I am a good woman: a case of Crotalus cascavella

A forty-year-old woman came to the clinic for hyperthyroidism and small joint pains.

Passive case witnessing process (PCWP)

Patient (P): “Since the last two years, my husband is not taking care of me... I am constantly thinking of this.  (HG: hand rotating) He doesn’t care for my children either. Because of that, I am in this condition.  I have numbness in my head and palpitations, joint pains, tingling in my nerves, thyroid problems and weakness. I am always tense and I don’t feel free. I used to be fair-skinned, now I am dark. I have trouble sleeping.
“My own family is also against me; my brothers take sides with him. Nobody helps me.
“I feel angry a lot (HG: hands coming closer), what should I do about him? He has captured everything. (HG: claw coming down) Suspicion has taken root in me.”

Sayali Butala (SB): So what do you feel because of this?
P: “Either I should die or I should kill my husband. My family is very bad. They have bad intentions, they wish bad things for me, they want me to suffer and die. They are jealous of me because I have everything.
“A husband should keep relations with his wife, right? My husband doesn’t... I think he is involved with someone else. He troubles me. I feel so angry, (HG: holding) I feel like holding his clothes and banging my head in to him. He is doing something very bad.
“I am troubled because of my husband. I never refuse him anything, even I know how to keep a man but he only takes cares of her. He is wasting all the money. God knows who has done this and why?!”

SB: What do you think?
P: “My family has pulled him to their side... (HG: pulling). They have started controlling him. He goes to my sisters and is involved with them. I am a woman, I have never said ‘no’ to him for anything. If I had said ‘no’ and then he gets involved with other women, then I could understand.
“I have become a very suspicious woman.  I follow him everywhere, I don’t leave him alone at all. My husband doesn’t like it and he asks me ‘why do you do that?’ (HG: hand moves in ziz-zag movement).

Guided passive case witnessing process

SB: I have understood your situation, tell me something about your childhood now... whatever you remember.
P:  “After marriage my mother-in-law used to trouble me a lot. She was cunning. Because of her I started suffering from thyroid issues. When I was pregnant, she used to keep me hungry and thirsty. She has made me very unhappy (wiping mouth). She has done a lot of wrong things but I just hardened my heart.”

SB: What did you feel because of all this?
P: “I am a good woman... I did all the work they told me to do... but my in-laws were not good people. I used to feel angry a lot, what should I do to this lady?” (HG: holding)

Earlier, she had also spoken about her husband, in the same way with the same hand gesture. I understood that ‘anger’ and ‘doing something to them’ was her generalized feeling and reaction.

P: “Earlier, my husband used to listen to me but now he does what he wants to do. The children are also very upset because of their father. They also think that either we should kill him or die ourselves.”

She has generalized this feeling: ‘either you kill or die’ too. Also, since she was speaking constantly about situations affecting her, I asked about any other situation bothering her. This gives me one more area to check.

SB: Which other situations upset and trouble you?
P: “My children’s marriage. My daughter-in-law doesn’t take care of my son, she doesn’t let my son touch her. She takes her friend everywhere, purposefully. If you don’t get food at home, you will obviously eat outside, right? She doesn’t let my son touch her, how will my son live his life? My daughter-in-law troubles my son a lot, even though he is such a good person.”

She changes area spontaneously and speaks about her sisters.

P: “I am the only good person in my entire family, all my sisters are bad. They are all jealous and they incite others against me. They have got my husband and my home.”

I note that in all her relationships, whether husband, brothers, sisters, mother-in-law, and daughter-in-law, her perception is that they are doing something ‘bad’, they are‘troubling her’ and she is ‘good’. In her son’s situation, she sees her son as ‘good’ and daughter-in-law ‘troubling him’.

SB: What do you see in your dreams?
P: “My Husband is with other women.
“I have fearful dreams. Sometimes, I see water, sometimes I see snakes. Sometimes, I see huge streams of water carrying me. I feel very scared and I wake up with a start.
“I see people running behind me with rods in their hands, but they are not able to kill me, I go here and there, and I hide somewhere. They are running behind me to kill me. I feel very scared and I wake up.
“I am not bad and  I have not done anything wrong.”

The same feeling of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ is coming up in the dreams too, however in a denial way:  ‘I am not bad’. At this point, I realized that this is the ‘focus’ of the case, which I need to explore further to reach her centre.
Here, the patient spontaneously changed the area and started talking about her anger. Note that when the patient, while talking about something, suddenly changes area and talks about something else, it could be a subconscious connection.

