Understanding  Helleborus nig.

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

Something has happened to the Helleborus patient. And it has sent him to a very dark, deep and forsaken place. In her article about a Helleborus, Sally Williams presents a clinical case of a man who became homeless, being the probable cause of his psychiatric state a very harsh upbringing plus a history of alcoholism from his parent’s side and in himself. This is what we should expect from the Helleborus patient: he has withdrawal himself from life, from reality, by slowly cancelling his senses. He sees but has no vision, he hears but it is not listening, he has been hiding himself from the world by shutting off his senses.

Thorough unconsciousness ; all impressions on senses and all expressions of will wanting ; heart beat and pulse very slow ; skin only moderately warm ; bowels inactive ; involuntary micturition ; difficult swallowing ; constantly picking his lips and clothes.

The patient answered much more slowly than usual when questioned; this condition of stupefaction bordering on insensibility lasted three hours.

Diminished power of mind over body; cannot fix ideas ; slow in answering, stares unintelligently ; muscles do not act properly if will is not strongly fixed upon their action, as when spoken to, the attention being thereby diverted, she drops things.

A perfect picture of acute idiocy.

Sensorial apathy.

Stupefied; head hot, heavy ; boring head in pillows, chilly ; fingers cold.

Stupor, blunting of general sensibility ; vision unimpaired, nevertheless sees imperfectly and does not regard the objects he sees ; apparatus of hearing intact, yet hears nothing distinctly nor comprehends ; organs of taste in working order, yet finds not the proper taste in anything ; often distraught, hardly remembers the past or what has just happened ; has no pleasure in anything ; slumber light and unrefreshing ; undertakes to work without having the power or strength.

All perceptions by the senses grow but slowly or not at all conscious. θ Typhoid fever.

Obtuseness of sensory nervous system. θ Brain disease in children.

How is he feeling about himself? He is someone extremely anxious, melancholic, but also tormented with fixed ideas that can be described as a paranoid state, a group of ideas repeating themselves on and on. This symptom might describe his mental state and his anxieties:

Psychical conditions occupying a place between melancholia and mania, and in conditions where true depression and weakness is present, in which the patient is governed by a fixed idea.

After typhoid, great mental dejection and apathy; dull and indifferent to all external impressions ; will not speak ; sits quietly in bed and seems lost in brooding ; face pale, disturbed ; languid, unsteady glance of eye; pupils dilated; pulse slow and weak ; will take proffered food but never expresses desire for anything ; sleep infrequent, restless ; constantly seeks to escape, but is not violent; without a word quietly climbs out of window, and if she succeeds in escaping, goes in direction of river ; finally threw herself into privy, from which she was rescued.

Melancholia in girls at puberty before menstruation has been established, or if menses have appeared and then failed to return.

Could we suppose that Helleborus is a highly sensitive patient, that found his way out of the reality that surrounds him by cancelling his senses? 

Melancholy: silent ; during puberty ; with anguish.

If we could extend our knowledge about this remedy, what could we expect about his relationship with the people near by?

Very indifferent mood, without joy or sorrow.

Happiness being felt by his acquaintances makes him sad. We can now imagine how much introverted and distant this patient will become. Life is giving him a hard time, his sensitivity being exposed and stressed every day. He is shutting himself to the point of even seen people happy makes him suffer.

He becomes melancholy on beholding a cheerful person, and then, for the first time, feels very unhappy.

The neurologic symptoms presented in our Materia Medica about Heleborus have one sole beginning: His withdrawal from reality, his distance, his decision of not being part of our world anymore. The clinical case presented by Sally Williams is a very good example of what will become of someone that is seen life through the lenses of this remedy.

