He has exhausted his, however, normal mental functions and has lost his self-confidence. His anticipation is towards known and expected, rather than unknown, events. True to the neurotic pattern, this anticipation is transformed into physical symptoms.
IODUM.
Another personality, driven by restlessness and impatience, we meet in Iodine. Here, the restlessness strikes us as of a rather motor type. Constantly he must be active and on the move; he cannot sit still. Even his anxiety tends to take the form of fear of some imminent disaster, which demands some form of action. This motor restlessness, in which the patient literally burns himself up, we easily recognize as a manifest or occult hyperthyroidism.
SULFUR.
Sulfur, the king of the antipsorics, also is constantly on the go and bursting with initiative. The alchemists called Sulfur the “creator of a thousand things,” the “heat and force of everything” and the “ferment which gives life, intelligence and colour to the imperfect bodies.” Thus, the Sulfur personality, acting as a catalyst, always feels he must keep things and people on the move; he must always take the initiative, lest things become stagnant. he is ever full of new, often quite brilliant ideas, yet rather poor as to systematic planning and execution.
Sulfur is impatient with those around him, with slow world that cannot keep up with the speed and flight of his imagination. For every problem he quickly has a suggestion of what ought to be done, though, alas, it is not for him to waste his precious time in doing it; yet, the ungrateful world, never sufficiently seems to appreciate his genius. Could he be anything but impatient?.
PSORINUM.
Comparable to a Sulfur state with a negative denominator, the antipsoric nosode has Sulfurs drive, but is utterly devoid of any vital energy to back it up. There is the same driving, impatient restlessness, but the optimistic sense of attainment is lacking. Instead of enthusiastically pushing on, Psor., restlessly keeps busy. Full of pessimism, gloom and despair, he expects to fail in every undertaking and to end up in the poorhouse.
HEPAR.
In Hepar, the Sulfur fire is modified by the Calcarea stagnancy and defenselessness. A peculiar state of hypersensitive, irritable sluggishness results, which is punctured by volcano-like eruptions of ire and wrath. Hepars impatience bears the character of rashness and violence, of outbreaks of temper, of a person who cannot stand any opposition, unpleasantness or pain.
In the following group of medicines the impatience is likely to be more of a qualifying factor than quantitatively outstanding in intensity.
CALCAREA CARBONICA.
The typical Calc. patient may be likened to an oyster without a shell; he represents a helpless, flabby organism, lacking in inner organization and outer defense. He is easily exhausted, weak, sluggish and indifferent, lacks initiative, is unable to apply himself to any task and in capable of mental concentration. This weakness and the helplessness breeds anxiety and worried, impatient nervousness.
SILICEA.
Comparing it to Calcareas lack of a protective shell and inner organization, we may describe Silicea as rather well- organized, but devoid of fibre, stalk or firmness (Sil. is the main mineral constituent of stalks and fibrous tissues). Thus, Sil. tends to be a very orderly type of person, spic and span, but shy and timid without self-confidence, often anticipating failure. They are irritable and impatient when they are too hard pressed, aroused, or provoked.
PULSATILLA.
When we find the lack of stamina, not in the deepest grains of the personality, but rather in the more superficial form of emotional shiftiness and instability, the windflower, Pulsatilla, often the acute of Sil., may be indicated. They are fickle, irresolute, impressionable, rather superficial types, always in need of emotional support and sympathy. Their mental and physical states are subject to frequent quick changes, forth and back, from complacent sweetness to irritable, fidgety impatience.
KALI CARBONICUM.
Kali carb. represents a changeable instability, often mindful of Pulsatillas mental state. The Kali carb. condition seems part of a general state of low vital energy with disturbed adrenal functioning and vagotonia. The patient is whimsical, contradictory, quarrelsome, fearful and anxious. He is impatient, since his changing whims cannot be instantly heeded.
LYCOPODIUM.
Lycop. presents the trend of an intellectual overbalance, out of proportion to and at the expense of, an atrophying emotional life and of the purely vital energies. These patients are quite introverted, often asocial types; outwardly, perhaps, haughty and domineering, inwardly unsure of themselves, full of fears and feelings of inferiority. Irritability and impatience are the expressions of this precarious imbalance of their inner lives.
NATRUM MURIATICUM.
Also the Nat. mur. patients are exceedingly introverted like the former, Lycop., but their imbalance stems from a hypertrophy of emotion rather than of intellect. Their state is one of emotional isolation, be it self-imposed, or through the force of circumstances, such as bereavement and grief; violently and impatiently they resent any intrusion into the circle of their lonely withdrawal and introversion.
AURUM.
The gold patient, also, is lonesome and depressed. He is weighted down by a load of real or imagined responsibility, self- imposed, or ordained by the necessity of circumstances. Thus, he is given to self accusations, brooding, melancholic depression, hopeless pessimism and restless, impatient anxiety.
PLATINA.
Whereas Aurum tends to disparage and humble his ego, in relation to what he feels he should have attained, Platina aggrandizes himself and belittles his environment. He indulges in an assumed superiority of his self and disregards all that does not fit into the pattern of his self-inflation. For the sake of the power drive, the life of the other emotions and instincts is sacrificed and suppressed. a perverted instinctual and sexual life results, with irritability and impatience often of a definitely hysterical character.
STAPHISAGRIA.
Also Staphisagria tends to overrate his own importance, though often quite unaware of doing so. He is quite self- indulgent and will not deny himself the satisfaction of his emotional and sexual urges. Since he is very sensitive to the way he is judged, in relation to his own artificially inflated standard, he is constantly forced to hide and suppress his real emotional and personal self. Living by the grace of artificially maintained appearance, he easily lays himself open to injury to his pride, which, again, never must be admitted or noticed by others. The price for the maintenance of this artificial structure is paid for in tension, hysteria, spasticity and impatient irritability. NEW YORK, NEW YORK.
