his overall health and very definitely in his emotional attitude. We decreased the drops until one dose per week was all he required.
Each case, however, is unique and the homoeopath must work out the appropriate remedy. Totally different homoeopathic medication may be required by each patient even though they have similar symptoms.
When it comes to nutrition, vitamins are well known for the: importance they have in emotional health, especially the B complex ones. Deficiency of these vitamins may be brought on through stress of any kind, such as poor nutrition, overwork, smoking, insomnia. Special times of need, such as breastfeeding, or after surgery, accidents and trauma will soon upset the delicate vitamin balance.
While I was listening to a patient one day, I noticed that he was nervously wiping and hiding his mouth with his hands. It was an unconscious movement, and although it first annoyed me because it prevented me from hearing what he was saying, I realised I was seeing first hand a vitamin B deficiency. It became clear that he was suffering work stress which wasn’t being recognised. I advised a course of vitamin B complex with each meal for at least a month. Eventually his nervous symptoms disappeared and he could talk to me with confidence. He learnt that vitamin tablets would benefit him and his family whenever they suffered stress.
There is a wonderful world of Bach, and now Bush, Flower remedies which do wonders for emotional stress, pain and their associated problems.
Dr Edward Bach (1886-1936), a Welsh pathologist, bacteriologist, homoeopath and herbalist, was the first to derive these remedies from flower extracts. He treated the mental states which govern our physical wellbeing by using simple flower dilutions. They are available from any naturopath and are totally safe, being correctly distilled and professionally prepared.
There are thirty-eight Bach Flower remedies. The first twelve represent the emotions of: fear, mental torture/worry, terror, indecision, indifference/boredom, overconcern/anxiety, weakness, self distrust, impatience, over-enthusiasm, pride/aloofness.
Here, in alphabetical order, is a list of the flowers whose extracts immediately treat emotional symptoms: aspen, beech, centaury, cerato, cherry-plum,
chestnut-bud, chicory, clematis, crab-apple, elm, gentian, gorse, heather, holly, honeysuckle, hornbeam, impatiens, larch, mimulus, mustard, oak, olive, pine,
red-chestnut, rock-rose, rock-water, scleranthus, star-of-Bethlehem, sweet chestnut, vervain, vine, walnut, water-violet, white-chestnut, wild-oat, wild-rose, willow. A special five of these blended together form the well-known Rescue Remedy.
My own story-A little while ago I desperately needed a holiday. I feel a fool telling you this but, having finally organised a few days off, I couldn’t make up my mind what to do with them. Should I go to the beach and breathe in the salt air and bask in the sunshine? Should I head for the Blue Mountains and walk up and down the country trails? Should I book in to a five star hotel and indulge myself with theatre? I couldn’t decide. Should I stay home and ignore the telephone and catch up on the filing?
I drove myself crazy trying to make up my mind. I actually packed a bag and got into the car not knowing where I was going. An hour on the road and I was back home! Finally I woke up to myself and took a dose of scleranthus for indecision. Within three minutes I knew I had to stay put and book in to see my dentist, chiropodist, hairdresser, beautician and masseuse and indulge myself with treatments I deserved and needed!
My belief is that everyone should have their own Bach Flower remedy kit at home and self-medicate when necessary. Emotional states not heeded lead to more complicated body stress patterns requiring expensive therapy. Why not short circuit the process by taking responsibility for your own emotions with simple therapies?
All naturopaths, however, believe in the principle that for optimum health we should eat the foods grown in our own area as we are chemically adapted to them. Dr Bach, therefore, would have agreed with the latest development of the Bush Flower remedies for emotional problems as they are extracted from Australian flowers and developed for Australian conditions.
Symptoms addressed by these remedies include: burn-out, frustration, rigidity to change, annoyance, loathing, disgust, impatience, obsessions, pining, holding onto the past, inability to cope, worry”; resentment, bitterness, fearfulness, insecurity, lack of courage, lack of confidence, insensitivity, terror, panic, apathy and many, many more.
Some of the essences available are: banksia robur, bauhinia, billy-goat-plum, black-eyed susan, bluebell, boronia, bottle-brush, bush-fuchsia, bush-gardinia, bush-iris, cowslip-orchid, crowea, dagger-hakea, dog-rose, five-corners,
illawarra-flame-tree, flannel-flower, fringed-violet, grey-spider-flower, hibbertia, isopogon, jacaranda, kangaroo-paw, kapok bush, little-flannel flower, macro-carpa, mountain-devil, mulla-mulla, old man-banksia, pawpaw, peach-flowered tea tree, philotheca, red grevillea, red helmet, red lily, sheoak, silver princess,
slender-rice-flower, southern-cross, spinifex, sturt-desert-pea, sturt-desert-rose, sundew, sunshine wattle, tall yellow top, turkey bush, waratah, wedding bush, wild potato bush, wisteria.
These essences must be professionally prepared for consumption and government regulations ensure the strictest of standards.
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AN A-Z OF LUMBAR OR PAIN AND LEG PAIN: DYSMENORRHOEA
I am feeling so much more calm and settled – it has changed my outlook and I feel more confident. I no longer worry about the date nor try to organise my life and work around my period knowing that I would be almost ‘out of action’.
My working life is much better to manage and I can face each day confidently. At home my family all say I am easier to live with and I am, without such awful pain. Now that the pain and discomfort have gone I really wonder why we put up with such unnecessary agony for ourselves and everyone around us. Treatment changed my attitude, renewed my confidence, and gave me a new life.
