"Who needs cake, when you can lie in chocolate" - Chocolate
- S. Taffler
[Sigh]. "Breathing through my nose makes me panic so I always breathe through my mouth. Since childhood I've had lazy bowels. I'm constipated with very erratic stools. They are very large. The skin of my anus tears and I bleed. There is spotting on the loo paper. I'm anxious about myself, my future health.
"Also, I'm always nasal in the mornings. With a runny nose, lots of watery catarrh and it all goes down my throat and can give me nausea.
"Fifteen years of tension in my neck with headaches and migraines-often with pressure behind my ears and eyes. It's a kind of heated pressure that can stay for days. Since then too, I've erratic energy levels. I get very tired during the day or I'm very speedy.
"I've been overweight for about twelve years, eating out of boredom and frustration. Gets worse when I'm depressed. In fact I eat constantly. It's comfort eating really.
"I was very, very overweight till I was twelve then I lost lots of weight after they took my appendix out. Then my periods began; they were very heavy. I had lots of pain. I would curl up in bed into a tight ball. They put me on the pill when I was twelve. Since then I have light periods lasting two days, it's great. Also when I was thirteen I had a positive BCG test. They sent me for lots of chest x-rays but nothing came of it.
"I don't remember any childhood ills except chronic nosebleeds. Also, when I was nineteen I had bad ulcers of the eyes from wearing unclean contact lenses.
"Last year I had a termination. I didn't want it. It had nothing to do with him. I just don't want kids. I want to explore my creativity and put all my energy into that.
"I suppose I deal with shock and emotions by eating erratically. I pick all the time. My meal times fluctuate. Sometimes I have nothing or chocolate. I crave chocolate. The chocolate helps my anxiety attacks. My heart beats loudly and I sweat a lot especially at nighttime. I get tense and panic in my stomach. It bloats out and I have a lot of gas.
"I sometimes wonder if my anxiety and depression comes from being on the pill. It's been fifteen years now. I go up and down like a yo-yo and get depressed before my period. I bloat out worse then get headaches with tender breasts. Eating helps me then too. It certainly helps my anxieties and feelings of depression.
"I'm either busy, frantic, doing, trying to get projects together or half dead, depressed, apathetic, irritable and want to be alone. Either hot or cold. I'm not consistent."
Rx: Phosphorus 200C
Follow up 2 months later
"My bowels are more regular. I've more energy and I'm not nearly as bad tempered.
"After the remedy I had a white vaginal discharge. Not like the thrush I used to get because it was not itchy. I had my first and only headache with a nosebleed. Since then I've had no headaches, cystitis or thrush. My periods have been lighter with no bloating. My shoulders are a lot looser.
"My energy is good so I'm here because of my jaw. I was flying and got a sharp pain in my right ear. The pain seemed to go into my neck. It was difficult to hear and breathe. A kind of anxiety attack, the first I've had for ages. I yawned and dislocated my jaw on the right side. I went to the doctor who pushed it back in, but it's still sore and puffy."
Rx: Phosphorus 200C
Follow up after several repeats of Phosphorus over 2 years "I've started to feel dissatisfied again. The remedy seems to keep wearing off. I've been taking it whenever I've felt the need. "I'm not sleeping. There's a lot of tension and anxiety in my neck. My boyfriend's derogatory, belittling, undermining. It's all very hard. I want to end the relationship, but I care about him. I realise the situation is doing damage to me. He treats me like his mother. He's childish sometimes and I want to kick him out of the house. The situation stresses me out.
"I run around trying to please anything and everyone else before me. It makes me angry. I can't say no. Spend my time running around achieving nothing. I don't feel fulfilled. I'm frightened by how angry I feel. I eat all the time or I sleep. I don't feel satisfied by eating. I've become fat and lethargic. I feel very negative about everything. There's nothing I can do. I'm unable to change things.
"I feel like a responsible parent. I'm losing friends and family. I've fallen out with them. It's very important for me. "I'm frightened of everything. I feel frightened all the time. I've isolated myself. I can't lean on my mother as she's leaning on me and I've no partner really. I'm very constipated, craving chocolate again.
"Hot chocolate helps the stress. I feel stress. I'm always rushing, frantic, frustrated, anxious. Always traveling. There's not time to spend doing what I want to do. I always feel I've never achieved anything. I feel bullied.
"I'm always pleasing others and not myself, and in the end I'm not pleasing them either. I don't let myself enjoy things. When I do have time I waste it. Then I am frantic the next day, with millions of things to do. I use food for pleasure or punishment. Either excess or deprivation. I'm constipated again and not urinating despite drinking a lot. I've sharp pains with every bowel movement."
