The same day as my introduction to Chinese medicine, I started taking a remedy discussed in homeopathy. I've done this before because other remedies kind of looked like me.
I'm talking about magic, a.k.a. homeopathy. We are forced to go through, even the most randomized control research study lovers, 5 courses of homeopathy to get through naturopathic school. For many, this is a big issue; others gravitate towards it. I figured if I'm going to be spending so much time on it, I may as well open my mind to the practice, despite its incredulous base. Lots of people I respect as physicians practice homeopathy. I just pretend I'm at Hogwart's and long for required black robes and broom sticks.
Homeopathy is magic because it's not understood in our current frame of reality. Homeopaths explain that the rabbit comes out of the hat by means of energy. Let's take a substance that makes you convulse - maybe some mushroom in the Amazon. Some poor sap takes it and records all feelings, dreams, physical symptoms, (including convulsion), and hopefully recovers. All of it's recorded and different poor saps log their results at the same time. In the end they come together and compare notes - "oh, you felt depressed and melancholy too?" and "Seriously? You dreamed of a rabid dog?"
Then we take the shroom, mix it up in alcohol and dilute it down to the point that modern science can't even measure an atom of substance in it, each step whacking it on the counter hundreds of times to increase the energy within the vial. We tease Father Andrew in our class, who despises homeopathy for it's lack of evidence & consistency, that he should take some holy water and beat it on the Bible to make it more potent so he can arm himself before entering the classroom.
We take one drop and put it in a vial of sugar pills, shake it up and wait for someone to come in saying "I'm melancholy, depressed and I have seizures... oh, I also have had this dream of this rabid dog since I was a kid." I'm oversimplifying, but that's basically the concept. We give him the remedy and miraculously, his seizures go away, he's happy, no more nightmares and he also rekindles a relationship with his mother and is free of his unmentioned back pain. The remedy would have caused his symptoms in a high dose, but giving him the tiny dose was like showing his body/mind the direction he was headed for so long. It's like you've been walking straight for a long time not noticing that you're slightly going to the left. The remedy comes up and shoves you from behind in the direction you were going, you turn around to fight it and see that you've been going left this whole time. You correct.
I started taking a remedy, (even if it's placebo & I cure my epilepsy, I ain't going blind researching how it did it), and my ancient Chinese herb formula at the same time - both of which, mind you, are proclaimed useless by today's powerful pharmaceutical companies.
THEN...
It awoke the beast.
I don't know which one did it & I forgot that I'd taken both. Over the week I started getting depressed. I responded really dramatically to little stressors, (moreso than usual by far). I knew I should have been embarrassed - hold it together at least in public! - but I simply wasn't. I didn't give a flying orangutan. Not one. All was lost. I started having night terrors. I felt absolutely... like I did right before my seizures started when I was 14 years old.
There I am on Saturday morning giving CPR to a fake baby in class and I start to twitch - sudden jolts shake the baby and I quickly threw the plastic bundle of joy on my partner’s lap and breathed in, stunned. I just wanted to get away from everyone. I was one of the last ones out that day because I was having a really hard time comprehending the relatively easy CPR exam.
Anyway, twitching, nightmares and having deep depression for no real reason was very unexpected. There’s a theory of unraveling issues – like peeling back an onion of sickness. The theory is that all pathology results from yourself trying to deal. It builds pathology - sure, you don't have the rash you had chronically as a kid, now you have asthma. It's all about the immune system. Would it surprise you if when you lift one weight off the body, it goes lifts in stages to the next obstacle? That is, once you get rid of the asthma (which many medicine practices around the world say they can) you would get your eczema back.
Did I mention I got a very weird itchy rash that I thought might be fungus or something? Strange pattern on my whole body - I don't think so.
Maybe I was allergic to the herbs.
Maybe the homeopathic did something.
Maybe I'm psychotic. Well, that's a given. It's a prerequisite for any accredited school of medicine in the US because we're in a competition for who can be the least humane, but be inviting.
Since then, I've had some close calls, so I'm not cured yet!
