Understanding Cuprum met.

(Symptoms from Hahnemann, Allen, Hering and Kent.

Dr. Claudio C. Araujo M.D., F.F.Hom. (Lon.) et al.

Kent: It is suitable in those girls who have always had their own way, have never been crossed, and when they grow older, and reach puberty, and have got to submit to some sort of discipline or never become women, they have mad fits, have cramps. Cuprum will sometimes make them sensible, so in that way it fits into the loves and hates. It belongs to the voluntary system most prominently.

If Kent’s observations are all trustful for us, why the teenage who had received Cuprum got into such behavior?

This very subtle observation from Kent gives us the starting point: he had observed that people in the need of Cuprum tend to manifest themselves as people that didn’t want to grow old into adult ones, are avoiding to fulfill their obligations and denying to accept the responsibilities that are coming to all of us as we move from the teenage years do adult life. Being strongly opposed to accept the new duties and obligations, Cuprum explodes into a series of convulsions and spasms. From being angered, from not accept life as it is coming towards him, he is now full of cramps, spasms and convulsions.

 

Cuprum is full of violence, both in his behavior as in his clinical manifestations. His movements, the arrival of his symptoms, his humor, everything in Cuprum comes with violence. Symptoms are coming and going with violence. His character, his behavior and his attitudes are following the same path.

Kent: Cuprum is not passive in its business. Violence is manifested everywhere. Violence in its diarrhoea, violence in its vomiting, violence in its spasmodic action; strange and violent things in its mania and delirium.

Hysterical cramps and hysterical attitudes may change in a night or in a day to St. Vitus' dance, and go on with it as if nothing had happened. Such is the suddenness with which it changes its character. This is not generally known of Cuprum - this constant changing about. Spasmodic affections in general. Spasmodic coughs, spasms all over the body.

Attacks preceded by great anxiety. θ Whooping cough.

Slight attacks of deathly anxiety, without heat, [1]. 

The symptoms of the Cuprum child are showing us what had happened to him in his early years. Our hypothesis is based on the fact that he is refusing to assume his place in society is due to fear. And the Cuprum child is very much afraid.

The child is afraid of strangers, while teething. 

Afraid of and shrinking away from everyone who approaches him; afraid of falling; clinging tightly to nurse; won't stay in bed, but in lap; conscious, knows people; tongue darting forth and back with great rapidity, like a snake's. θ Catarrhal or exanthematic fevers; scarlet fever without eruption; during dentition.

Cuprum wanted to escape from his duties due to a lack of courage. 

At some point in his life, in the very beginning, Cuprum became afraid do face the world. He wanted to escape from all his responsibilities “threading lightly”.

A kind of fearfulness; it seems as though he must tread lightly, in order to avoid injuring himself or disturbing his companions in the room, [1].

Confusion of mind; is fearful, and endeavors to escape, [6]. 

Fearful; want of courage, [51]. 

Unconquerable sadness, constant restlessness, as if some misfortune were approaching; fears he will lose his reason. 

The Cuprum teenager or even the adult will present himself to the doctor as someone without any of those modern ambitions, even any attachments to family or strong values. He is taking care of his life and his daily affairs. He doesn’t want to be bothered and if someone tries to press him to do something he doesn’t want to do, he will become sick, convulsive, angry, out of his wits. If he is not accepted by his family, if his desire of not face the adult world is not respected or if any given situation will oblige him to do what he doesn’t want to do, then we will see our patient getting sick, sad and melancholic.

His relationship with society will be based in his longings, not in his duties.

Irresolute; satisfied with nothing; this only lasts as long as he is fretful, [4]. 

 Fretful; he does not know what he wishes; he desires to be alone; after sometime this changes to cheerfulness, but the fretfulness soon returns, [4]. 

Mania characterized by a wild look and fear; tries to escape. 

Delirium: afraid of everyone who approached him, shrinking away from them; tries to escape; in evening and in the dark. 

Shuns everyone; cannot be induced to go among people in evening; very restless at night. θ Asthma.

Disinclination to work, yet idling is burdensome to him, [4]. 

Laughing; grimaces; exaltation and ecstasies; melancholy and dread of society. θ Periodical chorea. 