Rx: Chocolate 200C
Follow up three months later
"I've got this chocolate bubble bath. It's absolutely fabulous. Who needs cakes when you can lie in chocolate. I've got anxiety attacks again. I shake. I was doing great, was on a more even keel for a long time. Now I feel I'm on the self-destruct button again.
"I split with my boyfriend. We were living together. Initially, I was pleased and relieved when he left. Then I was upset. He became stupid and childish, so I kicked him out. I turned my back on him. I'm angry my friends have abandoned me.
"Diets feel like I'm punishing myself. They take all the treats away-bread , cheese, pasta, chocolate.
"I feel I'm small. A ball. But physically I'm big.
"I'm all booked up with projects. They are like children I can't face in the morning. I cannot get out of bed for them. My confidence has dropped.
"I'm mucusy again in the mornings. Almost sick from the mucus in my nose. Lumps of thick stuff in the throat, it chokes me. I'm constipated with the stress and I've got bad breath."
Rx: Chocolate 200C
Follow up two months later
"I was much better after the last remedy. I became more on an even keel. I felt less hopeless, with daily bowel movements. My breath became much better. I lost some weight. I wake at seven, doze till nine and then force myself to uncurl and get out of bed.
"Generally, mentally a lot better. I feel more positive. After last visit, I'm not depressed. Coping much better.
"I'm feeling tired again and still mucusy in the mornings. I feel I've got a self-destruct button.
"I'm better with friends, but I feel alone at times. I feel that people are waiting for me to fail and fall.
"I feel as if I'm an orphan. I don't want to and can't see my mother.
"Generally I hate perfume. At the airport I was drawn to try one they were spraying around. "I asked what is in it?" The sales girl said, "You'll be embarrassed...it has chocolate in it."
Rx: Chocolate 200C
Discussion
This patient did well on Phosphorus for over two and a half years. However, she kept relapsing indicating that another remedy was required. I could not find one until the Dynamis School proved Chocolate. Since the prescription discussed above, the patient has continued to do well, self-prescribing Chocolate twice over five years.
Remark
At the time of the first prescription of Chocolate, the remedy was not in the repertory and so I based my decision on the proving. This case not only illustrates a relationship between Phosphorus and Chocolate, but also clearly presents the basic themes of Chocolate.
A primary theme in Chocolate is one of nurture and nurturing in the context of a tension between civilized natures and animal instincts. As Jeremy Sherr writes in The Homoeopathic Proving of Chocolate, "In modern human civilisation the process of raising the young has been stretched beyond its natural boundaries. . . This evolution appears to be in contrast to our animal instinct of expelling the young as soon as they can fend for themselves." Provers felt fearful about their children's well-being or, conversely, unsympathetic.
This patient has all sorts of nurturing issues. Eating constantly for comfort, she is never satisfied and has become overweight. She craves chocolate, which alleviates her anxiety. Food is referred to in terms of excess or deprivation, pleasure or punishment. At the age of twenty-seven she says she wants to "lean on my mother," but cannot because her mother is "leaning on me." Feeling a poor relationship with her mother, the primary source of nurturing, the patient feels as if she is an orphan. On the other hand, "feeling the responsible parent" she wants to "kick" her "childish" boyfriend out of the house and "turn her back on him." She characterizes her work projects as being "like children I can't face in the morning." Averse to children, she chooses to terminate her pregnancy.
In the proving, the animal instinct was represented by the delusion of being a hedgehog, a mammal which when frightened curls up in a small, but prickly ball. The hedgehog also turns her back on her young when they have been weaned and pushes them out of the nest. Provers expressed feelings of having animal natures or behaviours and talked about "curling up", in the same language used by the patient. The patient also expresses the feeling that she is small, "a ball," while in reality she is physically large.
Another prominent theme is a sense of isolation. Cut off from their source of nourishment, provers felt rejected, isolated, estranged, frightened and vulnerable. Conversely, they were indifferent to loved ones and averse to company. Chocolate lovers often talked about indulging in chocolate when feeling lonely or after love disappointments.
Excess and deprivation are reflected in the moods and activity of the provers, "extremes of activity alternating with lethargy... tense, wired-up, running around, then worn out and collapsing with exhaustion." The patient alternates between being "depressed and apathetic...or busy, frantic, doing, trying to get projects together." As with the provers, this patient desires to travel.
Physical symptoms in the Chocolate proving included menstrual and premenstrual problems; migraine headaches; tension and pain in neck, jaw and ear; thick nasal catarrh; abdominal distention, flatulence and constipation and desire or aversion to chocolate.
Full proving information is available in The Homoeopathic Proving of Chocolate, The Dynamis School, Malvern, U.K. , 1994.