Helleborus and Homelessness
Sally Williams
june 16, 2004
K.C. Male age 44.
K.C. was brought into my office for a consultation by his sister. He smelled of alcohol and body odor. He wore very tattered clothing, although clean. I was under the impression he had spent the night at his sister's home where she had cleaned his clothes the night before. On the way up the stairs to my office K.C. stumbles many times. His sister confirms that this is typical, "like he is drunk". He also is showing signs of alcohol withdrawal or the DT's, he is shaking and drooling.
K.C. "Basically my problems are anxiety and panic with depression and paranoia."
K.C.'s sister explains; "He is very withdrawn and has been homeless for years. We are very close, but he will not accept my help. We had a terrible growing up. Our parents were alcoholics and very abusive. Our mother attempted suicide when he was 9 and I was 10. They (Child Protective Services) took us away from her. We lived with our Grandmother and it was awful. She could not have cared less about us, even less than our parents. We went a long time without contact with our mother."
K.C.: "A lot of my problems do stem from alcoholism. I had girlfriends and what not. I was always self-sabotaging the relationship type of thing. The girls I chose were not the best choices. They would cheat on me and then I would insist on staying with them until the relationship would just peter out. Teresa, my last girl friend, had my son and she packed up and left when he was 6. I was devastated. She was my best friend and he was my son. I crawled in a hole and never came out. It was like nothing was a joy any more, nothing mattered any more, I could not think, I could not hear, I could not see........"
K.C.'s sister: "He started drifting around and not caring whether he was paying the rent or taking care of his personal hygiene. He will be looking at you, but he is not there. Eventually he ended up on the street with no place to call home" K.C.: "I could not work. I would start working and then I would not show up anymore. I get anxiety around people."
"Let's say I am in the supermarket. I just say to myself - we have to get out of here. I will always find a safe place to go, like the library. It is quiet and people leave you alone. I enjoy reading a lot, mostly science fiction." "I walk down the street and here are two people coming towards me and I have to cross the street. I do not think they will hurt me, I just cannot stand the talking, or the staring, or the contact."
"I am at a low point in my life. I cannot be productive anymore. I cannot accomplish anything."
"It is comfortable being homeless. There are no expectations of you. The only thing left is to die. You are not afraid. Everyone else is in the same boat. No responsibilities, nothing I have to do."
Recurring Dream: "I would be bouncing a ball and the ball rolls out into the street. I go out in the street and I would bend over to pick up the ball and when I stood up there would be a truck right there.......... just about to run me over and I didn't even hear it coming!!"
Remedy: Helleborus niger. Potency: 200c Two doses 6 hours apart. 

Follow Up: July 14, 2004
K.C. again comes with his sister.
K.C.: "I feel great. In the beginning, everything stayed the same for a couple of weeks and then it started to kick in. I stopped shaking so much and I could walk better. Little by little I was getting better and better. My eyes are so much clearer. My skin color is better. I stopped drinking the Vodka right after I saw you the first time. I stopped all the psych meds." "I have not had any panic attacks and not much anxiety. I really have not been in that place for a long time. I have not felt bad or anxious about someone coming toward me at all. I just feel normal again like I can cope. I still drink beer. I am drinking a 6 pack a day. Two weeks ago I was drinking two six packs a day."
"Nothing new is bothering me. I am having working dreams. It is about having more communication with others in my dreams. I have not worked in 5 years."
K.C.'s Sister: "He does not smell as bad as he used to. It is a huge difference. The last time we were here he had a lot of scalp flaking and on his face as well and that is all cleared up. The way he carries himself is so different. He does not shuffle anymore. It used to take so long to get from the door into the house. Now he comes to visit and he has a nice strong knock. He is much more communicative. I can tell a difference even from last week. My kids have even mentioned that he is doing so much better."
K.C. "I am not focusing on the future I am just taking these days as they come. Right now I am just going with the flow and just being here in a normal state. My eyes can see and my ears can hear."
Plan: Wait, no remedy.
Follow Up: October 4, 2004
On this day K.C. has walked to my office on his own without his sister. K.C. "I am doing really well. I am looking for an apartment in the Allentown area. I am taking computer courses. I am taking them through Buffalo Training Center. I am also taking web design in January. I want to get into business with my sister. Online sales and the accounting part, I would like to do the website."
"I feel good. I am out on the street and I have not been paranoid of people and I am able to function without the anxiety. I took one more dose since the beginning and that is it."
"I am drinking beer though, but that I have even cut down. I watch a lot of TV, but there is a lot of planning of the school stuff and the work stuff. I have a cat now and he takes up my time. I named him "effer" like he is a little F'er! My sleep has improved a lot. I am sleeping 8 hours a day, before it was very sporadic. I am getting up in time for appointments where before I would blow it off." "I still do not like to deal on the phone. I do not like that disembodied voice thing. I would rather do it in person."
"I have not been to the library in a long time. I am ok in the supermarket and I just have really not had that anxious feeling."
I am finding things to do with my day. I walk a lot. I am eating better. I do not have that dry flaking skin anymore. It is just hard to remember what it used to be like. Everything has changed. I am part of the world again. There is nothing bothering me. I am looking forward to getting my own apartment and to going to school."
Every other month or so either K.C. or I would get in touch with each other for about a year. He dosed rarely with the remedy and when he did he felt the effects almost immediately. During these phone consultations I learned that he did indeed get his apartment in Allentown and was going to school.
Follow up - november 11, 2006
I talked by phone with K.C. to ask him permission to publish this article. He was still living in his apartment in Allentown and is continuing to take college courses in computer training while he works part time at a local supermarket stocking shelves. He has been dating one "special person" and was feeling, in his words "blessed". K.C. "I am not the man you met in your office 2 years ago. It is even hard for me to remember who that was. I am sorry I had forgotten to stay in touch with you, but to tell you the truth, it was as if it all never happened."
Analysis:
The moment I saw K.C. I had a feeling for the case. He was very grounded, but disengaged. He looked right through me when we first met as if he could not see me. He seemed absent with a vacant expression on his face. The remedy that came immediately to my mind was Helleborus. K.C. had a very difficult life. The situations of his neglectful parents, being taken away to live with his grandmother who did not care for him, and the shock of his wife and son leaving him are strong for the Ranunculaceae family and especially stage 14, Helleborus. Jan Scholten states that "the Ranunculaceae as I see it are childlike, who are lonely in a hard, raw world, needing support and protection. They are very carbon series like. The theme of shock is for the whole family. For Helleborus it is like there is a wall between them and the world."
 

