Latest / Motherhood Alliance Podcast / Homeopathy for Sudden Fright, Shock, Grief & Emotional Outbursts w/ Beth Bundy |fieldwork homeopathy
Transcript
- Britney Suttner: Hi, this is Brittany from motherhoodalliance.com and I'm excited to welcome you to a new four episode series with Beth Bundy, a certified classical homeopath, registered nurse, public health nurse, and co-founder of Fieldwork Homeopathy. With experience in both conventional healthcare and homeopathic medicine, Beth brings a unique perspective to healing that considers the full picture, mind, body, emotions, environment, and family dynamics. Through her virtual practice, she works with children and adults experiencing a wide range of challenges with a special focus on mental and emotional health, including anxiety, depression, grief, mood swings, anger and rage, perfectionism, concentration difficulties, learning challenges, hypersensitivities of all kinds, birth trauma, generational trauma, and many other things. Hey, hey everybody. Welcome back to the podcast. We are in episode three with Beth, and if you have not tuned into our first two episodes, they were amazing. So I have to just brag on those a little bit before we jump into this one. And to be completely transparent with you, if you're just coming in because the title of this one interested you, please head back to episode one and listen to that one first, because that was really our like beginner's guide to homeopathy. And in order to understand what in the world we are talking about in this episode, it would be really helpful to have that foundation. In episode two, we talked about long-term care when it comes to emotional distresses. And so this is like anxiety, depression, hyperactivity, lack of focus, fear, maybe panic attacks, addictions. We talked about a whole cluster of things, but how homeopathy can really help in those deep emotional and more long-term things that people are experiencing. So that was a very insightful conversation, at least for me. I'm sure it was for everybody that's listening. We're shifting the focus a little bit. We're going to stay on the emotional side in this episode, but more on what are we seeing every day in our homes? And I'm excited for these next two episodes because with this acute at home type care, Beth's going to actually give us some recommendations on remedies we can try with our kids as they're going through different things. Remedies that are known to help certain instances. And then she's obviously here for support on helping us through these as we're learning about it as well. So Beth, in this episode, we're going to be talking about more emotional first aid in our homes. Next episode is going be more of those physical first aid items. How would you define emotional first aid? Kind of the groundwork of what this episode is going to be about. Beth: Mm hmm. So emotional first aid is thinking about how to help a child or an adult any age who's experienced a sudden fright. They just got really scared by something. They just got hurt. They just had a sudden like loss, a sudden shock, a sudden disappointment. you know, kind of all these experiences that are kind of sudden and can land in our emotional, mental, emotional state, which we react to, which is appropriate, because our emotional reaction to something, again, is our body's way of moving us through it. Feeling our feelings is important. We must feel our feelings. We must help our kids to feel their feelings right. And once we feel it and move through, our nervous system comes back to center. Sometimes something can happen and we can be in an emotional state that's really intense and we just need help. Like we need help, we're kind of maybe stuck in it or it just feels really agonizing or really scary and we just need help. to integrate what happened is really what we're on about. So we can match a remedy to the event that happened and the way the person is reacting to it. Again, to mirror the adaptation that their body's already doing and move them right along through it and feel better on the other side. Britney Suttner: Yeah, is just, it's so interesting, homeopathy in general is just so interesting to me. I feel like we could do 20 episodes because even what you just said right there, that brings us back to episode one on how this actually works, right? And like matching our remedy into how you're. feeling or what you're experiencing. But before we jump into actual experiences people might be having at home and kind of jumping into some of those like you talked about with injury and shock and meltdowns and all those things, help us understand dosing at home. So typically people are going to have those pellets that we discussed. How should they plan on dosing and how often? Beth: Yes, most of the okay, most of the examples that we're going to walk through with remedies in a minute are things that come on like really suddenly. so typically if the remedy is a good match, you give a dose, you're going to really see the the melting of the state like right before your eyes generally or