My 17 year old suffers from night terrors. In the last few years they have been getting worse and have started to get him down somewhat. They can also be terrifying for those sleeping near by. In the past he has seen 4 separate Homeopaths who have treated him with very well indicated constitutional remedies but have not made any difference with the night terrors.
During the summer whilst on a short break in France he was having them a lot. They usually involve him screaming at the top of his voice and trying to break out of his room, which can lead to things getting broken or even hurting himself. In this instance he tried to pull one of the shutters off their hinges and nearly succeeded! The previous year on holiday, he pulled down curtains and rails in his room. He remembers nothing of the dream in the morning. They tend to get worse if he is anxious or worried about something. In the coming weeks he was due to come on another holiday with us which involved sharing a room with his sister and going to a couple of festivals, one of them being Reading, where the tents are really packed in together and he would be so embarrassed if he had scared everyone to death. Not the mention the damage he’d probably do to his tent and others.
I knew that some action had to be taken and decided to treat what I believed to be the root of the problem. I remembered that the night terrors seemed to originate around the time of him being scared at the age of three on Halloween. He was with me when I opened the door to a trick or treater in a scream mask and it really seemed frighten him. So I knew that he needed a trauma remedy, as in homeopathy you tend to treat the cause.
Another factor to consider was his skin. He was prone to outbreaks of spots. Particularly around his mouth and chin and I think this was damaging his confidence. He was also complaining of having trouble getting to sleep, sometimes taking a few hours to get to sleep.
Whilst still in France I had an overwhelming desire to give him the remedy Carcinosin. I use it in my practice a lot. Not only is it a great trauma remedy but it is also an amazing remedy for boosting people’s confidence. What teenage boy doesn’t need a little confidence boosting? They are making that transition from boyhood to manhood and just coming into their own and finding their way in the world.
Carcinosin also covers prolonged insomnia.
On returning to the UK, I gave him a low potency of the remedy to take four nights in a row.
Each night for nearly a week he either had a night terror or a very vivid dream. I saw this as a good sign and it indicated to me that the remedy was working. In homeopathy, symptoms can become a little worse for a very short period of time as the body pushes out the trauma or pathology.
Since then he has had no night terrors. His skin began to clear up and is now completely clear and his sleep is much better. I’m kicking myself that I didn’t take any photos of his skin but the main thing is that he was able to go to those events without causing any harm to himself or others. Its hard to tell if he is feeling better about himself generally, as I am his mother, not his homeopath but the fact that his skin is now clear must be having a significant impact on his confidence.
I recently heard a piece on radio 4 about people who suffer from night terrors and how it can have a big impact on their life with some people really putting themselves in danger with their condition because they actually run out of their house in the middle of the night without realising what they are doing. With homeopathy it doesn’t have to be like this. If the right remedy for you is identified this can mean an end to all of your symptoms or complaints no matter how long you have been experiencing them.