P: “I get angry, a lot but I keep it with me, I can’t express it. My sisters keep calling at my place, they do it purposefully to mock me. I feel furious but can’t speak out.
“I see snakes in my dreams.”

We note that she started speaking about her ‘anger’ when narrating her dreams, and when describing her anger, she spontaneously went back to her dreams, specifically of snakes. This gives us a clue that it is indeed a subconscious connection. 

SB: What do you see exactly?
P: “Small, big snakes, they don’t bite, but are just circling around.
“My son has started a business; people are after him for money. People are after him and after me too.”

SB: Fears?
P: “Ghosts. In childhood, I was scared of my elder brother. He used to beat me and drag me by my hair if I didn’t listen to him. Later, I was scared of cats; they used to scratch the gate with their claws.”

SB: What was the fear of cats?
P: “The noise felt as if someone was trying to open the gates. They will come, harm and kill me and my children. Somebody will come and take me away, they will kill me. I used to be very scared.”

In her dreams too, she saw people running behind her to kill her and even her fear is that somebody will take her away and kill her.  In her anger, she feels like killing someone and conversely her fears and dreams speak of somebody killing her, so somewhere they both are connected.

Focus: ‘I am a good woman’, since it is coming up in many areas – conscious and subconscious.

Level of experience?
Even though the patient is narrating situations, qualified emotions and perceptions surface, hence, the level of experience is higher and she needs her remedy in higher potency, 1M, for example. Also, since the patient is too much into her situations, we may have to use dissociation techniques to break away from them and recognize her true being. 

Area?
Patient was speaking on a general level and was neither stuck in the local nor going through vital areas, hence general area.
Some hand gestures were coming up initially, but nothing repeatedly.

Active case witnessing process (ACWP)

SB: Tell more about  ‘I am a good woman’.
P: “I take care of everybody, I do all the household chores, I take care of my mother-in-law, I am a very soft- hearted person.

Earlier, she had spoken about ‘becoming hard-hearted’, so she is in denial.  She seems to be stuck to her situation and hence we dissociate her.

SB: In general, what is a ‘good woman’? Not related to you, just in general...
P: “She is not a fraud, doesn’t cheat anybody, doesn’t get involved with other men, she doesn’t hate anybody, she doesn’t do anything wrong. She is not jealous of anybody. She doesn’t have any bad intentions or sin in her heart. All other women have sin in their hearts. She doesn’t do anything bad, she thinks good about everybody. She is not cunning, no falsehood or cheating.
“Everybody is troubling me, still I don’t do any of these things. My own family, my in-laws all wish badly for me, but still I am a good woman, I don’t do anything to them.”

She has qualified the focus very well and also connected it with PCWP. Also spontaneous denials came up, so we are sure that whatever she is describing is part of her centre and not just a random description.

Since the focus is now confirmed, I start the Active – Active Case Witnessing Process. I keep her on this ‘good and bad women’ theme to see how she qualifies it further.

Active – active case witnessing process (ACWP)

SB: So, tell more about  what else does a ‘good woman’ not do? And all ‘bad women’, what do they do?
P: “They control men, seduce them. I am not bad at all. I hate other men.”

Such a strong spontaneous denial indicates she is very sensitive to it.

SB: Tell more about  ‘bad, cunning woman’.
P: “They control and seduce men, sleep with other men, they have a lot of anger in them. They quarrel with their husbands. They break up other peoples’ homes because they get money out of it. They wish bad for others, they poison the life of others and disturb the family.”

She has qualified the focus further and connected ‘anger’. Also, non human-specific language has started coming which gives soft hints about the kingdom and sub-kingdom. Patient changes area and goes back to her situation.

P: “My sisters take money from us and don’t return it; they take it and finish it off. They have all become my enemies.”

SB: What do you mean? What do you feel because of this?
P: “I feel jealous and upset. They have taken hold (HG: claw coming down) over my husband and our money, both! I don’t do anything bad, yet they wish only bad for me.”

The case started with her husband’s situation and from dissociation the patient reached the same situation, the cycle is now complete.  Also, the kingdom is now very clear.
I now ask her to describe her ‘anger and fury’ and the dreams, which are also an important part of the case.)

SB: Tell more about your anger and fury?
P: “I feel like either killing them or myself.  I used to feel furious with my mother-in-law, I felt like hitting her hard and leaving the place and hiding somewhere. But I only used to think all this, I never did anything as I used to feel scared.”

SB: Tell me about the dream where people are running behind you to kill you, what did you see exactly?

P: “Yes, they had rods in their hands, to hit me.  I hide somewhere, then they go, but they come again. They will kill me, they will take me somewhere.”

