Caught in a trap: a case of Drosera

I would like to describe my first experience of treating a patient with Sankaran’s method.  

I first became fascinated by this method after attending the autumn seminar last year in Poznan. Sankaran’s convincing way, in which he described the precisely targeted and repeatable selection of drugs, his explanation of miasms and systematics of drugs with their kingdoms and subkingdoms, all illustrated by very interesting cases of cured patients, convinced me to continue the study of this method and to check it in practice.

Attending the seminar was the first step, the next one was to purchase the computer program VitalQuest, and I did not have to wait long for the first results in my practice.

My patient had been treated homeopathically for a while. She reacted quite well to Natrium muriaticum. She had been attending psychotherapy for a relatively long time because of her marriage problems. 

She says that her problems are caused by early childhood trauma:

Patient (P): “…hence my sadness. I'm a sad melancholic type, very introverted and closed. I have difficulties in expressing my emotions. A black hole of despair, I couldn’t escape...”

Since psychotherapy she has experienced a boundless sorrow.

P: “… I can still fall into the hole but now, I know how to get out of it. I have problems in contacts with people. I like solitude, I’m well for a while but then, I feel miserable.  

“In conflict situations, I don’t stand up for myself. I only raise my voice in extreme situations. During the argument, I'm tense; I have to pull myself together, then, I have to break through my husband’s monologue. I give up and listen submissively and finally, I prefer to isolate myself and read books. Books and films have replaced my reality. I show anger passively – I get offended because I feel insulted and I totally fall into myself, I do not want to talk. I find it hard to overcome my mental blockages to express my emotions and opinions.

“I didn’t complete university’; I wasn’t self-confident enough.

“My way to cope with stress is eating.

“My sadness comes from realizing that as a child I did not get from my mother the most important thing: unconditional love. In my family home, if you wanted to avoid punishment, you had to hide your emotions, otherwise you were punished for crying.You were supposed to be polite, quiet, calm, and to follow the instructions. My father drank, and my mother was physically and mentally abusive towards us. I was six months old when my mother sent me to my grandmother. I was brought up by both of them: mother/grandmother. I didn’t have any emotional contact with either of them. At my grandmother’s, I grew up among animals.

“As a schoolchild, I started to suffer from bronchitis, pneumonia, and then, I developed bronchiectasis. I spent a lot of time in sanatorium, where I wasn’t ill at all – I felt safe. I used to be sent over parcels.

“I like sweets, dark chocolate, coffee, and salty foods.

“I avoid the sun; I don’t feel well in hot weather.

“In the past, I had acne, cold sores on the lips, constipation, and painful menstruation.”

At some point, she experienced spotting and pain in the vagina. An USG test showed a myoma of 1.0 cm in diameter. The patient became overwhelmed by panic, fearing cancer. 

After taking Natrium muriaticum, she calmed down and the vaginal pain decreased by 50%. She started to have a repeated dream: lost children, always girls, wandering alone, getting lost. She feels helpless, and the following day, she looks for these children.

Although she took Natrium muriaticum, some more problems appeared, which she associates with a tick bite. She suspects that it is Lyme disease, and her suspicion is reinforced by the fact that her husband and son suffered from it.

She was taken to hospital and treated with antibiotics. Detailed tests excluded Lyme disease, and we met again on her follow up visit, during which I was trying to practice my newly learned Sankaran method.

P: “…I have a slightly elevated TSH, and fT3 and fT4 in the lower limits of the normal range. I was prescribed Euthyrox with a recommended daily dosage of 50 micrograms, and since then, I have been in a better physical condition, but for the last three days, I have been feeling a significant drop in mood and energy.

“I feel as if I’ve had a depression. I don’t feel like doing anything, I have to force myself to everything. No joy, just inner sadness, nothing makes me happy. Life is lame, I feel nothing at all. I feel as if I’ve broken into pieces and I can’t pick myself up.

“When I found out that I didn’t have multiple sclerosis, I was disappointed about not being seriously ill. I thought it would be great to be ill and attract the attention and care, and now I still have to be an efficient machine…”

PS: What does ‘breaking into pieces’ mean?

