ATTENTION DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER (ADHD) CASE STUDY
This case study of homeopathic studies is an excerpt from Pierre Fontaine's book "Homeopathy, Sweet Homeopathy: Coming Home to Perfect Health". Available on Amazon.
GEORGE
(6 yr old)
MC: ADHD
(Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder)
• History of ear infections
Pierre: What can you tell me about your son, please?
Mother: “My son needs consciousness, he is not here. He is super fast in math and he loves to read but he has difficulties staying on tasks and following directions. He has enormous difficulties cooperating.”
How does that translate in every day life?
“He hangs out in the bathroom in school and curses at his baby sitter. He walks around a lot.”
Please tell me more about Sam.
“He is not very good at making friends in school because he always has his own agenda. Kids don’t want to spend time with him. He is a loner. He always seems to be hot. In the middle of the winter he goes out in shorts and a T-shirt and it doesn’t affect him at all.”
Sam, can you please tell me about your dreams?
Sam: “I’m on a boat, the whole family gets off the boat and I go home but my parents are not home. I am totally alone. I pound on the door, I see that it is not locked so I go in and I watch TV. When it’s almost time to go to bed a T-rex crashes through the ceiling. A helicopter chases me; it is trying to kill me with water. The T. rex swats the helicopter and saves me. We then go to sleep together.”
What kind of food do you like?
Sam: “I like meat and sour stuff.”
Mother: “I should tell you he eats like three people and yet he does not gain weight.”
Please tell me about the pregnancy.
Mother: “When I first got pregnant I was frenzied for a few of days and then it settled down. The last four months of the pregnancy were very grueling. I had to go on a diet because I was diagnosed with diabetes. I lost 10 lbs during the pregnancy. I was constantly on the go. I was very upset I had to limit what I could eat and I felt tired all the time. Physically, it was draining to be pregnant but the most challenging was the limitations of food. I felt like I was all alone on an island, totally by myself. I can see the city over there but the ferry is not going to come for a long time. It is a desolate place. The ferry has its own agenda.”
For my purpose, this is beautiful information. Please continue.
“The ferry is very much like guards in a prison. I am totally at the ferry’s mercy and it is absolutely awful.”
REMEDY:
Natrum Iodatum 30C.
Let me share the “Materia Medica” (dictionary where the remedies are listed and detailed) with you.
“They are completely alone in their struggle for life. It may be a matter of getting something to eat. The most basic right of food is taken away, as well as other rights, such as freedom of movement, freedom of expression and the right to have some belongings. Such a person has no say in the situation and is dependent on the whims of his guard. A third variation is the feeling that all possibilities of escape have been taken away. This is a concentration camp situation.”
This description fits Sam most perfectly.
FOLLOW UP:
Pierre: How is Sam?
“His teacher asked me what we did because she has seen a major behavioral improvement in school. When he first took the remedy there was a big improvement in attitude and behavior. Whereas he did not have any signs of conscience before, now it is much better. Like I said, the teacher also noticed the change in behavior and attitude. He does not stay angry as long. He is more eager to please. He is doing more things on his own. Doing his homework is not as nearly as difficult as before because he is not as distracted.”
I am very happy to hear that. Can you tell me more?
“He seems to be happier at home. He is not as angry when he wakes up. He is more selective about things he is carrying in his pockets. He used to carry all kinds of little toys in his pockets now when I do the laundry I don’t find as many. He used to nudge and gravitate around his brother, now he seems to be more independent.”
Remedy:
Wait.
PHONE: (2 weeks later)
Pierre: How can I help you?
“He is coughing, sneezing, and he has a sore throat. He has a bit of a fever.”
Is he doing anything out of the ordinary?
“I noticed that he is only asking for cold food or cold O.J. He does not want anything hot or even warm.”
Remedy:
Phytolacca
PHONE: (3 days later)
Pierre: How is Sam?
“I can’t believe it. His throat stopped hurting before we arrived at doctor’s office so he did not even see him.”
PHONE: (One week later)
“I can see he is slipping back into his old ways.”
REMEDY:
Repeat the constitutional remedy.
FOLLOW UP: (Six months later)
How has Sam been lately?
“He is really well. He has been very helpful at home. He is like a different kid. His brother bothers him but he does not respond like before. There is a major difference.”
REMEDY:
Wait.
FOLLOW UP: (Six months later)
“He has been doing very well in school. He is pleasant. Nowhere near the way he was when I first brought him.”
DISCUSSION
I present this case because the child is so “out there” and the mother is so fantastic.
From the time the child walks in the consultation room he totally avoids me. He might not even have seen me even though I shook his hand. When his mother asks him a question he does not acknowledge her whatsoever. In a strange way it is like “he is not here.”
Observation: He has a cracked, red lower lip.
I understand a lot of parents would be happy to see their ADHD kid read and do math. This case is a little bit more than ADHD.
When I tried to get his attention I was met by an absolute inability to focus any kind of attention on me. I repeated his name several times. As I mentioned before it was as if he were not here. Nothing registered. In my experience the best way to get children’s attention is to ask them about their dreams but in his case he did not even react to that. I insisted and finally he came out of his blankness.
I could not get any more information than that, he didn’t want describe anything to me. He kind of went blank again.
His mother says “He eats like three people” and he was actually underweight. That, combined with his insensibility to cold weather were two characteristics that gave me indications for a remedy.
For further information I asked the mother about the pregnancy.
As I am listening to the mother tell her story about having to “limit what she could eat” I am remembering the child’s ravenous appetite. She also describes her state wonderfully well.
The mother’s unique and eloquently explained state during pregnancy was key. She felt like on an island at the mercy of the ferry.
1: It is very difficult to escape from an island, which is why the most famous jails are built on islands.
2: She felt at the mercy of the ferry much like at the mercy of the guards in a camp. The ferry was withholding the food. She couldn’t say anything. She felt her freedom was terribly restricted. The dream of the child reflects the idea of being alone and not being able to escape. The helicopter is right above. One can never escape the searchlight of a helicopter. The child’s dream is updated to his time but it is the same state as the mother’s during the pregnancy. If we take the child’s dream we can’t arrive at the remedy unless we ask a lot more questions but once we have the mother’s state it makes prefect sense.
The child appears much calmer and somehow in this short amount of time he seems more mature. He said “Hi” to me and shook my hand. He is playing with a toy but he is also paying attention to what his mother is telling me.
With such a good follow up there is no need to give anything at this point. He continues to improve; the Vital Force (VF) is still working its way into better health. The only two times we need to repeat a remedy is when the person stops improving or if there is regression. Eventually the resonance is strong enough for the VF to stay healthy for a long time.
Desiring cold food or drinks during a cold/sore throat is a strange, rare and peculiar (SRP). I should point out that it is unusual for a parent to be aware of such details but his mother is very much in tune. In George’s case the mother makes the observation that “before homeopathy I never paid attention to these things.”
Today, instead of giving an acute remedy like I did I would recommend a repetition of the constitutional remedy. Doing so would probably have avoided the “slipping back” and it would have dynamized or strengthened the Vital Force.
Close to two years later he continues to do very well. Now imagine what kind of an adult George would become without a homeopathic remedy. Now a whole new future is opened to him.