within five to ten minutes. If you don't give another dose wait and watch because you're really being like you're being an investigative mind like state where you're watching your kiddo like assessing what kind of state they're in give a remedy and then you wait and watch. because you're actually stimulating their own resources to self-adjust. So you wait and watch. If they need another dose, five to ten minutes, give another dose. If they need a third dose in five to ten minutes, do that. And if by three doses you're not really seeing any change, then reevaluate and try something different. Britney Suttner: So on the back of a bottle, if it says basically one dose is three pellets or five pellets, are you saying if it's, let's just say it says three pellets, you would give three pellets if you're not seeing anything within 10 minutes, you would give another three? Wow, okay, yeah, this is way different than like, I feel like in the past I've heard more of like, you need to wait like three hours before you give another dose. So this is really. interesting. And something else to point out here is that this is not going to hurt your child, right? Like these are natural sources where can you, I guess here's a question, there are some vitamins that you can take too much of. If a kiddo opened up a bottle and ate half a bottle because they're they like these pellets, is it something that can damage a kiddo? Beth: Great question and no, so. It's a bit to wrap your head around. so taking, so putting one pellet in your mouth versus half of a tube is the same amount. The number of pellets actually don't matter because it's not like milligrams, it's not a chemical measurable substance like a vitamin, mineral medication. We're talking about really it's dynamic energy. So what's more important, so yes, if your kid eats a whole tube of something in one go, that's like one dose. Britney Suttner: You're blowing my mind right now. Beth: Yes, but You can get into trouble if you take a dose repeatedly too much. So if you took three pellets every two minutes for an hour or something ridiculous like that, which you wouldn't do, but like if you did that, you're... it's like it's pinging the person's nervous system over and over and they're gonna begin to react to that actually. So that's kind of the caution where you don't want to over overdo it with doses. You want to give a few watch and wait what's changing you know and just follow what you're seeing to help guide you. Britney Suttner: So is there ever a time that you should give more than one pellet? Beth: So on these two, like the Boiron ones and the Olois at the store, they say five pellets is a dose. I tell people to give two. You don't need five. And that way that'll stretch your remedy supply. Britney Suttner: Great, yeah that's kind of what I was thinking too. Beth: Yeah. Britney Suttner: Okay, okay so for a lot of these you know sudden things like you're talking about, what this whole episode is about, dosing let's just say two pallets right and then waiting 10 minutes to see if it's helping, dosing again waiting 10 minutes or 15 minutes to see if it's helping. So your recommendation is not to dose the same thing more than three times because by then you should be seeing a change and maybe try a different remedy. after that. Beth: Yes. Britney Suttner: Okay, okay. Do you have any favorite resources for how people can figure out which remedy would be best for the situation that's in front of them? Beth: Yes, I have a favorite book and I should have grabbed it. I didn't think of it. It's on my shelf. So the author is Miranda Castro. And I believe the title is Practical Homeopathy for Home or something like that. It's like the standard, amazing, beautiful book that I recommend to families to have when they need something to reference, when they're learning how to use their kit and things like that. Britney Suttner: Okay, that's really helpful to know that there are resources out there that can help us, right? Because for a common cold, which we'll talk about more in the next episode, but there can, depending on what your symptoms are, there are multiple different remedies that could be a good option for you. So I'm assuming the same is gonna apply to this emotional conversation. Let's start with meltdowns. And maybe a good first question, since we're starting with this topic is at what... age do you typically start dosing or like using homeopathic remedies with? Beth: Day one, day one of life. You can give a baby arnica for their birth experience. Yeah. Britney Suttner: Okay, okay. you know, there's also, as we're talking about these like sudden things, there are very natural things that kids are gonna go through, like meltdowns. Every kid melts down when you give them the blue cup and they wanted the red cup, right? Like these little tiny things, but they can be traumatic to the kid. So when especially littles are having big emotional moments a lot, How do you pick and choose which ones are appropriate for me to be using a remedy on and which ones you just are going to let