Lithium carbonicum [Lith-c]:
- Jan Scholten
Lithium carbonicum is the only one of the Lithium remedies that most people have at least heard of.
Concepts
Lithium Carbonicum
Changeable Value Meaning
Impulsive Naive Self-worth Worthy
Manic depressive Unstable Shy
Useless Hyper emotional
Weak willed Ordinary
Unthinking Rigid
Easily influenced Worker
Childish Father
God
Group Analysis
Changing thoughts about self-worth.
Doubts about self-worth.
Feeling useless.
Doing anything to determine self-worth.
Changing values on an impulse.
Unthinking action.
Changeable workers.
A changeable father.
A manic depressive father.
Changing fathers.
Being a changeable father.
Weak willed and shy.
Picture of Lithium carbonicum
Essence: changing feelings of self-worth.
Changing feelings of self-worth
They don't know what they are worth. One moment they may be most enthusiastic about themselves and the next moment they feel they are useless. Their enthusiasm about the world and themselves can change from one minute to the next. They don't really know what they are worth, so when a thought enters their mind they can be totally swept away by it because they have nothing to judge it by.
In their imagination they will have seen themselves performing the most fanatics tasks to prove what they are worth, but in practice it turns out not to be a lot more difficult. So when they don't immediately succeed in making their plans come true, their enthusiasm turns to feelings of failure and despair. They think the fact that they can't immediately turn their ideas into reality proves how weak and useless they really are.
Feeling useless
Eventually this feeling of being useless will start to predominate. They will feel continuously put down and unappreciated. They are afraid of criticism, afraid to fail and they feel that they are being watched and their performance is below par.
The result is that they feel they don't deserve a place on this earth anymore. They withdraw because they don't count anyway.
Changing values
They need to have security and preset values, to know what is what. They have no desire to venture out into unknown territory, it would only bring confusion. And confusion would trigger their feelings of insecurity and instability.
Changing values on an impulse They may also change their values on an impulse. Suddenly they change their mind about what is good and bad. One moment they support one particular religion or political part, the next moment they sing the praises of a completely different or opposite movement.
Unthinking action
They are very impulsive in their actions. In their work they'll suddenly do something completely unexpected. An idea enters their head and they immediately think that this is IT.
This will prove how brilliant they are! But they don't think it through and when it appears to be not quite such a good move after all, they'll collapse into lethargy or feelings of uselessness again.
Changeable worker
Their work suffers from this changeability too. Its either all or nothing. One moment they'll be intensely hurried and industrious, the next moment they are tired and everything comes to a halt. They start something with much enthusiasm, but after three or four times they are bored and lose interest. At the start they thought they could manage this perfectly, no problems, but when it proves to need a bit more than a couple of hours of work, they immediately feel they have failed.
Weak willed and shy
They are extremely shy. This is made worse by their feeling of weakness and helplessness. They are lonely, indecisive and insecure. They need a strong father figure to guide them through life and advise them what to do. Someone who will tell them what things are worth, what is good and bad. This state can also alternate with a state of intense activity, even manic behaviour.They feel confused, especially when standing (Zandvoort 1994, page 69), when they have to stand on their own two feet.
A changeable father
This state can also be cause by a very changeable father, a father who brings no stability whatsoever to his family. For instance a father who has extreme mood swings, who approves of everything one minute and who criticises everything the next. Or a father who is changeable in his undertakings, starting something with much enthusiasm and then dropping it just like that. This will give the child no feeling of stability, nothing to hold on to. One dream that typifies this situation is a dream wherein one half of the parental home was swept away.
A manic depressive father
An extreme variation on this theme would be where the child has a manic depressive father. Al his emotional outburst make the child totally insecure. On top of that this father will often be away from home because of frequent spells in a psychiatric hospital.
Changing fathers
We could also have the situation of many different fathers. The child does not get the chance to develop a steady relationship with one person who can show him the way, who can offer him a suitable set of values to support him in life. Every father will bring his own set of values and the child will feel tossed around these ever changing opinions.
