My Very Own Caged Lion

Dan came to see me suffering from anxiety attacks and bad headaches. He explained that he was under a huge amount of pressure and his first anxiety attack came out of the blue whilst he was in a supermarket:

“I didn’t know what was happening to me, my blood started pounding and it gave me a headache, it was horrible, I felt like I had high blood pressure, and then I wondered if I would die right there in the shop.”

He said that a lot of his pressure was caused because he was in a job that he wasn’t fit for, he worked long hours, felt a huge pressure to support his family and wasn’t sleeping well.

“I know everybody has some reason to be anxious, but my anxiety is at a higher level, it’s like I want to keep control of everything. I don’t feel suicidal; it is the opposite of that. I am so scared by my anxiety that I feel I’m losing control of myself which could cause me to do something dangerous but I know in my head I am not crazy.”

Dan talked about a difficult relationship with his mother which sapped him, he said he was like a sponge absorbing bad vibes from negative people.

“I also feel offended for little things, we all make mistakes, but even little things cause imbalance to my emotions, I get confused with which emotions belong to me and which don’t.”

“I imagine my emotion inside as a beast, an animal that is taking my soul, something that I cannot control, I have this feeling that I cannot manage. I have never been violent, just shouting and irritated. It is like I want to keep everything under control. What is good for me is to go to the gym and not think about it, to do something that I don’t need to think about. I’m a kind of perfectionist, I like to do things well and to have everything under control – mine is not a job where you can have things 100% under control, you have to have priorities.”

I asked him about control – he’d mentioned it a lot, and he told me that for him control was to foresee every situation, whilst losing control was where you couldn’t manage a situation or where there was no escape.

“Of course logically I know there is an escape – I see the exit, it’s because I’m not free, I’m caged. When I’m anywhere I always need a plan b and a plan c.”

I also asked about anger and he told me that his anger wasn’t violent; it was a desire to be the winner in a situation, to show that he was better than the other person. He admitted that he did feel better and more powerful than most people – and when really let down by people in business he had a desire to destroy their business.

“I am always fair. If I see you want to fool me, I become a lion. I will use all the legal means to defend myself. I will never come to your shop and break stuff – I will do it legally, I like order, real rules, real justice, it’s as if there are two souls fighting within me.”

I did in fact prescribe Dan a remedy made from Lion’s milk – and lions weren’t the only animals he talked about, he talked about the sneakiness of snakes and how he wasn’t like that, he even mentioned rats and dirty insects – but he loved justice, and his horror for being controlled, and having his movements constricted and the powerlessness he felt was, I felt, epitomised by a caged lion.

A couple of months later Dan returned. He had a big smile on his face as a few days before when he’d made the appointment I’d told him what the remedy was and it seemed to delight him. His anxiety attacks had disappeared, “I really feel I’ve overcome them” he told me, “and I feel so much better.”

Dan still had occasional headaches and some insomnia, caused he was sure by his job but he was pleased with the progress he’d made in just a couple of months and keen to improve further. I’m interested to see how he does too – I’d love to see him leave the job he hates so much, but perhaps secretly he thrives on all that pressure!

If you would like to know if homeopathy can help with your anxiety do get in touch with me:

http://newtonabbothomeopathy.co.uk/contact.php