Immoderate laughter in the evening, [1]. 

 Spasmodic laughter, [1]. 

 Aversion to everything, [3]. 

Apathetic and inert, [40]. 

To understand the Cuprum patient, we must imagine someone that, from being afraid of the world, of people and everything that comes altogether with the human existence, also combined with an internal sensation of not being able to deal with it or even refusing to find any sort of dealt with reality as it is – had decided to find refugee in his teenage years. And what we all do during our teenage years, besides studying? We party! We dance, we want to be with our friends, we want to go to the beach, drink, listen to music, we date and we want to meet our future mates.

That will be our patient. With his fears hidden in the deep of himself, he will present himself to the doctor with chronic diarrhea, with migraines, fits and asthmatic spells.

He has spasms, contortions and cramps all over the body.

He will describe his life and we will perceive that inside him he has decided not to become an adult human being. He didn’t assume the duties and obligations we all did. Or his complaints have started at the moment he was obliged to assume certain obligations he didn’t want to accept.

He will shout, fight, scream - and even get sick  - for it.

He will not be convinced by anyone to take place in the human experience.

 

Clinical case – Cuprum met.

Female, born in 1960.

October, 2005:

Bronchitis, altogether with asthmatic and allergic symptoms.

It started “after giving birth to her children”.

The asthmatic crises are all too strong.

She is also far beyond her normal weight.

Chronic cough, every day, constant.

“I can’t lose weight, I’m not strong enough”.

Cough starts every day, half an hour after waking.

< from humid places, 

< from house dust, 

<from strong smells.

Chest full of green catarrh.

She has several crises, from time to time. It starts with a sore throat and then cough.

She is on Azitromicyn, Berotec and Seretid. Also, on steroids on a daily basis.

Cough also dry, spasmodic, constant. It gives no relief.

“Never had a deep inspiration, it’s impossible, I can’t reach the bottom of my lungs”.

She sleeps well, but she can’t eat before sleep, otherwise she can’t fall asleep.

She is a very restless woman. She speaks fast, she can’t stay put in the chair, always in a hurry. She asks for a remedy and she wants to leave the consultation as soon as possible. She is saying that she has many things to do and she can’t wait any longer.

Many kilos above her normal weight, eyes shining and restless, protruded from her orbits, constantly coughing, panting and suffocating, that’s our patient.

“I’m a very happy person. In the beginning of my marriage, my husband used to leave me alone, but I had my friends and was always in company with them. I’m an electric person. I’m far too anxious for anything. I hate to miss an appointment or arrive late.

Everything has to be done perfectly. I suffer from anticipation. I’m happy, uplifting, always wanting to be surrounded by people, I like to make people laugh. Never a serious talk, only chit chat with my friends. We only talk about good things.

I hate being with nothing to do. I need to be occupied, the whole day. I need to do something.

Always afraid of being old. Old people are not well cared.

I never wanted to study. I hated school. I wanted to play, date the other guys, go to parties. I never worked in my life, I hate it.

I had been drinking a lot, but not nowadays anymore. I used to spend the whole week drinking with my friends.

I was insane with jealousy with my husband, but I’m not anymore. I once did strike a woman, a long time ago, due to jealousy”.

I never looked back in my live. What happened before is gone.

When her father died: I don’t thing about it, never. I don’t miss him. I didn’t have time to morn him.

I love the sea. I feel free in the water, floating.

Money makes me crazy, if I don’t have it. I went into despair. I have these thoughts, from time to time, about running into poverty. Money is my worse threat.

Things out of my control make me crazy. I need to pay all my due bills in the day they are meant to be pay. All my bills are scheduled.

If I plan to to go travel in a certain hour, it must be done that way, otherwise a freak out. Must have everything planned beforehand.

Compulsive eater, she can’t control herself.

She shouts at others when not attended. Her family complaints that she never talks, only shouts.

She loves to change addresses, buy and sell her houses, flats, build new ones, always changing, restless.

Childhood: every day I waited my father’s arrival at home sitting by the window.

I used to return several times to the door, to see if it was locked. 

She was very much afraid of robbers.