Helleborus Groups

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

Symptoms from Kent, Allen & Hering

With one´s surroundings

Vivid fancies after lying down in bed, a hundred forms float before his eyes, which vanish as speedily as they come, [4]. 

Mania demonic ; sees evil spirits at night.

Sad mood, on account of his present condition, everything seems shallow and has no incentive for him, [9]. 

Home sickness, [1]. 

Stares at her surroundings in a strange, stupid manner, and, if questioned, stares in the same way at one, or glances wildly about grasping her head; when walking reels about, allowing her head to hang; the sensorial apathy and constant staring at one spot alternates occasionally with unintelligible muttering; constipation. θ Melancholia after typhoid.

With oneself

Kent: Hellebore has a peculiar quasi-hysterical condition - a form of insanity. She imagines she has sinned away her day of grace. Like Aurum, she believes that she is doing wrong, that she is committing an unpardonable sin. That is as near as the remedy approaches to insanity,

"An old woman having been accused of theft by the women around took it so much to heart that she hanged herself. This suicide produced such an effect on the women of the village that one after another accused herself of having caused the death of the old woman."

Fixed ideas in persons who are said to be just a little "off their balance," a little queer. And that fixed idea will stay; there is no use trying to argue him out of it. The woman gets a fixed idea that she is going to die on a certain day, and nothing can get it out of her head. This is not like Aconit, because there is no fear of death.

When able to be about the patient appears to be sad, because she sits and says nothing, and seems to be in a woeful mood. But there is not that great lamentation, with walking the floor and wringing the hands that we find in Aurum.

It is an apathetic state; she appears sad and melancholy, whereas perhaps she does little thinking. Any attempt at consolation, so long as the patient is able to think, only aggravates the trouble. Like Natrum muriaticum, the complaints are aggravated by consolation, but the complaints of Natrum muriaticum are not at all like these.

If the Hellebore patient is able to meditate upon his symptoms, they seem to grow better.

He groans and grunts, [1]. 

Reflective taciturn mood, the whole afternoon, [10]. 

Depression and sadness, lasting several hours, [27]. 

Despondent, believes he shall die (in a sufferer from religious melancholy), (fifth day), [31]. [10.] 

Such anxiety, nausea, and distress that he thinks he will die, [10]. 

Dread of death (in a sufferer from religious melancholy), (fifth day), [31]. 

He is doubtful about his own life, [1]. 

Dread of dying ; feels unhappy in presence of cheerful faces.

Extreme anxiety, [1]. 

Anxious mood, indifferent to joy or sorrow, contented with nothing (second day), [22]. 

Extremely inclined to be irritable, the most trifling thing which goes contrary to his wishes excites anger (second day), [22]. 

Cannot rest anywhere on account of anxiousness about heart.

Excessive anxiety and anguish.

Restless and anxious.

Mania of a melancholy type, with fixed ideas.

Psychical conditions occupying a place between melancholia and mania, and in conditions where true depression and weakness is present, in which the patient is governed by a fixed idea.

