In Defence of Homeopathy

October 19th, 2016

There are so many grey areas in health care, services that may work but you'll never hear about them from your health care provider. Many people are turning to naturopaths to explore other options. The problem with that is not everyone can afford to pay for their doctor's appointments or the supplements or health products that are recommended. As an art therapist, I know that many people who could benefit from my services choose to see a psychiatrist because they can't afford to pay for my services and their work insurance plan doesn't cover it.

Recently, I was trying to help my daughter. She will be 11 years old in January. Her hormones are kicking in and she is finding it difficult to settle at night. Initially, she was anxious at bedtime because she was preparing for a new school year and worried about her potential teachers, wondering if she would have any of her friends in her class. Once the semester started and she realized she liked her teachers and was surrounded by friends, I fully expected the anxiety to subside. It didn't. She asked me to sleep in her room. She started coming to my room during the night, her heart racing, wanting to  join us. This doesn't work as my husband snores very loudly. My daughter was complaining about the noise, my husband was annoyed by her presence in our bed because she moves around a lot and hogs the blanket, I was tired and stuck in the middle.

Something had to be done. I feared going to our family doctor. I don't want her to be medicated at this age, before her brain has fully developed and her hormones have stabilized. When I took my youngest in for ear infections year ago, I provided lots of information, I was looking for an explanation. Why does she suddenly get ear infections. She never did before. The doctor prescribed antibiotics. My daughter would be ok for a few months then the ear infections would return. I later found out that there was mould in her classroom. She never had another ear infection again. If I had known that, we could have avoided repeatedly exposing her to antibiotics that year.

I reached out for help to alleviate my eldest daughter's anxiety. I called various professionals who failed to reply to my e-mails or voice mails. I felt quite alone and frustrated, not to mention tired. Then, I received a reply from the local naturopath. He couldn't see us for another week but, as we chatted over the phone, he said he would start with homeopathy then nutrition and supplements to see how this affected her anxiety. I was sleeping on a floppy, tiny mattress on the floor next to her bed by this time so, waiting another week felt like torture.

I visited the local health food store and asked to be directed to the homeopathic remedies. I explained that this would be for my daughter. We spent some time talking about the expression of her symptoms. This is crucial in homeopathy. Every product is designed to address a specific set of symptoms. It is thought that if someone without the symptoms took the treatment they would develop the very ailment that the medicine was trying to treat. However, if you do have those symptoms, the treatment will neutralize them. Since my daughter's anxiety happens at night, we discussed medication for people who can't sleep. However, she doesn't struggle with sleep once she is asleep. She is just too anxious to relax sufficiently to get to sleep. Therefore, the core symptom was her anxiety. We examined the source of her anxiety. She was worried that something bad would happen if she was left alone, in the dark. It was more like separation anxiety.

I chose Worry and Fear drops for kids by Orange Naturals. The first night, my daughter spit out the drops. She said they tasted like vomit. The next day, are with a container of apple juice mixed with water, we tried again. She didn't spit it out. I increased the dosage to the recommended three times/day over the weekend. By day 3, we could see a difference. She no longer clung to me at night as we prepared for bed. She was able to stay alone in her room while I tucked her sister in across the hall. She even fell asleep before I showed up to read her a story on the fourth night.

By the time, I reached this point, trying homeopathy, I had tried using a diffuser, a himalayan rock lamp, back massage, meditation, stretching, progressive relaxation, guided visualization and acupuncture. I should mention that she hated acupuncture but I do think it helped. It's just hard to go for follow-up treatments when your child is adamant that she "will never do this again".

We started the drops three weeks ago. She is much calmer at night. She comes out more often with her. She used to always want to stay home. My daughters are playing together more because my eldest has the energy to play again. She used to be too tired from not sleeping. I wanted to learn more about homeopathy. I did some research online and most of what I found discredited homeopathy as foolish and ineffective. It was described as the equivalent of a placebo. I was very disappointed by the lack of scientific data to back it up as a treatment. As I read about the founder of homeopathy and his followers, I recalled another time in my life that I had used homeopathic medicine. I didn't even realize I was doing it.