Changeable as a father
When they become a father themselves they may turn out equally changeable. The are not up to the responsibility of being a father, because they don't know what values to give to their child. They don't know how to put across what is good and what is bad. So they tend to withdraw as a father and perhaps get involved in another relationship and have children with another woman. Then the whole process repeats itself, because they wont know how to handle it this time either. And so it goes
on.
Expressions
Fear: vague (2!), unknown (!), life, strangers, future, travelling, flying, crowds, streets, failure, disease, operations, death, cancer.
Irritation: overassertive, aggressive, self mutilation, accusing.
Mood: restless, excited, impulsive (!), manic, unstable, hysterical, timid, unsure, helpless, crying (<)night, discouraged, indecisive, (>) support, lonely, listless, meaningless, gloomy, despair, suicidal.
Mental: assocative, confused (<)standing, symbolic, obsessive, worrying about trifles, slow, fixed ideas, collecting things without coordination, problems orientating, lack of concentration, forgetful, dementia, disassociating, psychosis, manic depressive psychosis (!), crying (<)(<)alone. Religious: magic, obsessive. Causes: neglect, abuse, violence, incest, parents absent, addicted or weak, loss of parents and protectors. Generals Type: overweight, big body and small legs, top heavy, unstable. Locality: right sided. Weather: feels cold, (>) heat, (<) cold, (<) damp. Perspiration: feet. Time: (<) 7 pm, (<) night. Desires: drinks, coffee, tobacco, sweet, ordinary food. Aversion: exotic, strange recipes. Food: (<) fruit, chocolate, alcohol, coffee. Menses: absent, infrequent. Sleep: sleepless. Physical: (<) light, (<) standing, (<) stooping, rest: (<) exertion, climbing stairs;(<) motion (2), (>) motion.
Complaints
Headache above the right eye.
Headache in occiput.
Vertical hemiopia (!).
Inflammation of ears. Otosclerosis. Deafness (>) noise (noise loosens the rigidity).
Trembling hands, muscular jerking at night.
Hyperthyroidism, goitre.
Sighing.
Cardiovascular diseases (3).
Nausea, vomiting, stomach pains (>) eating.
Diarrhoea, (<) fruit, (<) chocolate, (<) night. Kidney problems (3), stones in kidneys, or urethra (3), uremia, frequent and copious urination. Problems with bones: weakness, osteoporosis, fractures. Pain at insertion point of pectoralis major; pain in middle finger; pain in right hip and thigh, radiating to little toe. Acne, psoriasis, itching, hairloss, increased secretion of sebaceous glands. DD: Carbon series, stage 1, 10 and 16, Aceticums, Muriaticums, Carlsbad, Titanium, Vanadium. Case A 30 year old woman suffers from migraines. It starts with tension and pain in the neck, radiating to the corner of her right eye. It is a stitching type of pain. Before it starts she feels very tired. The pain is worse at menses (3), light (2), stooping (2), coughing, damp and warm damp weather (2), sauna (3), ice-cream, lying in late, alcohol (2), relaxing in the weekend, ergotamine. Amelioration from: rest, lying still, pressure, kneading, motion, cold applications, lying on the right side with the head turned to the left, urination, aspirin. Concomitant symptoms: cold hands and feet, pale face, sometimes nausea and vomiting, sometimes dizzy, feeling dejected and tired, aversion to company. At one time she saw many white spots and lost the right side of her vision in both eyes. The headaches are often caused by tension, like quarrels, exams, having people to dinner, meeting new people. The migraines started when she started her practicals for her Cesar therapy studies, this was too much for her because of having to make contact with so many people. She says her life goes from one extreme to the other, either she rushes around working very hard, or she feels incredibly tired. She starts something with great enthusiasm, but after three of four times she loses interest. This is because she feels she isn't doing well enough. She takes things too seriously, everything has to be perfect the first time, otherwise she loses interest. She is too restless to work her way through many trials and errors, she hasn't got the discipline to see something through. She expects a lot of herself in order to prove what she is worth. But her self image doesn't fit the reality. She also has certain obsessive