Symptoms and modalities

Afraid of highs; worse in crowded places; of robbers;

< in warm weather. She is very irritable, perspiring. “I look like crazy”

< change of weather.

> from dry weather.

< during the day.

I like to have my neck protected, covered.

Cough is always better during sleep.

Very sensitive to noise.

Very much better from music.

< from getting a cold.

> from rest, from being quiet.

Obs:

She never wants to be in contact with herself.

She is always in a hurry. 

Always moving to and fro, travelling, she is never in peace with herself.

Prescription

She has been on some remedies, mostly Tarentula and Gelsemium and both did her a lot of improvement, but then her symptoms relapsed.

Three rubrics were used to get closer to Cuprum. One mental symptom, one general and one particular.

Anxiety, time is set.

Weather, dry, amel.

Cough, constant.

 

Three remedies cover the rubrics: Lyc., Cuprum and Kali-n.

She has been on Cuprum met., from 10M to 100M potencies and since the beginning she had a dramatic change. She lost 30 Kg, her breathing returned to normal, she “stops shouting to the others” and she is less anxious and restless. Her consultations became also very far to each other, she only returned to my praxis when her symptoms were appearing again, until they disappeared completely.

Groups in Cuprum met.

Hering, Allen & Kent

Dr. Claudio C. Araujo M.D., F.F.Hom. (Lon.)

Humor

Kent: Cuprum is not passive in its business. Violence is manifested everywhere. Violence in its diarrhoea, violence in its vomiting, violence in its spasmodic action; strange and violent things in its mania and delirium.

Hysterical cramps and hysterical attitudes may change in a night or in a day to St. Vitus' dance, and go on with it as if nothing had happened. Such is the suddenness with which it changes its character. This is not generally known of Cuprum - this constant changing about. Spasmodic affections in general. Spasmodic coughs, spasms all over the body.

Cheerful and laughter

 Immoderate laughter in the evening, 

Spasmodic laughter, 

 Very cheerful; at night especially full of fun and laughter (curative action), [19]. 

Convulsive laughter. 

Anxiety

Paroxysms of anxiety; full of fears. 

Attacks preceded by great anxiety. θ Whooping cough. 

Attacks of deathly anxiety without heat.

Loss of spirits; anxiety; fits of anguish and fear of death. 

Slight attacks of deathly anxiety, without heat. 

Irritability

Irritable and changeable, at times gentle and sensitive, at others very contrary. θ Chorea. 

Feeling of general irritability, . 

Sadness and melancholy

Merry dreams at night (curative action, the prover being somewhat inclined to melancholy), (first and third days), [19].

Unconquerable sadness, constant restlessness, as if some misfortune were approaching; fears he will lose his reason. 

Sadness while walking in open air, must stand still or sit down.

Great depression of spirits, [55]. 

Restlessness

Restless tossing about and constant restlessness.

Restless tossing about. 

 

Kent: In the Cuprum patient the nerves are all the time wrought up to the highest tension; wants to fly, wants to do something dreadful.

It is suitable in those girls who have always had their own way, have never been crossed, and when they grow older, and reach puberty, and have got to submit to some sort of discipline or never become women, they have mad fits, have cramps. Cuprum will sometimes make them sensible, so in that way it fits into the loves and hates. It belongs to the voluntary system most prominently.

With Oneself

Violent weeping, anxiety, ludicrous gesticulations, and desire to hide oneself. θ Chorea.

Melancholy; she shuns the sight of people, seeks and loves to be alone, and becomes anxious about her death, which she supposes imminent and inevitable, [1].

Fearful; want of courage, [51].

 A kind of fearfulness; it seems as though he must tread lightly, in order to avoid injuring himself or disturbing his companions in the room, [1].

Confusion of mind; is fearful, and endeavors to escape, [6]. 

Aversion to everything, [3].

Apathetic and inert, [40]. 

 Irresolute; satisfied with nothing; this only lasts as long as he is fretful, [4]. 

 Fretful; he does not know what he wishes; he desires to be alone; after some time this changes to cheerfulness, but the fretfulness soon returns, [4]. 

Senselessness; it seems as though he were in a half-waking dream, [5].

