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Ipomoea alba
Year 2025, Issue 4, Article 7CaseAuthor: Jonathan Stallick
Case by Jonathan Stallick.Woman, 33 years old, anxiety and depression.She presents with anxiety, fatigue which can slip into depression, joint pain in hands, fungal toenail infection on left foot leading to eczema reaction. She says she has an inability to lose weight and a general feeling her body isn't functioning as well as it should be.
She is a guitarist and singer in a band. She presents as very friendly, chatty- phosphoric. Now she has a worry that she won’t be able to perform properly. Recently, she had a performance which was terrifying. She sat down and felt stuck there: “I must play these songs in front of people. Like a rabbit in the headlights”.
At 17 her appendix burst which led to peritonitis on a tour. On the flight back she thought she was dying. She felt very panicky: “Post surgery I had tremendous anxiety, I wasn’t present, I was dissociated from my body; I was like a shell.” Previously she had had a grumbling appendix intermittently. Symptoms were a pain under the diaphragm, pushing up causing her to bend double, worse from carbohydrates.
Afterwards she experienced the loss of a friend to peritonitis, an event that left her feeling "like a shell." In the aftermath, she found herself devoid of direction and joy, engulfed in shock. Amidst the pressures of preparing for her A-levels, she had a deep-seated fear of transitioning from the familiar environment of school. The unexpected news of her friend's death coincided with her scheduled music examination, further compounding her emotional turmoil. In an attempt to cope, the patient sought refuge in alcohol, describing this choice as a way to metaphorically "leave the building" and escape the overwhelming pain of her grief.
After the surgery, the patient experienced a profound loss of invincibility; she felt unexpectedly vulnerable. She had to manage a drip stand a drip stand and this marked a further loss of control over her body. This period was accompanied by intense fear of vomiting, which manifested as anxiety about potential incontinence in public settings. As a result, she found herself requiring the assurance of an aisle seat during outings, a mental strategy to mitigate her anxiety and regain a sense of security. She had a lot of antibiotics after surgery. In her childhood and teens there was the constant stress of not coming out as gay. But finally came out to her friends. She says: “I've known I was gay from as far back as I can remember”.
She has no guilt about being gay- just the anxiety of coming out. Although she was scared to come out as gay to parents, it has always been a relaxed subject. Her mother was upset, her father didn’t care. She felt like her mother didn’t know her very well: “she should have known! I felt disappointed with mum, that such a source of happiness for me was a sadness for mum and that I had to deal with it”. But she was close to her mum.
Her mother is a homeopath and has given her many remedies.There is a voice in her head, intrusive thoughts: “I should kill myself, impulsive, split up from my partner, give my dog away. I have to strip back to point zero, take off all my clothes, start a new journey” She has the impulse to get rid of the old stuff and go back to the beginning and try a different route.
She has too much responsibility. She craves childhood with no responsibility.
She says: “I am prone to feeling guilty; I don't have autonomy over myself any more.
She has intrusive thoughts about partner, like they shouldn’t be together: “I love my wife but she could be going on dates, it is like fighting a battle”.
She has anxiety: “Anxiety doesn’t feel like me, it is like a foreign presence, as if something is inhabiting me, I don’t want it to win”.
Dreams: a lot, vividly; spiders are the worst nightmare.; also giant squids, octopuses
Fears: pitch black darkness- insects, bugs, SPIDERS, HEIGHTS, claustrophobia, RAPE- since a child-ghosts, aliens, demons, snakes, INTRUDERS, will rape me- degrading and loss of control. Her toe nails have fungal infections: “It feels my body can’t shift stuff on its own”. she has eczema on her toes and itching blisters.
She has a history of using pleasure drugs- mushrooms and cocaine.GeneralsTemperature: “I don’t like summer, it makes me feel trapped, makes my body feel like prison, cold weather makes me feel more in my body”. Hot feet at night, but feel cold to everyone else.
Sweat: worse at night, she can wake wet; lot when exercising.
Desire: ICE CREAM, sweets; ALCOHOL, 2 cans of beer at 6 pm every day; refreshing, crunchy salads; chicory; cold, raw STEAK, McDonalds, salty, sticky, popcorn.AnalysisThe complexity and sensitivity of the case with family dynamics led to a plant remedy.
The psychological fears together with strong creativity made me think of Solanales.
But the unconventional mixture of wanting to be explore the world, take drugs, live life to the full yet with need for close relationship with mother leads to Convolvulaceae. Scholten originally had these as 3-665.76.00 but moved them to 3-665.47.00, which actually fits my patient better. This family also has peritonitis in its symptomatology.
Ipomoea alba has a big fear of spiders and is stage 8.
Stage 8 suited my patient who worked very hard, long exhausting tours with her band.
Presciption: 3-665.47.08, Ipomoea alba 1M.Follow upFour weeks later she is a lot calmer, settled, stronger. She can resist being overwhelmed. She lost weight without trying. She has no fatigue. In the last show she didn’t feel like rabbit in headlights.