traits, like having to check the locks on the doors or checking and rechecking the accounts. She is quite pessimistic and spends much time worrying about things. She needs security and hates adventures. She feels there is no place for her in society so she withdraws from other people. She is afraid of being criticised or rejected or punished. She can't bear to work with someone in the same room, because she will constantly feel as if she is being watched. She is afraid of the future, afraid of getting ill and not being able to manage. Afraid of getting mad from all that worrying. She doesn't express her anger, unless it has really come to a head. She is mostly very shy, alternated with extrovert behaviour. She always used to play the clown if things got too much. So people thought that you didn't have to take much notice of her. Her mother sent her to ballet lessons because she was too fat. Then she almost stopped eating for a while which caused her menses to stop. She has been living with her boyfriend for ten years but the relationship isn't very all that happy. They find it difficult to talk to each other and to share their problems. The relationship with her mother isn't very good either. She feels her mother doesn't appreciate her at all. When she was a child her mother thought her too boyish and boisterous. She felt as if she could never do anything right. She dreamt that she quarrelled with her mother because she had achieved something and her mother denied it. She thinks her father feels guilty because she isn't very happy. Her father used to swing between extremes too, just like her, it was always all or nothing. He would start a new hobby or a new project with tremendous enthusiasm and a few weeks later it had petered out completely. She feels restless and hurried, she can't sit still. She dreams that half of her parents house has been swept away. She often suffers from colds with sore throats, pain above the collarbones and a rough voice. Even as a child she used to suffer from headaches. Generals Weather: cold, cold feet; (<) cold; (<) warm, damp weather; in childhood fear for thunderstorms. Perspiration: copious, especially in summer. Time: (<) 3 pm, (<) from 8 pm; (<) April and May. Desires: fish (3), farinaceous (2), sweet (2), chocolate (2), vegetables, egg, cheese. Aversion: fat (2), pork chops (2), meat, potatoes. Food: alcohol (2), coffee, fat. Menses: every 5 weeks; in the past no menses; every other menstrual period cramping pain in uterus radiating to thighs and calves. Depressed, tearful and heavy feeling before menses. Sleep: sometimes difficult from worrying; sleeps on right side. Analysis The vertical hemiopia on the right side is a typical Lithium carbonicum symptom. On the strength of this symptom, and because I couldn't think of anything else, I prescribed Lithium carbonicum, although I didn't have much to go on. Great was my surprise when it proved to work and I learned a lot about the remedy from this case. it wasn't until after she had taken the remedy that she told me the story about her father (carbonicum) and his all or nothing behaviour (Lithium). This alternation in mood made me think of the use of Lithium in psychiatric patients with manic depressive psychoses. This gradually enabled me to build up the Lithium picture. Later on I recognised some other beautiful Lithium symptoms in this case: (<) tension, (<) new people, hurriedness alternating with tiredness, enthusiasm alternating with disinterest, feeling she has failed, restlessness, no discipline, lack of self-worth, obsessive, controlling, gloomy, (>) security, (<) adventure, no place for her, fear of the future, disease, becoming mad, shyness alternating with extrovert behaviour, menses absent, her father feels guilty, dream that half her parental home has been swept away.
Reaction After Lithium carbonicum 1M she gradually starts to improve. The headache gets worse at first, but afterwards it gets better. She is mentally much stronger, more positive, doesn't get overwhelmed anymore. She is able to express her anger, or rather: she can no longer hold it in. She doesn't want to beat around the bush anymore in her relationship with her boyfriend. She is not so fixed on her goals anymore, less obsessed by the future, more content to stay with what is happening now. She no longer has to cling to securities so tightly.