Confirmation

SB: Dreams of snakes?
P: “Black, grey, small, big, yellow, white all mixed.
“When I feel very angry, I am unable to talk.”

A physical connection with emotion indicates that it is coming from the centre.

Physical generals 
Craving:  lamb, potato, cabbage, bananas                           
Aversion:  chicken, apples, sour
Thermals:  chilly, complaints < hot weather
General aggravation:  all complaints start or aggravated at night, 2 pm, 3 pm when she has fever, vomiting or diarrhea.

Physical particulars 
Tingling, numbness alternate; tingling as if some animal crawling. Numbness as if beaten < morning,  > stretching, massage.

Lab Reports
TSH – 0.01 microIU/mL  (0.35 – 4.94)     
T3 –   11.1 ng/mL (0.58 – 1.59)
T4 – 18.85 microg/dL  (4.87 – 11.72)                                                                                                            

On medication : Neo-Mercazole 10mg   1-0-0

Analysis
She is a ‘good woman’ and her own family is against her, whether her brothers and sisters or her in-laws.
Sensitive to being wronged in any way
Her family has bad intentions, they have captured everything, pulled husband to their side.
People controlling others.
Troubled by everyone; even her son is troubled by her daughter-in-law.
Others have become her enemies.
People are doing something purposefully to mock her, either sisters or daughter-in-law.
Fears and dreams of somebody coming to harm her or kill her.  
Area of complaint: sensation as if some animal is crawling

This points to the Animal kingdom, where the main issue is of ‘one versus another’ and survival. The patient sees everybody as her enemy and she is troubled and wronged by all of them.

Further themes:  suspiciousness, jealousy, inciting others, cunning, sensitive about sexual matters, seducing, sleeping with other people and sin’; fraud, cheat; hold over people; poisoning the life; others want her to suffer and die; dreams of snakes

This indicates the sub-kingdom Ophidia. The patient also used the source word ‘poison’, which confirmed the Ophidia class of remedies. The subconscious area of dreams also speaks of the same source.

She also said: “I feel angry a lot; I feel like holding them and what should I do to them? I feel like killing, whether husband or mother-in-law; I get angry a lot, but I keep it within me, I can’t express it; I feel furious but can’t speak out; when I feel very angry, I am unable to talk; I see people running behind me with rods in their hands, but they are not able to kill me, I go here and there and I hide somewhere. They are running behind me to kill me; I used to feel furious; I felt like hitting her hard and leaving the place and hiding somewhere; I only used to think all this, never did anything as I used to feel scared; small, big snakes, they don’t bite, but are just circling around, black, grey, small, big, yellow, white all mixed.

This is the exact centre of Crotalus cascavella, where there is lot of suppressed anger as well as dreams and fears of being attacked by a group of people (Prisma).

Prescription: Crotalus cascavella 1M, three doses.
We started with three doses since her state and her complaints were quite intense.

Remedy differentiation: Naja tripudians has a similar centre, where the patient feels ‘stuck, helpless, oppressed, troubled and wronged’ by other people. However ‘suppressed anger and fury’ and ‘being attacked by a group of people and have to hide’ is not part of Naja. 

Follow-ups

First follow-up:  she said that the remedy suited her well. Her appetite improved, weight increased slightly, she started feeling relaxed. Anger reduced. Fearful dreams stopped. She also said “my husband has become completely normal now, he has straightened up,” which indicates that her perception also changed. We also advised her to consult her physician and regulate the thyroid medicine. Placebo given.

Follow-up after four months:  overall, she was much better, her joint pains had reduced, no anger, no issues with family and dreams had also stopped. Patient was now on ½ tablet daily, however her thyroid profile was not improving further, so we started frequent repetition of Crotalus cascavella. The potency this time was 200, since her state was better and the disturbance was only on the physical level. Her dosage was now Crotalus cascavella 200 every five days.

Follow-up after eight months : overall, she was much better and  theTSH – 0.58 normal. She was advised to meet the physician and reduce the anti-thyroid medicine. We also started tapering our medicine since she was overall much better, Crotalus cascavella 200 one dose every fifteen days now.

Follow-up after twelve months: anti-thyroid medicine stopped by her physician. She was emotionally and physically much better, her relationships had improved and she was in a good space. Crotalus cascavella 200 one dose every month, as a maintaining dose continued.

Follow-up after eighteen months:  all medicines stopped, only on placebo. TSH normal (2.53) and patient is overall better

Photos
Shutterstock: Angry young woman; davfiestaw
Wikimedia Commons: Crotalus; Selbymay; CC BY-SA 3.0