Do you feel you’ve never been well since a stressful time?
I often hear people say they feel as if they’ve been never well since a big stress in their life. Maybe you experienced a single very stressful event or had to endure a prolonged spell of high stress levels? Either can knock our health so much that we struggle to get back to feeling ourselves afterwards.
When someone first comes to me for a homeopathic consultation, I am always looking for the event which preceded the decline in their health. Ones I see frequently include:
- Bereavement
- Divorce
- Pressure of work deadlines
- Relationship difficulties
- A major disappointment
- Juggling too many things with no time left to relax
Sometimes the person is only too aware of the connection and takes me straight to it. However, it is not unusual that the individual only becomes aware of how a stress may have triggered a health problem when we talk through the succession of events in detail at a consultation.
Physical health problems due to stress
With some physical health problems, there is a well recognised link to stress. Examples include:
- High blood pressure
- Acid indigestion
- Irritable bowel syndrome
- Headaches
However, stress can make us more susceptible to a very wide array of other illnesses and contribute to exhaustion, irritability & depression.
How stress affects energy levels
High stress levels may initially make us feel energised, wired and able to keep going unusually long without a break.
Over time, however, our energy levels drop and tiredness can become debilitating. You may have heard this referred to as adrenal fatigue. You can read more about the role of our adrenal glands in handling stress in my posts on Stress, fatigue and your adrenal glands and What have my adrenals to do with my under-active thyroid?
The homeopathic approach to stress
Many people in today’s world will describe themselves as stressed but the term means different things to different people. There is no one homeopathic remedy for stress – any remedy can help if it matches the person. So, to find the homeopathic remedy that will help you best, a homeopath needs to understand more about the type of events that are most stressful for you and how these leave you feeling.
Maybe you feel constantly nervous? or have an underlying sense of agitation? Or are feeling utterly drained and unable to cope. Maybe it is work problems that preoccupy you or relationship issues that are your major challenge?
How might a homeopathic remedy help you?
A remedy does not act in a chemical way, but rather stimulates your natural resilience to stress and so helps you handle it better. It can help restore equilibrium after a stress has knocked you off balance.
Example remedies for people under stress
The following are just a few examples from the thousands of remedies from which a homeopath chooses the one most suitable for you but may give you an idea of the selection process:
Calc-carb
People who do well on calc carb tend to be determined, methodical and task focused. They are reliable workers who get their job done. However, if they get loaded with additional responsibilities, are pressured with tight deadlines or feel they are being watched to see how well they are doing, they find this stressful. Situations where I have seen calc carb be helpful include an office worker being expected to take on extra work when a colleague went on maternity leave and a secretary being asked to reapply for her job following a period of company reorganisation.
Nat-mur
Nat-mur is a major remedy for ill health resulting from bereavement or the ending of a relationship. People who will benefit from this remedy tend to keep their feelings to themselves and those around them may well not realise how upset they are. The person needing nat-mur may cry in private, perhaps while listening to sad music, but can also feel unable to cry even though they feel they would like to. It may take them a long time to be able to trust again following a relationship break up. Nat-mur has helped many people who are feeling down and unable to move on from a sad event.
Sepia
Is particularly useful for women overloaded by the business of looking after children and the family home. They feel overworked, prevented from doing things just for them and life can feel like drudgery. Irritability often sets in and they may be weepy too. They long to escape for some “me time”. Many mothers have told me how much better they felt after some sepia, that their PMS mood swings have become a thing of the past and that their partners have noticed how much less grumpy they are!
Staphysagria
A useful remedy for those who have never felt well since an injustice or since being humiliated or bullied. There is a lot of bottled up anger which may explode out when pressures have been building and building. They may sense that anger inside them or have buried it so deeply they are completely unaware of it. I have found this remedy useful for those subjected to workplace bullying, passed over for a promotion they felt should be theirs or living with a partner who puts them down a lot.
Homeopathy could help you if you feel never well since a big stress
Stress is brought on by numerous situations and is experienced in many different ways. It is by matching the details of your individual stress pattern, that an effective homeopathic remedy can be found. It won’t numb any difficult feelings but instead can help you handle them more easily. This can contribute to you being able to move on from past stresses and feel more resilient to face future challenges too.