Lithium carbonicum is the only one of the Lithium remedies that most people have at least heard of.
Concepts
Lithium Carbonicum
Changeable Value Meaning
Impulsive Naive Self-worth Worthy
Manic depressive Unstable Shy
Useless Hyper emotional
Weak willed Ordinary
Unthinking Rigid
Easily influenced Worker
Childish Father
God
Group Analysis
Changing thoughts about self-worth.
Doubts about self-worth.
Feeling useless.
Doing anything to determine self-worth.
Changing values on an impulse.
Unthinking action.
Changeable workers.
A changeable father.
A manic depressive father.
Changing fathers.
Being a changeable father.
Weak willed and shy.
Picture of Lithium carbonicum
Essence: changing feelings of self-worth.
Changing feelings of self-worth
They don't know what they are worth. One moment they may be most enthusiastic about themselves and the next moment they feel they are useless. Their enthusiasm about the world and themselves can change from one minute to the next. They don't really know what they are worth, so when a thought enters their mind they can be totally swept away by it because they have nothing to judge it by.
In their imagination they will have seen themselves performing the most fanatics tasks to prove what they are worth, but in practice it turns out not to be a lot more difficult. So when they don't immediately succeed in making their plans come true, their enthusiasm turns to feelings of failure and despair. They think the fact that they can't immediately turn their ideas into reality proves how weak and useless they really are.
Feeling useless
Eventually this feeling of being useless will start to predominate. They will feel continuously put down and unappreciated. They are afraid of criticism, afraid to fail and they feel that they are being watched and their performance is below par.
The result is that they feel they don't deserve a place on this earth anymore. They withdraw because they don't count anyway.
Changing values
They need to have security and preset values, to know what is what. They have no desire to venture out into unknown territory, it would only bring confusion. And confusion would trigger their feelings of insecurity and instability.
Changing values on an impulse They may also change their values on an impulse. Suddenly they change their mind about what is good and bad. One moment they support one particular religion or political part, the next moment they sing the praises of a completely different or opposite movement.
Unthinking action
They are very impulsive in their actions. In their work they'll suddenly do something completely unexpected. An idea enters their head and they immediately think that this is IT.
This will prove how brilliant they are! But they don't think it through and when it appears to be not quite such a good move after all, they'll collapse into lethargy or feelings of uselessness again.
Changeable worker
Their work suffers from this changeability too. Its either all or nothing. One moment they'll be intensely hurried and industrious, the next moment they are tired and everything comes to a halt. They start something with much enthusiasm, but after three or four times they are bored and lose interest. At the start they thought they could manage this perfectly, no problems, but when it proves to need a bit more than a couple of hours of work, they immediately feel they have failed.
Weak willed and shy
They are extremely shy. This is made worse by their feeling of weakness and helplessness. They are lonely, indecisive and insecure. They need a strong father figure to guide them through life and advise them what to do. Someone who will tell them what things are worth, what is good and bad. This state can also alternate with a state of intense activity, even manic behaviour.They feel confused, especially when standing (Zandvoort 1994, page 69), when they have to stand on their own two feet.
A changeable father
This state can also be cause by a very changeable father, a father who brings no stability whatsoever to his family. For instance a father who has extreme mood swings, who approves of everything one minute and who criticises everything the next. Or a father who is changeable in his undertakings, starting something with much enthusiasm and then dropping it just like that. This will give the child no feeling of stability, nothing to hold on to. One dream that typifies this situation is a dream wherein one half of the parental home was swept away.
A manic depressive father
An extreme variation on this theme would be where the child has a manic depressive father. Al his emotional outburst make the child totally insecure. On top of that this father will often be away from home because of frequent spells in a psychiatric hospital.
Changing fathers
We could also have the situation of many different fathers. The child does not get the chance to develop a steady relationship with one person who can show him the way, who can offer him a suitable set of values to support him in life. Every father will bring his own set of values and the child will feel tossed around these ever changing opinions.