go? Beth: Okay, yes, this kind of illustrates the difference also between sort of acute emotional care at home and then working with a more persistent emotional pattern. if a kiddo, if your kiddo is really like, they really struggle with being angry a lot. Like their, their, their go-to for their system is to be just intensely mad. but it's happening daily or repeatedly. You can certainly use a remedy at home periodically to take the volume down, but that's because it's recurrent, then you'd wanna work with a practitioner to actually go upstream to the root where it's coming from, right? Britney Suttner: Make sense. Beth: Yeah, but for just kiddos who are generally great. And, you know, I mean, often like, really often, like if they're if they fell and kind of, you know, bumped their knee and they're crying, like really the first remedy is just a hug and just to be, you know, loved on and and soothed and just the co-regulation with with the parent or caregiver is all the remedy that they need. Right. It's just so if if you're seeing that they're getting Like it's like their emotional state is quite prolonged. Like they can't come out of it very easily. It's going on for 10, 20, 30 minutes and they really can't. They're beside themselves. That's when you and you're doing all the things like trying to provide comfort and things. And that would be a situation to kind of give them a remedy, but you know, to help them move through it. really like they on the flip side, like you're saying, they also need to experience frustration to have the growth and to understand their emotions and how to move through them on their own. So it's really nuanced. You have a sense as a parent or caregiver when like when it's gone, when the emotion isn't like productive anymore, if that makes sense, you know. I don't know if that helps. Britney Suttner: Yeah, no, that does make sense. I think what I would love is to kind of just put this in your hands with helping us build an emotional first aid kit. So if you can run through some common remedies to have in your home, and then for the emotional side, and then what they typically would be good for. Beth: Awesome. Let's do it. First one, if you're going to have any, well, first two, if you're going to have two remedies in your house and that's all you have. So have Arnica, Arnica Montana. Most of us have probably heard of it. It's, it is excellent for any kind of injury, fall, bruise, like getting hurt in any way. For littles, often, and for adults too, but we hurt ourselves and it'll jiggle us, and we'll cry and maybe feel scared and all of that. So if there's any kind of injury at all, and even with hugs and love, the kiddo is still really kind of hurting, you can give them arnica as just, you don't even have to think about it. Just give them arnica. body to integrate what just happened. Sometimes in an arnica state, it's sort of like if it was a really hard fall, and the child is a little bit older, like grade school or something, they could kind of have the opposite presentation where it's like they're in shock and they don't actually want to be touched or held or comforted. They're actually like, I'm fine. Don't touch me. Leave me alone. I don't want to go to the doctor when you can clearly see they're not fine. This is Arnica 2. So if you can approach them even though they don't want to be messed with and give them a dose, it will help them come out of that. So Arnica number one, always have it with you. It's remarkable. The second one would be Aconyte and the full name is Aconythum nepellus. which is a mouthful, but it's made from wolf's bane. It's a flower. Aconite, similar to arnica, is amazing for any kind of injury specifically for any kind of fright or shock where the child or adult is going into like a panic, fear, restless, really scared state because of what just happened. And it's like that classic kind of panic picture hyperventilating really, really freaked out. That's aconite, like you would give. Britney Suttner: And that could be for either something that just happened or it could be something anticipatory that's going to happen. Beth: yes either way either Britney Suttner: Okay, okay. Beth: way yes yes aconite so if you remember aconite sudden fright it's kind of a nice little yeah mnemonic Britney Suttner: I love things like that. Keep it coming. Beth: yes aconite will bring the fear down like right away it's it's fantastic kids and kids in an aconite state though they'll want to be held but they're like restless. They're so scared, right? So scared. And it can even happen, like a person can go into an aconite state even by like witnessing somebody fall off their bike or witnessing even a car accident or something more serious, even just seeing it can bring it on. So anytime you see fear, aconite sudden freight, use that. Okay, tantrums, should we talk about? Britney Suttner: Sure. Beth: Okay. For the real littles, one year old, two year old, three year old, four, five, but really in that two year old really in that age range, chamomila. The remedy chamomila made from