LYCOPODIUM

PHYSICAL SYMPTOMS:

GENERALITIES:

MODALITIES:

G.V.: How is the anxiety or the panic states of Lycopodium? Lycopodium is a remedy that is a low key remedy for panic attacks and anxiety states. That means, in Lycopodium you will never see the intensity we have been describing in the other remedies. Lycopodiums panics are coming because of fear of facing responsibility and a lack of courage to face a situation.

Anxiety about health
Lycopodium can become terrified by almost anything being alone, the dark, ghosts, even strange dogs. There is a great fear of suffering of any kind; thus the Lycopodium patient can become anxious about his health to the point of hypochondriasis. The fear and anxieties affect mostly the gastrointestinal tract.

Lycopodium will go into a panic state if their boss at their work tells them that they have not done a good job, done a lousy job etc., when they are reprimanded. They may receive some hints that their job may be in danger if their performance does not improve.

Then Lycopodium will go into a panic state, and the inclination will be to just run away from the situation. They simply want to leave the place, go away, they cannot face it, they don't have the courage to face the situation. And that brings about a state of anxiety, of fear.

A fear even of people, of coming into contact with other individuals. They want to be alone, and at the same time they feel weak. And that is why they say Lycopodium likes to be alone in the house, but wants somebody around to feel that somebody is there (in the next room, in the garden, ...), but it doesn't want to be bothered by that person. The anxiety of Lycopodium develops the moment he feels he is alone, he has no support.

May escape from obligations
Take a family situation for example: a married couple with children, and there is some problem at work. Lycopodium loses his job. Lycopodium immediately will develop anxiety. This anxiety will lead to strange behaviour, which can take the following form: They just want to leave the family and go away and disappear. Lycopodium may leave his children, his wife, his mother, his father altogether. They simply go away from responsibilities they have created themselves.

Fear that his weakness will be noticed
Such patients are in constant fear that others will discover the truth about their inner state of weakness. They are constantly worried about what others think of them. Lycopodium fits highly intelligent and intellectual people. It is found frequently in professions requiring public performance priests, lawyers, school teachers, even politicians.

A priest may feel perfectly well before giving a sermon, but upon reaching the pulpit and realising that so many eyes are upon him, he may suddenly suffer from stomach pain or great anxiety.

Fear of responsibility
Such a person may be able to carry out the task properly, but very often the physical or emotional suffering will seriously interfere with functioning. Again, this situation is a manifestation of anxiety in the face of responsibility, and the patient may well attempt to escape from his profession, sometimes seeming to use the physical illness as an excuse.

Fear while performing his task
Lycopodium can be compared with many remedies, of course. The anticipatory anxiety, which causes such suffering during public functions in Lycopodium, can be compared to Gelsemium. In Lycopodium, it refers more to the state of suffering which occurs during the actual task, while Gelsemium is indicated more for the anxiety and symptoms which occur hours and days prior to the task.

Lycopodium has similar anxiety if it develops a kind of a love affair. It has a girl friend for example. If after a certain time at a certain moment the girl friend wants to push him to take responsibility, to get married, then that is the time when the anxiety will come up and Lycopodium will do everything to get away from this situation.

At the same time Lycopodiums are social people. They have the ability to easily establish contact and to create a new situation. In this new situation the ego is inflated, (laughs)

Many times I have compared this to Mussolini. If you see Mussolini, he was a womanizer and he also had a bloated abdomen, (quotes:) "I am the greatest of all times!"

Actually, inside, he was a coward. But to the outside he would present a state of great power and force. This is the character of Lycopodium. The moment he is really faced with a problem...

Like when he is talking and talking and talking with a woman: "Oh, you are so beautiful, you are so clever, you are so this and that..." blablabla etc. The woman is very flattered. "What are you doing tonight?" (grins)

Even in the waiting room at your office, Lycopodium will try take up contact with your secretary. You have a good secretary. A Lycopodium patient may try to take your secretary out for dinner! That night, you know? They need this kind of confirmation that they are somebody, that they really are something. And the moment that they have their way, they go away. Behaviour of this kind we see in Lycopodium.

Externally, the Lycopodium patient may present to the world an image of capability, extroverted friendliness and courage, which can make the true image of the remedy difficult to perceive without skilful probing on the part of the homeopath. Lycopodium patients may go overboard in presenting a bluff to compensate for their inner feeling of inferiority.

They may exaggerate their attainments, their capacities, the people they know. They may go so far as to tell outrageous lies which cannot be supported when the moment comes to produce results. This bloating of their ego is a compensation for the presumed state of weakness inside, and it is based upon a powerful need to receive admiration and respect from others in order to "prove" themselves.

We also say Lycopodium becomes impotent. Why does Lycopodium become impotent? Because of this kind of behaviour, going from one woman to another, from one to the other. Eventually he finds himself getting married, and then he finds himself unable to have an erection, to have normal intercourse. Why? Because of all this inflation, all of this pompous appearance etc.

Now he is deflated (audience giggles), and this deflation takes away everything. And then the anxiety comes, of course, and they run to the doctor in a panic state. "What is happening to me?!?" Many times male Lycopodiums go to a doctor just because they feel impotent since their marriage. And it can take three to five months before they realize that they are not interested in having sex with their wives. For them it is the punishment for having been sexually too liberal.

... So let's continue with our differential diagnosis… (continues to Natrum Muriaticum)