What does it mean?
What to do about the return of old symptoms?
Meaning
A return of old symptoms is a positive sign in homeopathic philosophy. It means the patient is moving towards a higher level of health and vitality. The homeopath cannot help feeling he/she has accomplished something of value when they hear an update from a patient telling of past symptoms coming back after a homeopathic remedy was prescribed.
It means the remedy prescribed by the homeopath was correct and on target. It means that the remedy is working deeply to resolve past complaints that were previously suppressed into the energetic layers of the body and never truly cured.
Old symptoms coming back is a sign that the chosen remedy prescribed by the homeopath has stimulated the Vital Force towards the right direction; not only curing the current complaint but also setting the Vital Force backwards in time through suppressed layers of illness that have accumulated over time.
Conventional medicine work against our body’s own efforts to heal itself, as they will suppress rather than support our symptoms and vital force. For instance, for a blocked nose, we may buy over-the-counter medicines that constrict the capillaries of the nasal membrane, fiving instant relief but not dealing with the root cause of the blocked nose.
Suppression will thus make us feel better in the short-term but cannot heal energetic imbalances in the deeper layers.
In fact, suppression creates the very situation we are trying to avoid – bad and ailing health. It weakens our vital force and therefore our vitality; making us less resistant to disease, health problems that runs in our family and other health problems in the future.
For instance, symptoms of asthma which disappear after the most appropriate homeopathic remedy but are replaced by debilitating hay fever symptoms. Hay fever being a complaint that affected the patient in childhood and young adulthood and which the patient treated with copious amounts of conventional medicines. These enabled the patient to get through the day until, one day the symptoms of hay fever calmed down and disappeared and was assumed to have been “cured”.
The reality was that the hay fever was never really cured, but simply suppressed and that outlet, the “vent” for the imbalance became unavailable, and so the imbalance moved inwards to the deeper organs; in this case the lungs and manifested itself as asthma (as well as other symptoms such as poor memory and hip pain). Thus, the path towards complicated and compound ill health is taken every time we choose to suppress symptoms rather than support the vital force.
However, the appropriate homeopathic remedy or homeopathic treatment reverses one’s weakening and decline of the vital force and the patient’s vitality.
Here follow some further examples of return of old symptoms :
– Appearance of eruption or discharge as existing symptoms improve.– The painful joints improve with the onset of a runny nose and painless diarrhoea.
– The painful joints improve following a remedy but an itchy skin rash appears.
All examples above means that the energetic imbalance (disease) has been given a relief through an outlet, a “vent” so to say as the vital force reacts and healing starts to take place. The body, via the vital force, once strong enough, will always try to ‘externalise’ its imbalance into more superficial organs to protect deeper organs such as the heart and lungs that are vital for life. This externalisation often happens in the form of a discharge or skin eruption.
What to do
Return of old symptoms is a sign of cure. and therefore should be watched and waited for. The body is working towards healing itself. The return of old symptoms is usually a mild and short-lived event. Once those symptoms are fully resolved by the remedy, they are never seen again.
Therefore no interference with the process should be carried out. No more remedies and no more doses. Wait 1-3 weeks before the situation can be evaluated again. Symptoms should be noted down in a diary as well as the order in which they return, to confirm that it truly is a ‘return of old symptoms’ event rather than an aggravation.
Once it is confirmed that the surface symptom is a healing crisis, or a “vent” to relieve deeper suppressed symptoms, do nothing , allow it to continue and avoid suppression. As deeper symptoms resolve, it will wear off and, eventually disappear.
Finally – a word about aggravations
Aggravations, while not necessary a part of homeopathic treatment, sometimes cannot be avoided in homeopathy. They can happen if a person is either very sensitive to a remedy or sensitive in general or when too much of a remedy is taken, in too large or to frequent a dose.
Aggravation should come before improvement in homeopathic treatment.
If improvement comes first, followed by aggravation, the symptoms may have actually been driven in and suppressed rather than cured.
Aggravations happen frequently with lay persons, who are not familiar with the homeopathic principles of prescribing regarding potency and dose. They end up using homeopathic remedies based on the prescribing methods for conventional medicine (such as taking two tablets three times a day a month) or they carry on taking the remedy even after an amelioration has already set in after the first or second dose.
If that happens, one must wait until the aggravation wears off or, if it is troublesome, one has to find a homeopathic remedy that will antidote the remedy they overdosed on. It really is best to see a professional homeopath in such circumstances.