What to expect when using homeopathy.

In my practice, I am often asked certain questions about homeopathy; How long do I need to take this remedy for?  When will I see an improvement?  What might stop it working?
When treating an acute condition, you should expect to see results quite quickly, that is to say, within minutes, hours or days, depending on the condition.  When treating more chronic conditions, treatment usually goes on for a number of weeks or months.
There are some things that you can watch out for that will help you and your homeopath ensure that you are on the gentlest path to recover your vitality.

Improvement
This can be an improvement in some or all of the symptoms you visited your homeopath with.  When you go back to your homeopath for a follow up it is important to discuss your improvements in physical, mental & emotional states.

Detoxing Symptoms
These can occur after you take your remedy.  This can be a difficult time, but this is a good sign that whatever has been causing your imbalance is working its way out of your body.  These symptoms can include a fever, a cold or flu like symptoms, vomiting or a release of pent up emotions.  It is important through this phase that you treat yourself kindly.  Relax, take gentle exercise, eat well.  Contact your homeopath who can look at adjusting your dosage to make this more comfortable for you.

Aggravation
This is a temporary worsening of your symptoms.  This is generally considered a good thing as it reconfirms that the remedy is a correctly chosen match for you.  These can last for anything from minutes to a few days in some circumstances.  While this is not pleasant, there is usually a noticeable improvement in your overall symptoms following an aggravation.  If, however an aggravation is very uncomfortable, contact your homeopath immediately so they can help to reduce the severity.

Proving Symptoms
When researching new remedies homeopaths will undertake what is called a proving.  This is where the remedy is given to healthy individuals and the symptoms that they then experience are recorded.
If you begin to experience new symptoms when you take your remedy it could be that this is a proving symptom.  Your homeopath will be able to review this and determine whether to continue with your course of treatment.  If you are improving in other areas and the proving symptoms are not causing you any discomfort then your homeopath may decide to continue with your remedy unchanged.

No reaction
Occasionally there will be times where either the remedy is not suited to the individual or there is a block from the beginning and there will be no reaction to the remedy.  Ensure that you have given the remedy a chance to work (it may take a few doses to see a reaction).  It could also be that although the remedy is correct, the potency is not high enough or the dosing interval is not frequent enough.  Your homeopath will be able to discuss these with you to decide the best way forward for you.

The remedy has stopped working
Occasionally, a remedy that has been helping your symptoms will stop working and symptoms may return.  There may be a number of reasons for this:

• The potency needs to be increased: This basically means that you require a higher dose of the remedy each time you take it.
• The frequency needs to be increased: If you had been taking your remedy for example every second day you may need to increase this to every day.
• The remedy may have been antidoted: Substances such as coffee, menthol, peppermint etc. can antidote the action of the remedy.  Try taking another dose of the remedy.
• A new remedy picture has emerged: When you have received all the healing you can from a particular remedy but are still experiencing symptoms it may be that another remedy is required. If this is the case your homeopath will discuss these symptoms with you and determine the best remedy for you at that time.
• An obstacle has arisen: This is your body’s way of bringing to the surface something that needs to be addressed.  This could be a past illness or trauma or a miasm (an inherited predisposition to disease.  This can be treated & cleared homeopathically).  Your homeopath will be able to determine which course of action to take to set you back on course.

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If you think any of the above may apply to you then discuss this with your homeopath.
Hopefully the pointers above will help guide you and answer any questions.  Your homeopath will always be on hand to help you and assist with any questions you might have.