P: “…I can’t find any meaning in my life, in my activities. I find it hard to put everything together, to make sense of it. Natrium alleviates me, but doesn’t change what is inside me…”

She begins telling me about her recurring dream and emphasizes that it strongly reflects her current situation, her feelings.

Dream: “Bus Station, last night it was a taxi stall – I'm in those places, I want to escape but there is no way out. I don’t know where I can buy a ticket and where the platform is. I have the feeling of being in a trap and I can’t escape. I always walk around with a feeling of being lost and with gloomy helplessness. The feeling of being trapped is very strong.  I’m in despair because I can’t get out of the station; I'm totally devastated by that situation.

PS: Please, tell me a little more about being in a trap.

P: “It’s desperation, I feel unhappy, hopeless and defeated. I think I should make some changes in my life but I’m not able to do that. I get lost, I can’t find my own path in my present situation.

“The only decision is to divorce my husband. That would make me free from this feeling. However, there are some buts: will I be able to manage without him, and what about the child who is emotionally connected with his father? Would it be a good solution in the long run? I don’t know, I have a lot of ambivalent feelings and thoughts. The strongest one is the fear of mental consequences; will I be able to bear the stress, the responsibility?

“I feel as if I’ve been trapped in my life.

“I am becoming aware of the fact that my husband will never change: I either get stuck in it or I leave him, there is no other possibility. 

“A trap – I can’t make up my mind about leaving and I am unhappy with the way I live.

“Internal conflict, the dilemma whether to split up and live on my own, or stay and fight for my family.

“This is a war, I have to fight but now, I completely don’t feel like fighting. It’s a no-win situation.”

Case analysis

Analyzing the interview, I focused on the patient’s dream sensations. She emphasized that her dream closely reflects her current condition. There was a great amount of energy in her dreams. I made the analysis with the use of Sankaran’s computer program, VitalQuest. It allows you to enter all of the patient’s interview data, either selected parts or just single phrases or words. The patient’s expressions chosen by me:

trap a feeling of being losthelplessness  despair because I can’t get out no way out

In the first stage, the program shows the percentage of the kingdom in which the medicine should be found. In my case:

plant kingdom 58%, miasms 23%, animal kingdom 17%.

Features shown by the patient belong to the plant kingdom: strong feeling, sensitivity, “I feel insulted, I can’t stand it.” In her sensations, there are no items from the animal kingdom: rivalry, a survival theme,  attractiveness, sexuality or an attacker and a victim.

So, I narrowed my search to the plant kingdom. In the next stage, the program indicated the orders of plants and among them Nepenthales / carnivorous plants, with the highest percentage. The main drugs in this order are Drosera and Sarracenia.

Key words for the carnivorous plants expressed by the patient:

caughttrappedno way outcan't escape

Now, it was time to identify the type of patient’s miasm.

In the past, she often suffered from bronchitis and pneumonia. Currently, she says that she feels weakness; she has a strong sense of oppression and that her weakness is exploited. It mainly concerns the relationship with her husband. These are the properties of tubercular miasm.

According to Sankaran’s method, the drug must be situated at the cross-point between the order and the miasm.  

In the case of Nepenthales the drug for tuberculosis is Drosera.

Drosera belongs to the genus of "sticky-trap" plant. Beautiful colors and sweet nectar attract unsuspecting insects. Tentacles located on the leaves have sticky dew that helps to catch insects, which are gradually, enzymatically digested, and eventually absorbed by the plant.

Prescription: Drosera 1M

Follow-up

Three weeks later: “I feel inner peace and it is not suppression. Emotions have weakened. Small bad things that I formerly would have considered to be gigantic problems are now much more bearable. I started to see more positives than negatives. Life isn’t ‘lame’ anymore.

“Two weeks ago, I had a big argument with my husband and I put “all my eggs in one basket”. My husband is starting to change, and I'm more understanding.

“I used to focus on bad things, now I keep the right balance.”

Dreams?

“Nothing special; the bus station dream has never come back.

“Recently, I’ve started to enjoy the sea and the sun, and I feel great. Now, I can’t stand the mountains that I used to like in the past.”  

A year later, the patient’s depression has not returned and her marriage is back on track. With the right remedy, the recovery has been swift and lasting.

Photos
Portrait by Candace Charlton
Leaf of Drosera rotundifolia; Siga; Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0