Changeable as a father
When they become a father themselves they may turn out equally changeable. The are not up to the responsibility of being a father, because they don't know what values to give to their child. They don't know how to put across what is good and what is bad. So they tend to withdraw as a father and perhaps get involved in another relationship and have children with another woman. Then the whole process repeats itself, because they wont know how to handle it this time either. And so it goes
on.
Expressions
Fear: vague (2!), unknown (!), life, strangers, future, travelling, flying, crowds, streets, failure, disease, operations, death, cancer.
Irritation: overassertive, aggressive, self mutilation, accusing.
Mood: restless, excited, impulsive (!), manic, unstable, hysterical, timid, unsure, helpless, crying (<)night, discouraged, indecisive, (>) support, lonely, listless, meaningless, gloomy, despair, suicidal.
Mental: assocative, confused (<)standing, symbolic, obsessive, worrying about trifles, slow, fixed ideas, collecting things without coordination, problems orientating, lack of concentration, forgetful, dementia, disassociating, psychosis, manic depressive psychosis (!), crying (<)(<)alone. Religious: magic, obsessive. Causes: neglect, abuse, violence, incest, parents absent, addicted or weak, loss of parents and protectors. Generals Type: overweight, big body and small legs, top heavy, unstable. Locality: right sided. Weather: feels cold, (>) heat, (<) cold, (<) damp. Perspiration: feet. Time: (<) 7 pm, (<) night. Desires: drinks, coffee, tobacco, sweet, ordinary food. Aversion: exotic, strange recipes. Food: (<) fruit, chocolate, alcohol, coffee. Menses: absent, infrequent. Sleep: sleepless. Physical: (<) light, (<) standing, (<) stooping, rest: (<) exertion, climbing stairs;(<) motion (2), (>) motion.
Complaints
Headache above the right eye.
Headache in occiput.
Vertical hemiopia (!).
Inflammation of ears. Otosclerosis. Deafness (>) noise (noise loosens the rigidity).
Trembling hands, muscular jerking at night.
Hyperthyroidism, goitre.
Sighing.
Cardiovascular diseases (3).
Nausea, vomiting, stomach pains (>) eating.
Diarrhoea, (<) fruit, (<) chocolate, (<) night. Kidney problems (3), stones in kidneys, or urethra (3), uremia, frequent and copious urination. Problems with bones: weakness, osteoporosis, fractures. Pain at insertion point of pectoralis major; pain in middle finger; pain in right hip and thigh, radiating to little toe. Acne, psoriasis, itching, hairloss, increased secretion of sebaceous glands. DD: Carbon series, stage 1, 10 and 16, Aceticums, Muriaticums, Carlsbad, Titanium, Vanadium. Case A 30 year old woman suffers from migraines. It starts with tension and pain in the neck, radiating to the corner of her right eye. It is a stitching type of pain. Before it starts she feels very tired. The pain is worse at menses (3), light (2), stooping (2), coughing, damp and warm damp weather (2), sauna (3), ice-cream, lying in late, alcohol (2), relaxing in the weekend, ergotamine. Amelioration from: rest, lying still, pressure, kneading, motion, cold applications, lying on the right side with the head turned to the left, urination, aspirin. Concomitant symptoms: cold hands and feet, pale face, sometimes nausea and vomiting, sometimes dizzy, feeling dejected and tired, aversion to company. At one time she saw many white spots and lost the right side of her vision in both eyes. The headaches are often caused by tension, like quarrels, exams, having people to dinner, meeting new people. The migraines started when she started her practicals for her Cesar therapy studies, this was too much for her because of having to make contact with so many people. She says her life goes from one extreme to the other, either she rushes around working very hard, or she feels incredibly tired. She starts something with great enthusiasm, but after three of four times she loses interest. This is because she feels she isn't doing well enough. She takes things too seriously, everything has to be perfect the first time, otherwise she loses interest. She is too restless to work her way through many trials and errors, she hasn't got the discipline to see something through. She expects a lot of herself in order to prove what she is worth. But her self image doesn't fit the reality. She also has certain obsessive traits, like having to