After typhoid, great mental dejection and apathy; dull and indifferent to all external impressions ; will not speak ; sits quietly in bed and seems lost in brooding ; face pale, disturbed ; languid, unsteady glance of eye; pupils dilated; pulse slow and weak ; will take proffered food but never expresses desire for anything ; sleep infrequent, restless ; constantly seeks to escape, but is not violent; without a word quietly climbs out of window, and if she succeeds in escaping, goes in direction of river ; finally threw herself into privy, from which she was rescued.

Melancholia in girls at puberty before menstruation has been established, or if menses have appeared and then failed to return.

Melancholy: silent ; during puberty ; with anguish.

Fretful mood (twelfth day), [26]. 

Inability to reflect (after ten hours), [6]. 

Distraction of mind, when studying; cannot hold his thoughts fixed, [1].

 (He dresses himself unbecomingly), [1]. 

(Irresolution), [1]. 

Tries to escape, to throw herself into the river.

Much lamenting, moaning.

Involuntary sighing.

Frequent screams in meningitis, or hydrocephalus.

Stubborn silence.

Homesickness.

Woeful, despairing mood.

Irritable; easily made angry; < from consolation, does not want to be disturbed.

A noise or shock shortens the attack. θ Eclampsia.

Thinking about symptoms lessens them.

 

With the Others

Indifferent.

Very indifferent mood, without joy or sorrow (first day), [22]. 

He becomes melancholy on beholding a cheerful person, and then, for the first time, feels very unhappy, [1]. 

The patient answered much more slowly than usual when questioned; this condition of stupefaction bordering on insensibility lasted three hours (fourth day), [30].

An old woman having been accused of theft by the women around, took it so much to heart that she hanged herself. This suicide produced a profound effect upon the women of the village. One after another accused herself of having caused the death of the old woman by their insinuation ; they wept and howled, ran about day and night wringing their hands and despairing of salvation on account of their sin; they became quite irrepressible and deranged. In this way twenty-four or twenty-five women were affected, every fresh case being followed by another. θ Hysterical mania.

Amenorrhœa from disappointed love.

 

Neurologic:

Weakness of memory, he is only able by exerting himself and after thinking for some time to remember what he wanted to say and why he had asked a question (after half an hour), [6]. 

Weakness of memory; he does not remember for a moment what he is reading, [4]. 

Stupidity and slight vertigo (immediately), [22]. 

The patient answered much more slowly than usual when questioned; this condition of stupefaction bordering on insensibility lasted three hours (fourth day), [30].

Frequent yawning (fifth day), [26]. 

Sleepiness, followed by either uneasy sleep disturbed by dreams, or by coma vigil, followed by deep sleep, [27]. 

Great sleepiness in the evening (second and third days), [25]. 

Uneasy sleep towards morning, he turns himself from side to side; in this slumber there are dark, floating visions, [4]. 

Uneasy slumber, filled with historical fancies towards morning, during which he changes his position from side to side, [4]. 

Total unconsciousness.

Weak memory.

When questioned answers slowly; stupefaction bordering on insensibility.

Diminished power of mind over body; cannot fix ideas ; slow in answering, stares unintelligently ; muscles do not act properly if will is not strongly fixed upon their action, as when spoken to, the attention being thereby diverted, she drops things.

A perfect picture of acute idiocy.

Idiocy and cretinismus.

Dull, says nothing.

Constantly picking his lips and clothes.

Confusion of head, as if bruised, with fluent coryza.

Vertigo : with nausea, watery vomit and loose bowels ; while stooping, ceasing when becoming erect.

Dull and heavy in head.

Brain feels too large and occiput empty ; afterwards reverse in forehead ; occiput feels as if it would fall forward ; wants to lie down and roll head from side to side ; feels helpless as an infant.

Sensorial apathy.

Stupefied; head hot, heavy ; boring head in pillows, chilly ; fingers cold.

Stupor, blunting of general sensibility ; vision unimpaired, nevertheless sees imperfectly and does not regard the objects he sees ; apparatus of hearing intact, yet hears nothing distinctly nor comprehends ; organs of taste in working order, yet finds not the proper taste in anything ; often distraught, hardly remembers the past or what has just happened ; has no pleasure in anything ; slumber light and unrefreshing ; undertakes to work without having the power or strength.

All perceptions by the senses grow but slowly or not at all conscious. θ Typhoid fever.

Obtuseness of sensory nervous system. θ Brain disease in children.

Thorough unconsciousness ; all impressions on senses and all expressions of will wanting ; heart beat and pulse very slow ; skin only moderately warm ; bowels inactive ; involuntary micturition ; difficult swallowing ; constantly picking his lips and clothes.

Sopor and coma.

Puerperal convulsions.