Magnesium muriaticum oxydatum_Case 3

Ida is a tall 56 years old woman with broad shoulders, yet her back is hunched up and she speaks in a self-effacing manner. She is very capable in her profession as a nurse, but she is unable to assert herself in work situations and thus is often subjected to abusive language hurled at her from colleagues who are “nasty bullies,” and tend to be very aggressive toward her. A young nurse at work who is very slack and aggressive, though a junior nurse she often tells Ida off for not doing certain chores. In other words, Ida is treated badly by other nurses from work and they often take their frustrations out on her. This situation is often compounded by her inability to express herself and difficulty in speaking up.
As such, she is very scared of going to work and becomes very anxious especially when the shift consists more senior people – a great fear of authority. She is scared and frightened of authoritative figures because potentially she could be on the receiving end of their anger (for no real reason), “I am scared.” She has been having dreams of being murdered – “really scared” – repeated a few times.
Ida says that she has the need to do everything correctly, perfectly, and is a bit neurotic about patients’ care. She gets so terribly stressed out because of a desire to do everything perfectly. She continues “I have been exhausted for the last 25 years, and sometimes have to stay in bed resting all day.”


Ida’s childhood was traumatic to say the least. Father left for his homeland after her parents separated (she didn’t see him again). Then, her mother began to live with this “disgusting man (stepfather),” as Ida calls him - he was abusive, called Ida ‘stupid,’ ‘no good,’ often very threatening – threatened to kill her mother. “My mother loves money, living with this man meant we didn’t have to pay rent. I was very traumatized and under constant abuse. I have always been quiet and didn’t dare to say anything, which was mistaken for not being intelligent, yet, one day I recited the whole poem in front of them.”
“When I got older during my nurse training, I went out with other girls but couldn’t speak a word about anything the whole night because I was afraid of being stupid.” She goes on to relate her experience with boys, the same pattern repeats itself: “I also had two boyfriends, they borrowed money from me but didn’t pay me back. Later on when I got married, my husband was also verbally very abusive, and he was cold and blamed me for his depression. We separated after four years and I have been alone since. There is still the desire for a loving relationship and often feel really embarrassed when I am attracted to a man just because he was nice to me.”


Ida’s physical symptoms:
Very bad abdominal pain – ulcers – Dr. prescribed antibiotics (1996).
Worse for sugar – have to lay down after ingested it.
Had dysmenorrhoea at age 20, frequent migraines.
Pressure under the eyes and often not feeling well.


Case Analysis:
This is another Magnesium case; the combination of the family home being a war zone – parents in constant fights creates a threatening and unsafe environment for the children growing up in it. The outcome from growing up in such an environment is the lack of confidence and feeling of anger – caught up in rage (powerlessness) on the one hand and passivity on the other. Ida’s mother should have protected her from the abuse by the stepfather instead putting her own need for money and security before her daughter’s safety and wellbeing (the deepest betrayal of a child). This gives the combination remedy of Muriaticum. Being abused when growing up as well as subjected to verbal abuse by her husband, work colleagues throughout her entire life is another important aspect in Ida’s inner pattern. Therefore, the element Oxydatum is part of the remedy picture too.


Prescription: Magnesium-muriaticum-oxydatum 200C.
The sensation immediately after taking the remedy is the feeling of relaxation, calmness, happier feeling (the feeling of sadness is lifting off), feeling of tension on the shoulders is easing and the stress around the eyes is going.
On one of her returning visits Ida related to me: “I cried for four days after the remedy (1M) because I began to reflect on the suicide of my ex-husband’s second wife. There was so much pain caused by him; he emotionally abused me and deliberately withheld affection and love – all I needed was a bit of love.”
“I now have much more sense of myself and can get my point across when presenting a paper in front of colleagues whereas in the past, I was so scared and couldn’t get a word out. I am also much stronger and not running around frantically trying to be perfect.” There is definitely an inner core forming within Ida. The following report is even more astounding coming from Ida who especially had always took the abusive behaviour from her colleagues silently.
Ida tells me on her last retuning visit: “I had my assessment done with the supervisor, in the past, I would have been so scared and anxious, but this time was different; she was pleased with my work output. So I asked if I could be in charge of the ward, and she said ‘I can’t see why not.’ I have so much more confidence now, not so scared.” Another interesting event took place: “I stood up for a patient who was badly treated by this very aggressive colleague (below Ida in rank). Now I got the courage to give instructions to other nurses who are working under me. I don’t feel any anger toward this nurse and can forgive her behaviour. Whereas the past, I was always very frightened and allowed her to boss me about because I perceived her as if she was my stepfather. Now, I can see that I am the most senior nurse here, so I am in charge.”
She is now also able to express anger and told her daughter how she felt when the daughter deliberately did something to hurt her – “I felt that I was put down, she was emotionally nasty to me. In the past, I would felt ashamed by what she said, and tried to hide it, now I fought back and said to my daughter how her action has affected me.”


During this last visit I gave her 200C instead of the 1M potency because Ida was feeling unwell physically; had a bad reaction towards sugar (“I tend to take sugar when my energy is low”), pressure under the eyes, feeling very tired, got slight migraine headache though it has hardly been an issue since the remedy. However, after the 200C she was feeling one hundred percent better.


I have always prescribed the same remedy, which I gave constitutionally, when the patient gets an acute manifestation. If the remedy prescribed for the constitution is the simillimum, then it ought to assist the body to heal itself without the necessity to give a different remedy for the acute.


Over the four month period Ida received the remedy from 200C up to 1M. Her feeling of anxiety returned periodically with less and less intensity, which is the natural process of healing. Generally she is much better, though the physical symptoms (feeling tired and not well) come and go. I expect Ida to become much stronger physically when her sense of herself becomes stronger as she continues to heal the past wounds.
The change within Ida over the four months period is remarkable given that she has always behaved like a little mouse, though quite tall, throughout her whole life. Now, this is the first time she has ever experienced her own inner strength to be able to stand up not only for herself, but also for the patients and protected them from being bullied (Nursing home for the aged). She is emerging from being the little mouse she was to become a woman who stands in her own inner power and strength.


The core of these three cases is these women’s experiences of being abused with varying intensity in all areas of their life and their remarkable transformational journey from a person who had no sense of who they are, nor the strength to claim the right to existence, they have become women of substance with inner value and able to stand in their feminine strength. Central to their healing journey is that they have all gained insight into their lives with awareness that they only have control over how they respond to other people, but not how others act. Also, the quality of forgiveness is evident in the way they relate to others. What stood out for me in these cases is that the time for their remarkable transformation took only months instead of years of hard work and hundreds of hours of counseling.
This is the depth of healing that I would expect of homoeopathy the soul healing is the journey of life. This is the gift of homoeopathy to humanity and the gift of Scholten’s Element Theory.


Ai-Ling Su Makewell
email: essentialbeing@ozforces.com