In 2019, Lotus Homeopathy conducted a preliminary study of the effects of homeopathy on people suffering with PTSD. I wanted to know if homeopathy could help, and if so, how quickly. The answer was Yes, homeopathy can help people suffering from PTSD.
But what else did I learn? Some very interesting things as it relates to homeopaths as practitioners and for clients of homeopathy. But before we get into that, lets discuss how the study was structured.
Planning for the Study
When I organized this, I wanted some sort of objective method of measuring success. What were the initial symptoms and how bad were they? How much did they improve? And very importantly, who says this is PTSD? How do I know that those interested in being in the study actually were suffering from it?
I quickly found a questionnaire that was put together based on the DSM V and created by the Anxiety and Depression Association of America. I found it to contain valid questions, but the answers were just yes and no. There was no scale of how bad it was. Without such a scale, the results might be skewed. For example, if a symptom was rated 5 on a scale of 1-5 and after treatment was 2 on a scale of 1-5, then it would still be yes and would not appear to have helped.
Recreating The Questionnaire
I decided that just having Yes and No answers was not an accurate representation of how the client was doing. So I added a rating scale as well. In addition to asking whether the answer is Yes or No, if it is yes, the client is asked to rate it on a scale of 0-7, with 0 being As Good As It Could Be and 7 being As Bad As It Could Be.
With a rating scale, if a client said they were a 7 to start with and are now a 1, that’s a good sign of improvement. However, it would still be a Yes. So the Yes/No scale is not particularly useful.
Grouping of Results
In looking back at the participants, I was able to group those with PTSD into three groups: Military, First Responders and Civilians.
Military: This includes all branches of the armed services in the US.
What I found with those in my preliminary study was that their PTSD was from one of two types of experiences:
- A Near Death Experience from an attack.
- Survivor’s Guilt, meaning others in their troop, squad, company, etc., perished in battle. The person with PTSD survived. They might also have been the person who gave the orders which ultimately led to the death of one or more of their comrades. There is an element of grief in these situations as well as guilt.
First Responders: This could include EMTs, Fire Fighters, Law Enforcement, ER docs and nurses; basically, front line workers who get called when things have gone wrong.
It is really important to understand that from the perspective of a first responder, they always see people on the worst day of their lives. No one calls the fire department on a good day. No one goes to the ER when they are feeling good. Seeing so much suffering is difficult to endure day after day after day. Like Military folks, they also witness death, but usually in a less violent manner with the exception of perhaps inner-city hospitals.
Civilians: those who are affected by things that occur by being in the wrong place at the wrong time, for example, or things not turning out as expected.
- Near death experience
- Witnessing the death of another.
- Rape, torture, or other physical abuse
- Work related trauma
- Birth trauma
CPTSD
Separate from PTSD in civilians is something called Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or CPTSD. There is come controversy on whether this is a separate diagnosis or not. Regardless of the differences of opinion, it diverges from the other civilian experiences from a homeopathic perspective.
While there is some overlap, the remedies are different for CPTSD than PTSD, generally speaking. In a general way, CPTSD sufferers have come from dysfunctional family upbringings. That is not necessarily the case with those experiencing PTSD.
Remedies For the Three Groups of PTSD Sufferers
Just as their experiences are different, the remedies are different as well for the three groupings of those with PTSD.
For example, all three groups can witness death, but different remedies are needed depending on the level of violence involved. Because of the nature of military experiences, there is a whole family of remedies that are considered for anyone with military PTSD that might not be an option for civilians.
People who have experienced rape and torture need remedies that have a very dark energy about them.
Results from the Study
I have not yet compiled all the results from the study, but will write a blog post on that another day.
What Next?
If you have PTSD, or think you may, you can fill out the PTSD Assessment MS Word by clicking on the link, click again in the screen that comes up and save it to your computer. The Form is in Microsoft Word and can be completed online, saved and emailed back to the email address on the form.
If you don’t have access to Microsoft Word, the PDF form is also available right here, but may need to be printed, scanned and emailed back. PTSD Assessment PDF
Or, if you would like to get started on healing, you will complete the form at the first appointment. Go ahead and schedule an initial consult.
The artistic images in this blog post were generated by an AI art generator called DREAM.
Some of you know me, others of you may have heard of me. And for most, you probably have no clue about me or my business. So I wanted to take a few minutes to introduce myself, my family, my business, why I am a homeopath and how I became a homeopath—not necessarily in that order.