When my daughter was teething, the Advil didn't soothe her and the Orajel only made her gag. What helped every time was a product called Camilia by Boiron. I am not sure how I found this product but  it helped my family out through the teething years. Its effect was instant. It was easy to administer and my daughter often enjoyed chewing on the empty container. I have recommended it to moms and even shared it with some of my husband's clients over the years. It turns out, this is also a homeopathic product.

I am sharing this with you because homeopathy has worked for my daughter, twice. If you are a parent, looking to support your child and you are reading about homeopathy, you might decide that it's hocus pocus. You may move on. I want to share my experiences with parents so they will give homeopathy a chance. Being a parent is hard. We make difficult choices every day and, most of us doubt our decisions. We fear making the wrong decision, making things worst. I am not a doctor or a naturopath and I certainly don't sell these products. All I can say is they worked for us. I hope, should you need them, that they'll work for you.

Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org

Quality of Life

June 7th, 2016

Years ago, I was hired to complete quality of life surveys in Chronic Care Hospitals throughout Ontario. I loved this work because I got to sit with patients and talk for a bit before and after each survey. They would tell me why they were there and what they missed about being healthy and at home. I got to learn from them what made their stay at the hospital more tolerable. There were hospitals where staff welcomed us and others where we were definitely not wanted. I could get a sense of each unit by the way staff interacted, or failed to interact, with the patients. I saw a lot of lonely individuals but I was also impressed with their resilience. Some people remained optimistic despite really tragic situations.

One of the favorite parts of my job was the challenge of communicating with individuals whose ability to speak was impaired. Some people had computers attached to their wheelchairs. They would move their eyes, tongues or fingers and the computer would type a message. In some cases what they wrote would be spoken out loud by the computer. I would scroll through the lists of names that were deemed unable to complete the interview and I would visit these patients. We would usually find a way to complete the interview which thrilled me. It came down to decoding their language. I would ask Yes/No questions then encourage them to blink, look up or down, stick out their tongue, lift a finger or raise eyebrows in order to say yes. I think these interactions led me to my future career in art therapy. I was so moved by the experience of understanding someone's language, of knowing that this person's voice was heard despite the challenges we faced. Art therapy also gives a voice to individuals who feel invisible, mute or otherwise limited in their ability to express themselves.

I was touched by the simple things that improved quality of life-privacy (knock before you enter a room), kindness (staff who spoke to them and made eye contact every time they entered their room to administer care), connection (having opportunities to interact with others through recreational programs or volunteer visits) and dignity (being treated with respect, not like a number or an inanimate object). There was a really intelligent woman paralyzed from the neck down. She missed having intellectual stimulation. In my time with her we found a wand that she could wear with a band strapped to her head. We could obtain a book holder and use the wand to turn the pages as she read books. She was ecstatic at the thought of reading again. I had suggested audio books initially but she was visual and the audio books did not engage her, she would fall asleep. I thought about this woman for some time after our interview. I can't imagine how difficult it would be to have a perfectly functional brain but an unresponsive body-to have all these ideas and never be able to act on them.

When I wrote my art therapy thesis, I examined the factors that contribute to quality of life and mental health for older adults living in long term care. My goal was to link self-expression through art therapy to each factor. I can now see how each factor would be challenged during a hospital stay.
You are admitted to the hospital because you are no longer able to function the way you used to, you are cut off from your neighbourhood, family and friends, you depend on others for food, hygiene, entertainment, you have less control over your life and you don't have a well-defined purpose when you get up in the morning.

Once in a while, when I feel bummed by events in my life, I remind myself that I am so very lucky that I can get up on my own, drive where I want to go, eat, make plans, choose the activities that fill my day and interact with many lovely individuals along the way.

Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org