“My Anxiety Is Preventing Me From Moving Away for College!”

Sophie's Case

Sophie was 18 when she first came to see me for help with her anxiety. She was doing great in school, was very involved in sports, had lots of good friends and a happy family life with her parents and two brothers.

For as long as she could remember however, Sophie had experienced night terrors (from age 3-6), and tremendous anxiety about being alone at night. She absolutely dreaded bedtime and the prospect of being alone in her bedroom in the dark. The family had tried several things over the years to try and resolve the problem, moving bedrooms several times to see if this would make Sophie more comfortable, staying in the room with Sophie until she fell asleep. Nothing they had tried over the years had made a difference. Most nights Sophie ended up in her parents bedroom when the anxiety and fear became intolerable.

Sophie's anxiety was about someone hiding in the room, or coming into the room to harm her while she was sleeping. During my conversation with Sophie there was nothing in her history, in her conscious memory, that could explain where this fear and anxiety was coming from. The anxiety had been there for as long as she could remember, affecting her almost every night, and now her future college plans.

Finding the right homeopathic medicine to help you with your anxiety, depression or any other complaints is in no way dependent on being able to trace what you are experiencing to an actual incidence. Quite often though, we see a situation, illness, medication, or other clues, which may have acted as triggers to the symptoms you are now struggling with, mentally, emotionally or physically.

Sophies mom was accompanying her daughter to the first consultation. I asked Sophie if it was ok with her if I had a word with her mother regarding the time she was pregnant with Sophie. Discussing the mothers pregnancy is something I often do with when I treat babies and young children. Often times, the mothers state of health during pregnancy, experiences she might have had during this time, will often lead me to the remedy the child needs.

During my conversation with Sophie’s mom, she told me about an acute illness she’d had during the last trimester of her pregnancy with Sophie. The words she used to describe the pain, the terror and fear of how this illness might affect the baby, how this had tormented her at the time, how afraid she had been of losing the baby she was carrying, were precisely the same story of Sophie’s experience with her fear and anxiety. The words mother and daughter used to describe their experiences were completely identical (before i started talking to mom, she had not thought of the illness during her pregnancy for many, many years, and never discussed it with Sophie).

I prescribed the homeopathic remedy Culex Musca (Mosquito) for Sophie. Just two single doses in total, to take within 24 hours. The remedy was chosen based on Sophie’s specific symptoms and how she experienced her anxiety (confirmed by mothers experience during pregnancy). Homeopathy is always tailored to each individual and never given strictly based on a specific diagnosis.

I saw Sophie again during our follow-up appointment in June, four weeks after her first appointment. She was much improved by then, able to sleep in her own bedroom most nights, but still anxious about the upcoming move to an out of state college. We repeated the same remedy, and made another follow-up appointment 4 weeks later. During the second follow-up in July all the anxiety and fear had gone. We agreed that Sophie would contact me when, and if she felt she needed another appointment.

Sophie moved away to college that same fall and has done very well since.