the flower chamomile is, it's like, you will think that you have an angel in your hand when you're using camomilla and you're giving it to your kiddo who's melting down. Britney Suttner: Be careful, they're going to get one dose with every breakfast going forward after that sentence. Beth: Yeah, sometimes it can feel that way, Okay, chamomile, the center of chamomile is there often it comes on when they're teething. So the pain of teething is the classic kind of picture. But anytime, anytime a kiddo is told no, when they really want to do something or they or even if they have a bad fall or have a shock of some kind, get scared even similarly. They can go into this chamomile estate and the chamomile estate is like angry, so angry and they're beside themselves. They can have even one cheek is bright red and one cheek is white. They're screaming, they're shrieking, they want to be held and they don't want to be held. And they want this toy and then they throw it away and they yell at you to give them this other toy and then they throw it. And then they want you to pick them up and carry them around and they're still screaming and then they want to be put down. It's like this, right? Can you feel it? It's like this. Britney Suttner: yeah, you're bringing me back. Beth: It's this terrible like inner anguish that they... they don't know what they want and they're so sensitive usually to the pain of their teeth but anything else that can make them really mad it's so the it's this it's this capricious is what we call it like I want it I don't want it I want it I don't want it and they want to be carried on they don't so chamomila will be your best friend if your kid is having that Britney Suttner: Okay, all right, keep them coming. What else you got? Beth: okay Let's then in the same vein talk about so Beladonna is another tantrum remedy also has anchor anger at its core. Beladonna is what you'll see more that they'll be so mad about being told no or even they were out in the sun too long they got overheated. something scared them but they'll go into this belladonna state where they're usually their face will get really red even their pupils can be dilated and it's this, it's like a flip was, it's like a switch was flipped. They're okay. And then suddenly they're having this rage, anger, screaming tantrum rolling around on the floor or like they're in the shopping cart with you at the store and you tell them no and suddenly they're just, it's just this volcano, you know, coming out and they might try to like, get out of the cart and escape and run away and they might, they're just kind of wild. It's like a wild, excitable. angry, terrible like state that they go into. And so Bella Donna, if it's like this switch was flipped to this immediate, incredible anger and they can roll around on the floor screaming for like 30 minutes for an hour. I mean, they'll just it's like that. It's really terrible to witness. and feel but. Britney Suttner: Maybe you'll get to this one, we'll see. But before it slips out of my mind, I wanted to ask about this one with older kids, because my kids are 10, 10 and a half and eight. And we're starting to hit more of the age of hormonal feelings that are just going to pop up. And it's not maybe every day, like we talked about in the last episode, where it's constitutional things. It's just going to be like one day they just snap, but they're older. Is this something that would be similar to Beladon or would there be a different remedy for something along those lines? Beth: It would be similar, yes, for all ages. It's for older kids. You know, they're not usually rolling around on the floor anymore. Right. But they'll be like slamming doors or going into their room and like they might even be hitting, hitting walls, destroying things like really more violent, more. It can be because they they can't. The state is so intense, their body has to do something. So they might be more in that state. But that's like a belladonna teenager. How that might look. You know, for a lot of teenagers that I see, especially around the puberty, all those changes that are going on, and in our modern society, actually Nux Famica is one remedy to think about for those kids. because it's made from the poison nut, which is like a tropical plant. And it's an example in homeopathy where the remedies are so diluted that we can use toxic plants that are toxic in their source material. But when we dilute them so far, they're completely non-toxic anymore, but they're highly medicinal. I could not practice at all without having all of the toxic things that we work with as remedies. because they are medicines. but Naxxamucca, especially for, yeah, older kids who they're in school, they're in activities, they're living their lives. Like, it's kind of a remedy for our modern, fast-paced life that is with all the constant stimuli, the over-scheduling and... you know, feeling burnt out, even teens can feel burnt out by how much they're doing. And then they get snappy, they get irritable, they get grumpy, they might get a tummy