Recently she needed a repeat of the remedy and continues to do well.
Agaricus helped with eczema on toes.
Argentum nitricum palliated her anxiety.
She is a guitarist and singer in a band. She presents as very friendly, chatty- phosphoric. Now she has a worry that she won’t be able to perform properly. Recently, she had a performance which was terrifying. She sat down and felt stuck there: “I must play these songs in front of people. Like a rabbit in the headlights”.
At 17 her appendix burst which led to peritonitis on a tour. On the flight back she thought she was dying. She felt very panicky: “Post surgery I had tremendous anxiety, I wasn’t present, I was dissociated from my body; I was like a shell.” Previously she had had a grumbling appendix intermittently. Symptoms were a pain under the diaphragm, pushing up causing her to bend double, worse from carbohydrates.
Afterwards she experienced the loss of a friend to peritonitis, an event that left her feeling "like a shell." In the aftermath, she found herself devoid of direction and joy, engulfed in shock. Amidst the pressures of preparing for her A-levels, she had a deep-seated fear of transitioning from the familiar environment of school. The unexpected news of her friend's death coincided with her scheduled music examination, further compounding her emotional turmoil. In an attempt to cope, the patient sought refuge in alcohol, describing this choice as a way to metaphorically "leave the building" and escape the overwhelming pain of her grief.
After the surgery, the patient experienced a profound loss of invincibility; she felt unexpectedly vulnerable. She had to manage a drip stand a drip stand and this marked a further loss of control over her body. This period was accompanied by intense fear of vomiting, which manifested as anxiety about potential incontinence in public settings. As a result, she found herself requiring the assurance of an aisle seat during outings, a mental strategy to mitigate her anxiety and regain a sense of security. She had a lot of antibiotics after surgery. In her childhood and teens there was the constant stress of not coming out as gay. But finally came out to her friends. She says: “I've known I was gay from as far back as I can remember”.
She has no guilt about being gay- just the anxiety of coming out. Although she was scared to come out as gay to parents, it has always been a relaxed subject. Her mother was upset, her father didn’t care. She felt like her mother didn’t know her very well: “she should have known! I felt disappointed with mum, that such a source of happiness for me was a sadness for mum and that I had to deal with it”. But she was close to her mum.
Her mother is a homeopath and has given her many remedies.There is a voice in her head, intrusive thoughts: “I should kill myself, impulsive, split up from my partner, give my dog away. I have to strip back to point zero, take off all my clothes, start a new journey” She has the impulse to get rid of the old stuff and go back to the beginning and try a different route.
She has too much responsibility. She craves childhood with no responsibility.
She says: “I am prone to feeling guilty; I don't have autonomy over myself any more.
She has intrusive thoughts about partner, like they shouldn’t be together: “I love my wife but she could be going on dates, it is like fighting a battle”.
She has anxiety: “Anxiety doesn’t feel like me, it is like a foreign presence, as if something is inhabiting me, I don’t want it to win”.
Dreams: a lot, vividly; spiders are the worst nightmare.; also giant squids, octopuses
Fears: pitch black darkness- insects, bugs, SPIDERS, HEIGHTS, claustrophobia, RAPE- since a child-ghosts, aliens, demons, snakes, INTRUDERS, will rape me- degrading and loss of control. Her toe nails have fungal infections: “It feels my body can’t shift stuff on its own”. she has eczema on her toes and itching blisters.
She has a history of using pleasure drugs- mushrooms and cocaine.GeneralsTemperature: “I don’t like summer, it makes me feel trapped, makes my body feel like prison, cold weather makes me feel more in my body”. Hot feet at night, but feel cold to everyone else.
Sweat: worse at night, she can wake wet; lot when exercising.
Desire: ICE CREAM, sweets; ALCOHOL, 2 cans of beer at 6 pm every day; refreshing, crunchy salads; chicory; cold, raw STEAK, McDonalds, salty, sticky, popcorn.AnalysisThe complexity and sensitivity of the case with family dynamics led to a plant remedy.
The psychological fears together with strong creativity made me think of Solanales.
But the unconventional mixture of wanting to be explore the world, take drugs, live life to the full yet with need for close relationship with mother leads to Convolvulaceae. Scholten originally had these as 3-665.76.00 but moved them to 3-665.47.00, which actually fits my patient better. This family also has peritonitis in its symptomatology.
Ipomoea alba has a big fear of spiders and is stage 8.
Stage 8 suited my patient who worked very hard, long exhausting tours with her band.
Presciption: 3-665.47.08, Ipomoea alba 1M.Follow upFour weeks later she is a lot calmer, settled, stronger. She can resist being overwhelmed. She lost weight without trying. She has no fatigue. In the last show she didn’t feel like rabbit in headlights.
Recently she needed a repeat of the remedy and continues to do well.
Agaricus helped with eczema on toes.
Argentum nitricum palliated her anxiety.