Julie came to see me over a year ago. She was suffering from anxiety and paranoia.
“I hear voices, sometimes in the distance and sometimes inside my head. They’re derogatory, always criticising me, not often telling me to do anything, once or twice they’ve told me to take my life. They say things like you’re ugly, you’re stupid or you’re fat – they put me down all the time, point out my weaknesses".
Julie told me she’d been a heavy cannabis user in the past but before using cannabis she’d been a normal teenager in a happy relationship, doing her A levels. The cannabis changed her, she started suffering from anxiety and she now drank a lot in an effort to cope with the voices and anxiety. She’d had a breakdown a few years ago, and that was the point that the voices came.
“I had a breakdown and the knocks and bangs turned to voices. I think people are reading my mind, I get weird thoughts. It makes me uncomfortable, I get weird sexual thoughts and nasty thoughts about people. I was scared out of my wits in the hospital; I thought the nurses were reading my mind.”
Things had got so bad that Julie had attempted suicide twice. She seemed very angry with herself for failing and at just about everyone else in her life for letting her down. She told me that she knew she was depressing to be around, that she’d lost almost all of her friends, but that she didn’t have the energy to do anything about it. “The constant voices are just exhausting,” she told me.
Julie still had high hopes for the future, she wanted to “get rid of this mental health rubbish” and do a degree. As a friend had brought her to me and paid for her treatment I realised that she did have at least one very good friend and gradually I was able to get her to talk a little more positively about herself. She had been able to fill an hour easily with all her negative traits but getting her to say anything positive about herself was far more difficult, however, it seemed that all of her suffering had made her extremely sympathetic to other people’s troubles and she spent an awful lot of her time doing things for other people in an attempt to try and lift them. She had an enormous amount of compassion, did some shopping for elderly people and helped a lot of other people with mental health issues. She shrugged this off as nothing, but I felt that being that compassionate and helpful, whilst dealing with so much anxiety and having a barrage of voices telling you horrible things about yourself, or what others thought of you was quite something.
First I detoxed Julie from the Cannabis using homeopathic remedies. We saw a slight improvement, but not as much as I hoped so I prescribed the homeopathic remedy Mercury which fitted her symptoms well.
Over the next few months she steadily improved, to the point where her friend didn’t have to bring her any more, she recognised the improvement and came of her own choice.
After 4 months of treatment this was her report:
“The voices have subsided, they are much more distant and not as rude. My dreams are not as violent or frightening, still very weird though. The anxiety is not too bad at all; I can go shopping now without being terrified. My memory is still rubbish though.”
Can you see how impressive it is that she went shopping for other people when she was actually terrified in a supermarket? We continued treatment for another couple of months with more improvement all round. There were a few ups and downs especially if she drank but 8 months after her first consultation she told me:
“I feel like a different person to be honest, I’ve really cut down on all the drugs from the doctor now; once the voices went I felt brave enough to start that. I don’t think I’m as strong as lots of other people, but I’m getting out and enjoying myself a bit more, being in social situations doesn’t seem as terrifying as it used to. I’ve started volunteering at a charity shop because I’d like to get a proper job and I thought that would be a good start.”
Well, I actually thinks she’s a lot stronger than many other people, mental illness is a difficult thing to cope with – and it was wonderful to see Julie come out the other side of it.
If you or anyone you care for suffers with mental illness do get in touch to see if homeopathy can help you: