My Experience: Homeopathy

I'm hoping to slowly establish a series on here of personal stories of treatment experiences... Some may be positive, negative, or just neutral. If you'd like to share your story on a treatment for ME/CFS (or any of the other illness mentioned in this blog), leave me a comment or get in touch :)

Many people have issues with the concept of homeopathy - mainly because of a lack of science behind it. However, you could say the same about ME! Many state that the positive effects of homeopathy are merely a placebo effect... I beg to differ.

I started on homeopathy when I turned 17. I had been struggling with severe depression (as a result of ME) for about 2 months, with milder depression previously. My GP offered me a referral to Child and Family (which didn't come through until 6 months later - if that's the treatment for severe depression I feel sorry for anyone else), but I requested seeing a homeopath.

We're lucky where we live, as the NHS has a homeopathy service. They are all trained doctors who can pick up on anything important, whilst also listening to everything about you, and treating you with homeopathy. They are some of the most patient, understanding doctors I have ever met, leading a very chilled practise. Today my new homeopath spent 45 minutes just getting to know me and learning about me.

Saying that, we nearly lost the practise this year, and I have fought hard to keep them. There are now less staff (my main homeopath has gone), but I am relieved that I am still receiving treatment.

I lose track of the remedies I have been on, but over the years I have been on varying strengths of calc carb and sepia for depression. Today I have just been changed over to silica - very scary to change when I've been "ok" for so long, but if it will help maintain my head further than worth a shot.

Initially, back in 2007, my first remedy transformed me. It built this wall up in my head between me and the depression. It was quite a high wall, and the depression couldn't reach me over it. It transformed my life.

When I get tired, or things get too much, the wall often doesn't feel high enough to keep the depression out. It's been more obvious lately with my relapse, which is one of the reasons we're trying something new.

The other remedies I'm currently on are sarcolactic acid (which helps ease the extent of my aches and stiffness), and pulsatilla (which I take mid cycle to ease my PMT, which can be very bad!)

Most of the remedies I've been on have made really positive differences to my symptoms. However, I feel that the remedies that haven't made a positive difference are the proof needed that homeopathy works.

A lesser example are the remedies that simply do nothing - for example I tried one or two remedies to help my nightmares a couple of years ago - they did naff all.

The main example would be early 2008. My normal homeopath was off ill, and one of her colleagues prescribed me something without taking my personality into account. (And now you're thinking what the heck does personality have to do with medicine. Different personality traits reflect different elements within ourselves, and we all react differently to different things.) I don't want to say what I was prescribed, because it might be the perfect remedy for someone else. But for me, I was in bed within a matter of days, and it took me months to recover. If it was a placebo, that would not have happened - my attitude towards it was no different from any other remedies I take. If anything, I've been more fearful towards new remedies since then. But it can't let you be put off homeopathy, as what's the difference between that and side effects of conventional medicine?

Yes, homeopathy can make you feel worse initially, but so do many conventional medicines. It's just a different route to try.

Of course for some people homeopathy simply won't help them. And there's certain illnesses where conventional medicine must come first. But most of the people I've spoken to who didn't find homeopathy helpful, tried one or two remedies and gave up. Homeopathy is about trying different remedies, to find the right one that reflects your symptoms and your personality.

It has transformed my life, and if it's available on the NHS near you, I really recommend just giving it a try.

The reality of Welfare Rights funding cuts...

... and why we won't return to the CAB.

Mr phoned Welfare Rights this morning. They've been with us since June, when we stumbled across them whilst looking for support for Mr's ESA claim. They invited us in and talked through our finances and benefits claims; and since then have phoned us occasionally to see how things are going for us. Despite being a government organisation, they have felt the most concerned for our welfare.

Over the phone, they were able to give Mr advice on his medical this week, just grounding him in how to approach it, really.

Mr asked about a representative for my DLA tribunal... We can go in nearer the time and have some help preparing, but there is no longer funding to provide a representative to tribunals. And this is where the funding cuts hit the poor and disabled first.


The only suggestion given was to go to the Citizen's Advice Bureau. Sadly, this just isn't an option for us. Aside from the fact that appointments at our local CAB are gold dust (the only time we went, we booked an appointment, but only got in the door because someone had forgotten to lock it, and were then forced to sit there for 3 hours), the quality of the service is... dare I say it... unacceptable? Please don't shout at me, I am fully aware it's volunteer based, and I am sure there are many caring, knowledgable and supportive volunteers... I just haven't met one yet.

We first used a CAB for Mr's ESA tribunal (for his first claim - he's claimed twice now), and the lady we had there barely believed he was ill, and instead of basing the tribunal argument on his serious health conditions, she was encouraging him to lie about being suicidal or having uncontrollable anger. We were not prepared to lie, his health says it all, and thanks to her we lost the tribunal.

We went to a CAB again when we moved in together (which is when we snuck in through the unlocked door...!) and wanted to know what we were entitled to. They informed us that because I was on Incapactiy Benefit we couldn't get any other income related help. We lived off £106 a week for over a year, until Welfare Rights came on the scene, and informed us we were entitled to an Income Support top up, bringing our income to a point that we can actually survive. (We managed to get 3 months back payment after some strongly worded letters about the CAB, but we still lost a year's worth of Income Support, and we lost our savings, since we had to use them to survive.)


And so, thanks to funding cuts, we shall be making our health worse, to fight for DLA, which is about to be revamped and probably taken away from us anyway, just so we have a little bit of money left over when we've paid all the bills.