check the locks on the doors or checking and rechecking the accounts. She is quite pessimistic and spends much time worrying about things. She needs security and hates adventures. She feels there is no place for her in society so she withdraws from other people. She is afraid of being criticised or rejected or punished. She can't bear to work with someone in the same room, because she will constantly feel as if she is being watched. She is afraid of the future, afraid of getting ill and not being able to manage. Afraid of getting mad from all that worrying. She doesn't express her anger, unless it has really come to a head. She is mostly very shy, alternated with extrovert behaviour. She always used to play the clown if things got too much. So people thought that you didn't have to take much notice of her. Her mother sent her to ballet lessons because she was too fat. Then she almost stopped eating for a while which caused her menses to stop. She has been living with her boyfriend for ten years but the relationship isn't very all that happy. They find it difficult to talk to each other and to share their problems. The relationship with her mother isn't very good either. She feels her mother doesn't appreciate her at all. When she was a child her mother thought her too boyish and boisterous. She felt as if she could never do anything right. She dreamt that she quarrelled with her mother because she had achieved something and her mother denied it. She thinks her father feels guilty because she isn't very happy. Her father used to swing between extremes too, just like her, it was always all or nothing. He would start a new hobby or a new project with tremendous enthusiasm and a few weeks later it had petered out completely. She feels restless and hurried, she can't sit still. She dreams that half of her parents house has been swept away. She often suffers from colds with sore throats, pain above the collarbones and a rough voice. Even as a child she used to suffer from headaches. Generals Weather: cold, cold feet; (<) cold; (<) warm, damp weather; in childhood fear for thunderstorms. Perspiration: copious, especially in summer. Time: (<) 3 pm, (<) from 8 pm; (<) April and May. Desires: fish (3), farinaceous (2), sweet (2), chocolate (2), vegetables, egg, cheese. Aversion: fat (2), pork chops (2), meat, potatoes. Food: alcohol (2), coffee, fat. Menses: every 5 weeks; in the past no menses; every other menstrual period cramping pain in uterus radiating to thighs and calves. Depressed, tearful and heavy feeling before menses. Sleep: sometimes difficult from worrying; sleeps on right side. Analysis The vertical hemiopia on the right side is a typical Lithium carbonicum symptom. On the strength of this symptom, and because I couldn't think of anything else, I prescribed Lithium carbonicum, although I didn't have much to go on. Great was my surprise when it proved to work and I learned a lot about the remedy from this case. it wasn't until after she had taken the remedy that she told me the story about her father (carbonicum) and his all or nothing behaviour (Lithium). This alternation in mood made me think of the use of Lithium in psychiatric patients with manic depressive psychoses. This gradually enabled me to build up the Lithium picture. Later on I recognised some other beautiful Lithium symptoms in this case: (<) tension, (<) new people, hurriedness alternating with tiredness, enthusiasm alternating with disinterest, feeling she has failed, restlessness, no discipline, lack of self-worth, obsessive, controlling, gloomy, (>) security, (<) adventure, no place for her, fear of the future, disease, becoming mad, shyness alternating with extrovert behaviour, menses absent, her father feels guilty, dream that half her parental home has been swept away.
Reaction After Lithium carbonicum 1M she gradually starts to improve. The headache gets worse at first, but afterwards it gets better. She is mentally much stronger, more positive, doesn't get overwhelmed anymore. She is able to express her anger, or rather: she can no longer hold it in. She doesn't want to beat around the bush anymore in her relationship with her boyfriend. She is not so fixed on her goals anymore, less obsessed by the future, more content to stay with what is happening now. She no longer has to cling to securities so tightly.
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