insomnia case

[Guest guest]

Hi

 

I am looking for some advice with a stubborn insomnia case.

 

I have been – so far unsuccessfully – treating a 50 year old female

patient with a history of 30 years of insomnia. She has tried

everything from homeopathy to hypnotherapy to lots of different

(Western) herbs. She has tried putting the bed in different positions

and sleeping in other rooms of the house. It gets worse when she is

sleeping somewhere else such as when on holidays. Absolutely nothing

seems to help, the only thing that does is Phenergan, an

antihistamine, which she does not like taking at all.

She has been taking herbs for 6 weeks now without any improvement to

her sleeping pattern, even though improvement in other respects (much

calmer and relaxed during day time and therefore better able to deal

with a stressful job/boss).

Her mother and maternal aunt suffered from the same type of insomnia:

no problem falling asleep, but waking up at about 4 am, not being

able to go back to sleep, but lying awake tossing and turning. No

vivid dreaming.

In her case (and also her mother's case) the onset of insomnia

followed a very traumatic period in her life: She became pregnant in

her late teens and was persuaded by her mother and social worker to

give the child away for adoption, completely against her wishes.

Shortly afterwards her father died unexpectedly of a heart attack

(the pregnancy had been kept secret from him, there had been fear

about his reaction if he found out). It was then that she started to

drink, but has been in recovery for the past 15 years.

These events still very much haunt her, especially since her son did

not contact her when he was old enough. She herself suggested that

she sometimes feel that while she has managed to sort her life out,

this is the one issue that is not resolved. She is now seriously

considering of contacting her son herself but is fearful of rejection.

 

My diagnosis for her is LV/HT Blood xu, LV Qi stag, internal Wind due

to Blood xu, Blood stagnation, SP qi xu with Dampness.

I have so far been treating her with a modification of suan zao ren

tang (ye jiao teng, he huan pi, bai shao, dang gui, wu wei zi, jie

geng, huang lian, bai zhu, zhi qiao). (BTW, all mineral/animal

substances are illegal in Britain)

 

My question really is: could it be that the insomnia will really only

resolve once she has addressed the issues around her son – the

patient herself wondered if that might be the case? Would the role of

treatment at this point be more to help her find the courage to take

the step of contacting her son?

 

Many thanks for any thoughts/insights/advice.

 

Best

Johanna

 

 

Johanna Schuster, MAOM, L.Ac., MATCM (UK)

10 Riverside

Foyers IV2 6YH

Scotland

 

+44 (0)1456 486628

[Guest guest]

I've had stuborn insomnia cases with similar symptoms and diagnosis

that have been helped with variations of Chai Hu Long Gu Mu Li Tang.

It takes time and adjustments to formula often.

 

Ruth Neely