Obstacles to Cure in Homeopathy

Many times after giving the correctly chosen homeopathic remedy we may see a response but not the results we may expect. It can be difficult to ascertain whether the remedy is really working or whether there is an obstacle to cure. We must investigate closely the conditions for healing in the home as well as any medicinal substances the person may be taking. Homeopathic management in this modern drugged society can be difficult indeed.

      It is best before ever evaluating the remedy to evaluate the client and determine the obstacles to cure. There is often drug therapy that the person has been on for their malady. This will make your job significantly more difficult, but not impossible. If the person is on 3 drugs there is a 50% chance that there will be a new symptom that is a result of the drug therapy. If the person is on 5 or more drugs it is a 100%  fact that there will be a new symptom as a result of the body's response to the combined drug effect. This is a major obstacle to cure and is a difficult case to manage. My rule of thumb is to find out what drug is working for them and what is not. I then encourage them to go back to their prescribing physician and get off of all drugs that do not help. It is often that when a client comes to see me and has been on drugs for some time they will say that only one or two ever helped at all. They need help in getting off their drugs and it is never my place to unprescribe something that I did not originally prescribe. This keeps me clean of any interference with the allopathic community as well as not having to be responsible for any withdrawal they may experience.

        Other obstacles to cure can exist in the home or workplace. Many people live in conditions that are not conducive to their healing, either with bad hygiene or unhealthy relationships. I find this obstacle as difficult as drugs because rarely will the person feel safe enough to leave their home and find a more suitable environment to live in.

       This is especially true when there are unhealthy relationships that continually challenge the person. It may be an alcoholic spouse, unruly children, ailing relatives, monetary concerns that border on poverty, or any number of other challenges that keep a person more in survival mode than in a relaxed healing environment. It is then necessary to find ways to work within this environment and offer new tools to cope along with the support of the remedy. I find that giving the remedy more often is necessary to maintain the healing response. Low potencies daily will often be much easier to manage and more supportive to the person.

        Other obstacles to cure also include those medicinal substances that can bring about an antidote. When we speak of antidoting it is not the remedy that gets antidoted, it is the person in response to the medicinal substance that shifts as a result of its influence, and then the remedy is no longer homeopathic. It loses its resonance and then it appears that the remedy stops working. These influences must be removed for a cure to take place.

      Substances that can influence our response in addition to allopathic drugs include coffee, herbs, liquors, strong-smelling odors as well as many other influences. Hahnemann talks of these influences in Aphorism's 260 to 263. In his additional notes, he describes the obstacle like this, "The softest tones of a distant flute that in the still midnight hours would inspire a tender heart with exalted feelings and dissolve it in religious ecstasy are inaudible and powerless amid discordant cries and the noise of day."

        This quote accurately describes the subtle way the vital force is inspired to heal and how easy it is to disrupt this response. Working through the obstacles is not impossible but requires the homeopath to pay close attention to their clients and offer as much support as necessary to provide a healing environment.