In homeopathy, there are two ways of treating your health issues: acute and chronic. You can use homeopathy for both, but there are some key differences for you to be aware of.
Definitions
Acute health issues – a condition or symptoms that have been around for less than 3 weeks.
Examples: a cold, random nosebleed, bee sting, headache, injury, and more
Goal of treatment: to provide immediate relief & resolution
Chronic health issues – a condition or symptoms that have been around for more than a month, or symptoms that reoccur on a periodic basis.
Examples: seasonal allergies, autoimmune conditions, symptoms from old injuries and more
Goal: to provide lasting healing of your health issues by discovering & treating the root cause
Symptom Picture – all the details related to a person’s complaint
Example: I am suffering from a headache. A complete symptom picture for me looks like:
-head pain that moves from the left to the right
-pain in head is aching
-light makes the pain worse
-no desire to drink water
-I feel worse being by myself and want to be with people
– all I want to eat is potato chips
The below definitions are more technical; feel free to skip to the next section.
Repertory – a dictionary/reference guide of huge mass of symptoms that homeopathic remedies are known to help with, along with information from when the homeopathic remedies were tested. The repertory is organized in a practical form indicating the relative gradation of the remedies.
Example: if you are suffering from a headache, you would go to the repertory and look under the Head section. In the Head section, you would look for the sub-category “Pain” for remedies suggestions. Remedies are noted in CAPS, bold type or italics to indicate in a visual way what remedies are the best fit for Head – Pain.
Rubric – a term used to describe how remedies are organized in the repertory
Example: Head- pain – aching is a rubric
Acute vs Chronic prescribing
When acute prescribing, one of the methods that can be used to find the best remedy is CLAMS.
C : Concomitant – What is the main complaint or symptom? What secondary symptoms accompany the main one? Example: the main symptom is a painful cough, and the person also has sore throat –that would be a secondary symptom.
L : Location – What is the exact location of the main complaint? Example, the pain is on the right side only.
A : Aetiology – The cause of or circumstances present at the time when it began. Example: a sports injury, a sudden shock, death of a loved one or a car accident.
M : Modality – Anything that causes the presenting complaint to get better or worse. Example: the complaint is better for cold, worse when going up stair and better in a room with no drafts.
S : Sensation – How the person is actually experiencing the complaint. Example, is the pain: stabbing, constant, shooting, aching, sharp, radiates?
Once you gather all these details, you would look up rubrics in a Homeopathic repertory. Ideally you would want 5 -8 rubrics. If you are using online software, it will bring up several remedies to consider.
Take the top 5 remedies and read about them in Materia medica, picking the one to take that matches your symptoms the best.
That’s acute prescribing. It is a specific remedy to help your body in the moment overcome the symptoms.
If the symptoms are reoccurring or part of a chronic issue, unfortunately acute prescribing may not lead to long term healing. It can help you in the moment, but it does not root out the problem.
Chronic Prescribing
Chronic Prescribing is a bit more involved. Not only do you need CLAMS, you need to take the whole history of the person:
–what was their childhood like?
-any illnesses/traumas/shock/death experienced?
– any times where they have never been well since?
-key events in their life & things that deeply affected them?
-state of current relationships?
-emotional state?
-food likes/dislikes?
-history of family diseases?
Then after you take all these details, go through the case, looking for the strange rare peculiar symptoms along with picking up the essence of the case. Now armed with that information, you go back to the repertory. Pick 5-10 rubrics that best fit the case, research the top 5 remedies that come up and then you can pick a remedy to pick. It is quite a process.
The goal of chronic prescribing is to get to the root cause of your symptoms. For example: what is driving the lingering cough, the constant fatigue and brain fog that has seem to take over your life? Chronic prescribing helps your body get to the real reason WHY, so your body can resolve the issues and heal.
Conclusion
With symptoms that are chronic, you can try self-prescribing. It may help temporarily, but for best long-term results I would see a homeopath, as they have been trained to gather all the details to help you get the bigger picture and get to what is causing the problems and to resolve it. Chronic prescribing is where homeopathy is not only a science but also an art.
Acute symptoms are easier to self-prescribe homeopathic remedies. There are a lot of resources out there that can help you self-prescribe. When I say “easier”, it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t involve thought or work. It just means that you don’t need to have a lot of background knowledge.
Struggling now?
If you are a current client with Radiant Homeopathy, and if you have something come up between consultations that you would like to find a remedy to help with an acute situation, I’m happy to help you. Please send me an email and if can’t be resolved via email, we can do a short consultation. More details can be found on our booking page.
Another option if you are stuck and struggling with acute symptoms during our non business hours, reach out to Homeopathy 24/7. There are amazing homeopaths there ready to take your acute case and in short time, help you find the best remedy to take, making getting back to feeling better a breeze.
Till next time,
Elisa