Simon Taffler is currently completing a PhD, researching the education of homoeopaths. He is a graduate of The School of Homoeopathy, Devon and The Dynamis School and practices and teaches in New York and London
Case
Female aged 27
"Also, I'm always nasal in the mornings. With a runny nose, lots of watery catarrh and it all goes down my throat and can give me nausea.
"Fifteen years of tension in my neck with headaches and migraines-often with pressure behind my ears and eyes. It's a kind of heated pressure that can stay for days. Since then too, I've erratic energy levels. I get very tired during the day or I'm very speedy.
"I've been overweight for about twelve years, eating out of boredom and frustration. Gets worse when I'm depressed. In fact I eat constantly. It's comfort eating really.
"I was very, very overweight till I was twelve then I lost lots of weight after they took my appendix out. Then my periods began; they were very heavy. I had lots of pain. I would curl up in bed into a tight ball. They put me on the pill when I was twelve. Since then I have light periods lasting two days, it's great. Also when I was thirteen I had a positive BCG test. They sent me for lots of chest x-rays but nothing came of it.
"I don't remember any childhood ills except chronic nosebleeds. Also, when I was nineteen I had bad ulcers of the eyes from wearing unclean contact lenses.
"Last year I had a termination. I didn't want it. It had nothing to do with him. I just don't want kids. I want to explore my creativity and put all my energy into that.
"I suppose I deal with shock and emotions by eating erratically. I pick all the time. My meal times fluctuate. Sometimes I have nothing or chocolate. I crave chocolate. The chocolate helps my anxiety attacks. My heart beats loudly and I sweat a lot especially at nighttime. I get tense and panic in my stomach. It bloats out and I have a lot of gas.
"I sometimes wonder if my anxiety and depression comes from being on the pill. It's been fifteen years now. I go up and down like a yo-yo and get depressed before my period. I bloat out worse then get headaches with tender breasts. Eating helps me then too. It certainly helps my anxieties and feelings of depression.
"I'm either busy, frantic, doing, trying to get projects together or half dead, depressed, apathetic, irritable and want to be alone. Either hot or cold. I'm not consistent."
Rx: Phosphorus 200C
Follow up 2 months later
"My bowels are more regular. I've more energy and I'm not nearly as bad tempered.
"After the remedy I had a white vaginal discharge. Not like the thrush I used to get because it was not itchy. I had my first and only headache with a nosebleed. Since then I've had no headaches, cystitis or thrush. My periods have been lighter with no bloating. My shoulders are a lot looser.
"My energy is good so I'm here because of my jaw. I was flying and got a sharp pain in my right ear. The pain seemed to go into my neck. It was difficult to hear and breathe. A kind of anxiety attack, the first I've had for ages. I yawned and dislocated my jaw on the right side. I went to the doctor who pushed it back in, but it's still sore and puffy."
Rx: Phosphorus 200C
Follow up after several repeats of Phosphorus over 2 years "I've started to feel dissatisfied again. The remedy seems to keep wearing off. I've been taking it whenever I've felt the need. "I'm not sleeping. There's a lot of tension and anxiety in my neck. My boyfriend's derogatory, belittling, undermining. It's all very hard. I want to end the relationship, but I care about him. I realise the situation is doing damage to me. He treats me like his mother. He's childish sometimes and I want to kick him out of the house. The situation stresses me out.
"I run around trying to please anything and everyone else before me. It makes me angry. I can't say no. Spend my time running around achieving nothing. I don't feel fulfilled. I'm frightened by how angry I feel. I eat all the time or I sleep. I don't feel satisfied by eating. I've become fat and lethargic. I feel very negative about everything. There's nothing I can do. I'm unable to change things.
"I feel like a responsible parent. I'm losing friends and family. I've fallen out with them. It's very important for me. "I'm frightened of everything. I feel frightened all the time. I've isolated myself. I can't lean on my mother as she's leaning on me and I've no partner really. I'm very constipated, craving chocolate again.
"Hot chocolate helps the stress. I feel stress. I'm always rushing, frantic, frustrated, anxious. Always traveling. There's not time to spend doing what I want to do. I always feel I've never achieved anything. I feel bullied.
"I'm always pleasing others and not myself, and in the end I'm not pleasing them either. I don't let myself enjoy things. When I do have time I waste it. Then I am frantic the next day, with millions of things to do. I use food for pleasure or punishment. Either excess or deprivation. I'm constipated again and not urinating despite drinking a lot. I've sharp pains with every bowel movement."
Rx: Chocolate 200C
Follow up three months later
"I've got this chocolate bubble bath. It's absolutely fabulous. Who needs cakes when you can lie in chocolate. I've got anxiety attacks again. I shake. I was doing great, was on a more even keel for a long time. Now I feel I'm on the self-destruct button again.