Painful periods are often an indication that the pelvis needs realigning. By the time menstruation commences, there has been ample opportunity for sporting sprains to have thrown the pelvis out of correct alignment.
My clinic is near an ice skating rink. I have witnessed a considerable number of falls onto the hip joint. This is one of the ways that the pelvis is sprained and if left uncorrected will, and does, result in painful periods when girls reach puberty. An adjustment corrects this pelvic strain so that the natural flow is unimpeded. If your daughter suffers from dysmenorrhoea, watch and see if she usually stands on one leg with the other knee bent. This is one indicator of a pelvic problem.
With acupuncture the needles go into the ankles and the pain and cramp stop immediately. The points between the first finger and thumb complete the combination for the acupuncture treatment.
The relief from pain is wonderful and I give the girls therapy for three weeks consecutively, then, once a month, the week before the flow. That just about solves the problem. Pain is never normal. Menstruation should be regular and painless. If not, see your chiropractor or osteopath. Find one who does acupuncture too!
Rhonda’s story or the past so many years – so many that I couldn’t begin to remember my periods have meant almost a fortnight of misery and pain.
My cycle would begin with feeling bloated and heavy, breasts swollen, headachy, cranky, irritable and generally negative for about four or five days. For the next four or so days, I would have spotting before my period would actually begin. The onset would be accompanied by a rather severe headache, lasting from a day or two at least and anything up to ten days.
Sometimes I would work on trying to concentrate with my head pounding and my eyes burning. When it got really bad I would go and lie down on the bathroom tiles. I think I have almost lived on period pain pills for the past ten years or so and I really wonder what they do to your body.
My period would then last for five to seven days with a rather heavy flow and at least two ‘fioodings’ in that time. On the first day I would usually have to spend a couple of hours with a hot water bottle to ease the pain.
I had to get up and change through the night for at least four nights or if I did sleep through, there would be a big ‘clean up’ session. Then it would finish with another headache before a few final days of spotting to end it all.
Then I went to my natural therapist for treatment for a painful shoulder. In conversation I mentioned my headaches and painful periods and it was suggested I try acupuncture with chiropractic.
I had treatment a couple of times and almost instantly felt better. After only two treatments, my headaches have disappeared completely (which is so wonderful that no-one could really believe it).
My periods last only a week now and the flow has settled down considerably. There is only slight discomfort at the beginning with some pain, but certainly not enough to complain about.
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AN A-Z OF LUMBAR OR PAIN AND LEG PAIN: SHORT LEG SYNDROME
AND HOW TO LIFT CORRECTLY
There are true short legs which occur from difficult fractures in the pelvis or leg bones, or where polio or some such disease has affected growth. Then there is the ‘apparent’ short leg which occurs through muscle cramp, or, more usually, distortion of the pelvis due to injury. These latter problems can be – and
are – corrected by our work every day.
One mistake made is when people self-diagnose and put in heel-lifts without the chiropractor’s expert opinion on their necessity. Over a two-year period, the resulting tilt to the pelvis creates a spinal rotation. Then we have to unwind the painful situation. Please check with a chiropractor first.
How to lift correctly:
First centre yourself.
Face the object squarely.
Drop if possible to a squat for low lifts.
Use all your body in the motion.
Hold the object close to your body.
Rise using your arms, trunk and legs.
Lift the object front on.
Turn your feet, not your spine, before you lower the object.
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AN A-Z OF DORSAL AND THORACIC PAIN: HEART DISEASE
It has been known for years but the very latest confirmation is a report from the University of Texas Medical Center in Dallas that says, ‘Hardening of the arteries, a major factor in death from heart disease, appears to nearly stop in patients who increase their intake of vitamin C and E and beta carotene.’ They found these vitamins reduced damage caused to artery walls by cholesterol without any side effects!
We know, too, that reducing animal fats in our diet is an important correction of our eating pattern for heart trouble. Also it is thought that ‘bad’ cholesterol is mainly caused by stress and the effects of animal fats.
Foods known to decrease unwanted cholesterol are garlic, fish, barley, oats, gooseberries, mushrooms and prunes. Don’t forget the bad effects of stress on the heart. Walking daily is the safest exercise.
The damage done to our bodies through impure air, water and food, leaves us with the real need to help clean out our systems with increased vitamin intake. Vitamin C is the great cleanser of toxic metals in the bloodstream. Homoeopathic plumbago clears out the lead.
Chelation Therapy is a process to bind and eliminate heavy metals. Certain metal ions and other chemical substances (EDTA) are introduced intravenously to clean out toxic metals and plaque which accumulates in the blood vessels. (Chelation is described thoroughly in Alternative Medicine by Diane Wiesner.) It must be done by a medical practitioner involved in nutritional solutions to health problems.
Scars resulting from heart operations interfere with energy flow and need to be acupunctured, especially when the patient is not doing much exercise. Acupuncture quickly relieves tension and nausea.
If the patient has had scars from other operations, then the accumulated energy blockage is more severe and the patient will have divergent symptoms that also need to be relieved by correcting the energy flow. Insomnia and depression are two of these. Often there is a sense of pressure around the chest, or a feeling that the legs are bursting out of their skin. Tiredness and heavy limbs annoy, together with an internal stress that doesn’t ever let you relax.
You can’t blame the surgeon for these side effects. He has done his job well. After all he’s saved your life, but now it’s our turn to balance the chi vitality. It is a simple acupuncture procedure nothing at all to fear.
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