ache, they might have some diarrhea, they might have constipation, like headaches, muscle spasms, because they're just kind of wound up. You know, they're in like a wound up, overtired kind of place. So that's one to think about for them, if that's kind of the scenario. Britney Suttner: Sure. Would that even be the same application for, let's say you, no matter what age, you wake a kiddo up because you ought to be somewhere and they're just so tired. Like they are not ready to wake up. And I hate to say it like this, but almost like a little caffeine effect for the child. Like something that just kind of helps their brain just figure it out a little bit faster than they're ready right now. Beth: Yes, it can absolutely help because in a noxomachist state, if you don't get enough sleep, you don't feel very good. It's like your brain, when your brain is doing its beautiful washing overnight in sleep, it's incomplete. And so you feel dull and like bleh, kind of hung over, but you're not kind of feeling and irritable and like yucky, sometimes nauseous. Yes, you can absolutely give that and it will help pop them out of it. Britney Suttner: Okay. What else do you have in the emotional first aid kit? Beth: All right, let's talk about two more that are really indispensable. So one is for anticipatory anxiety. It is called Gelsemium. Gelsemium sempervirans is the full name, but it's made from a flower, yellow jasmine. And Gelsemium is brilliant for kids or adults who like at school they have to go do a presentation or at work you have to go do a public talk and you have stage fright you have anticipatory anxiety and the feeling is like boy can i do this i'm scared i don't want to i'm shaking i might have to run to the bathroom for a little diarrhea because my bowels are rumbling my body feels heavy and I just want to run away and I don't want to do it. So if you give gelcemium, you know, even the night before if there's anticipatory anxiety for something the next day and they're like the kid can't sleep or you can't sleep as you're thinking about it, it will really help a lot and then we'll keep the bowels intact so that they're not acting up and then you can give it like You know, if a kid is going to school and they have to do a presentation, you could give a dose before they go to school. You could send them the vial with them. They could take a dose on their mid-morning break beforehand, what have you. But it's really awesome. Yeah. Britney Suttner: Okay, and then you mentioned one more. Beth: One more I would say for grief and loss for kids or adults. So it's called Ignatia or Ignatia Amara is the full name. It's related to Nux Vamlaca actually the same plant family and we think of Ignatia when there's been a sudden loss. So the family dog just died. The cat ran away and she's not come back. A family member has died. Even even like a child has lost their favorite toy. Like these things that feel small to us are really huge to them, right? We need to take that seriously. any kind of loss, and the the grief is like acute. So it's like that the initial just sobbing. And it can kind of look fitful where it's like the nervous system because it has the shock of the loss. It's almost the nervous system is trying to absorb it and integrate it. So it can be like sobbing and then laughing kind of uncontrollably or sobbing and sighing. or like feeling kind of numb and then sobbing, like there's a lot of changeability with it. And then there can be tummy aches and spasms in the muscles from actually the grief. So that's one to think about to help move through that initial shock stage. Britney Suttner: Do you have a connection to purchasing a like at home kit or where would someone purchase an at home kit? Beth: Mm-hmm. I will I can send you resources for that too. So I have Britney Suttner: Okay. Beth: several that I offer but there's a lot of really good ones like really good ones. So I can send you record reputable Suppliers ones homey Washington homeopathics one is Hanuman labs, you know, there's a bunch so Britney Suttner: Okay, yeah, that would be great. And we'll put those in the show notes because I love these types of episodes where you're giving people actual items that they can try in their home, like direct tips, right? These are amazing types of episodes. And so you could go and buy each of these remedies individually, but usually these common ones are included in the kit. And so that might be financially the best way to go. Okay, we're going to hit pause on this episode because we're going to continue the conversation, just shifting this acute care from the emotional side into the physical side in our next episode. But before we jump off this one, I'll include links in the show notes, but can you just share which social media you are on so people can follow you? Beth: Yes, so you can find me on Facebook and Instagram and it's just fieldwork homeopathy is my practice Britney Suttner: Perfect. Beth: name. Britney Suttner: Yeah. All right. Well, heading into our last episode, we can't wait to continue the conversation.