"I split with my boyfriend. We were living together. Initially, I was pleased and relieved when he left. Then I was upset. He became stupid and childish, so I kicked him out. I turned my back on him. I'm angry my friends have abandoned me.
"Diets feel like I'm punishing myself. They take all the treats away-bread , cheese, pasta, chocolate.
"I feel I'm small. A ball. But physically I'm big.
"I'm all booked up with projects. They are like children I can't face in the morning. I cannot get out of bed for them. My confidence has dropped.
"I'm mucusy again in the mornings. Almost sick from the mucus in my nose. Lumps of thick stuff in the throat, it chokes me. I'm constipated with the stress and I've got bad breath."
Rx: Chocolate 200C
Follow up two months later
"I was much better after the last remedy. I became more on an even keel. I felt less hopeless, with daily bowel movements. My breath became much better. I lost some weight. I wake at seven, doze till nine and then force myself to uncurl and get out of bed.
"Generally, mentally a lot better. I feel more positive. After last visit, I'm not depressed. Coping much better.
"I'm feeling tired again and still mucusy in the mornings. I feel I've got a self-destruct button.
"I'm better with friends, but I feel alone at times. I feel that people are waiting for me to fail and fall.
"I feel as if I'm an orphan. I don't want to and can't see my mother.
"Generally I hate perfume. At the airport I was drawn to try one they were spraying around. "I asked what is in it?" The sales girl said, "You'll be embarrassed...it has chocolate in it."
Rx: Chocolate 200C
Discussion
This patient did well on Phosphorus for over two and a half years. However, she kept relapsing indicating that another remedy was required. I could not find one until the Dynamis School proved Chocolate. Since the prescription discussed above, the patient has continued to do well, self-prescribing Chocolate twice over five years.
Remark
At the time of the first prescription of Chocolate, the remedy was not in the repertory and so I based my decision on the proving. This case not only illustrates a relationship between Phosphorus and Chocolate, but also clearly presents the basic themes of Chocolate.
A primary theme in Chocolate is one of nurture and nurturing in the context of a tension between civilized natures and animal instincts. As Jeremy Sherr writes in The Homoeopathic Proving of Chocolate, "In modern human civilisation the process of raising the young has been stretched beyond its natural boundaries. . . This evolution appears to be in contrast to our animal instinct of expelling the young as soon as they can fend for themselves." Provers felt fearful about their children's well-being or, conversely, unsympathetic.
This patient has all sorts of nurturing issues. Eating constantly for comfort, she is never satisfied and has become overweight. She craves chocolate, which alleviates her anxiety. Food is referred to in terms of excess or deprivation, pleasure or punishment. At the age of twenty-seven she says she wants to "lean on my mother," but cannot because her mother is "leaning on me." Feeling a poor relationship with her mother, the primary source of nurturing, the patient feels as if she is an orphan. On the other hand, "feeling the responsible parent" she wants to "kick" her "childish" boyfriend out of the house and "turn her back on him." She characterizes her work projects as being "like children I can't face in the morning." Averse to children, she chooses to terminate her pregnancy.
In the proving, the animal instinct was represented by the delusion of being a hedgehog, a mammal which when frightened curls up in a small, but prickly ball. The hedgehog also turns her back on her young when they have been weaned and pushes them out of the nest. Provers expressed feelings of having animal natures or behaviours and talked about "curling up", in the same language used by the patient. The patient also expresses the feeling that she is small, "a ball," while in reality she is physically large.
Another prominent theme is a sense of isolation. Cut off from their source of nourishment, provers felt rejected, isolated, estranged, frightened and vulnerable. Conversely, they were indifferent to loved ones and averse to company. Chocolate lovers often talked about indulging in chocolate when feeling lonely or after love disappointments.
Excess and deprivation are reflected in the moods and activity of the provers, "extremes of activity alternating with lethargy... tense, wired-up, running around, then worn out and collapsing with exhaustion." The patient alternates between being "depressed and apathetic...or busy, frantic, doing, trying to get projects together." As with the provers, this patient desires to travel.
Physical symptoms in the Chocolate proving included menstrual and premenstrual problems; migraine headaches; tension and pain in neck, jaw and ear; thick nasal catarrh; abdominal distention, flatulence and constipation and desire or aversion to chocolate.
Full proving information is available in The Homoeopathic Proving of Chocolate, The Dynamis School, Malvern, U.K. , 1994.
Simon Taffler is currently completing a PhD, researching the education of homoeopaths. He is a graduate of The School of Homoeopathy, Devon and The Dynamis School and practices and teaches in New York and London
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