Kent: Impulsiveness. Compelled to do something; restless and tossing about a constant uneasiness; nervous trembling; always tired. 

With the Others

Shuns company

Laughing; grimaces; exaltation and ecstasies; melancholy and dread of society. θ Periodical chorea. 

Shuns everyone; cannot be induced to go among people in evening; very restless at night. θ Asthma. 

Melancholy; she shuns the sight of people, seeks and loves to be alone, and becomes anxious about her death, which she supposes imminent and inevitable, [1].

Fretful; he does not know what he wishes; he desires to be alone; after some time this changes to cheerfulness, but the fretfulness soon returns, [4]. 

Delirium: afraid of every one who approached him, shrinking away from them; tries to escape; in evening and in the dark. 

Attacks of rage, wants to bite the bystanders. 

Attacked suddenly with convulsions, with biting; after attack, malicious disposition towards nurse, biting, and striking and doing everything to annoy her, passed her excrements on floor.

Mania with biting, beating, and tearing things to pieces; insane foolish gestures of imitation and mimicry; full of insane spiteful tricks, illusions of imagination, does not recognize his own family; unhappy, apprehensive, anxious, and despairing; precordial anguish, pale, miserable look, general chilliness, not > by heat; attacks en in sweat.

With the Environment

Bellows like a calf during delirium; periodical uttering of shrill screams.

Crying like the croaking of frogs, [6]. 

Work

Disinclination to work, yet idling is burdensome to him, [4]. 

Childhood

Fear of strangers

The child is afraid of strangers, while teething.

Afraid of and shrinking away from everyone who approaches him; afraid of falling; clinging tightly to nurse; won't stay in bed, but in lap; conscious, knows people; tongue darting forth and back with great rapidity, like a snake's. θ Catarrhal or exanthematic fevers; scarlet fever without eruption; during dentition.

Changeable mood; children cross and irritable, or indifferent and dull, in brain affections. 

Male Sexuality

Great nervousness in young men, who are prematurely old and have cramps in calves of legs and feet on attempting coition.

Female Sexuality

Unusual quickness and briskness in erroneous ideas, one following the other quickly, all of an anxious character; a staring look fixed on objects; pulse quick, unequal; profuse weakening sweat; timid, bashful woman, eighth day after confinement.

Kent: Girls, at about the time of puberty, go in bathing, when their mothers have been a little too prudish, a little too sensitive, and have not told their daughters what they might expect, and to look out for bathing in cold water at certain times. The menstrual flow starts. From a cold bath she suppresses that flow and on come convulsions.

That is in keeping with Cuprum. Hysterical convulsions they may be called. They will take the form, quite likely, of hysterical convulsions; they may take the form of chorea. Instead of convulsions it may take the form of congestion of the brain with violent delirium.

Intellectual

Marked lessening of memory. θ Scarlatina.

Weakness of memory, as well as cerebral functions in general; in speaking he frequently has to think for the right word. 

Loss of ideas, weakness of memory (after two hours), 

Mental and bodily exhaustion, from overexertion of mind or loss of sleep; pulse feeble, somewhat frequent, unequal; skin moist, feet generally cold; attacks of unconquerable anxiety; head giddy and internally painful, feels as if he would lose his senses; sleep full of dreams, restless, unrefreshing.

Neurological

Delirium, even paralysis of brain, with symptoms of collapse. 

Incoherent delirious talk.

Craziness; attacks with savage malice, with proud bearing, at times interrupted by clonic spasms.

Mania characterized by a wild look and fear; tries to escape.

Whining, tremulous voice and manner.

Kent: Twitching and jerking and starting during sleep. Grinding of the teeth with brain affections. Inflammations ceases suddenly and you wonder what has happened. All at once comes on insanity, delirium, convulsions, blindness; evidence of cerebral congestions and inflammation appearing with wonderful suddenness. Metastasis. A perfect change from one part of the body to another. The same thing may occur from a suppressed eruption, or suppressed discharge, or a suppressed diarrhoea, and it goes to the brain affects the mind and brings on insanity; a wild, active, maniacal delirium.

Great weakness of the muscles, and relaxation of the body when the convulsions are not on.