Acute vs. Chronic
Acute. Chronic. Constitutional. How long have you been experiencing that symptom? That’s not acute, you need a full consultation. Is it new, or something you’ve had in the past? You’re likely experiencing an acute flare up of a chronic symptom.
If you’re reading this, you’ve most likely heard at least one of the above from a Homeopath before. And possibly wondered what they heck are they talking about? Why on earth do they need to know that? I don’t feel well and I just want help.
Feels familiar? You’re in the right place - keep reading so you can better understand what we are talking about.
In homeopathy, we define “acute” as a set of symptoms that come on, exist for about 3 weeks, and then resolve. Why 3 weeks you ask? Because that is the amount of time most short-term illnesses/injuries take to heal on their own, with no outside support/assistance.
Some examples of acute complaints include:
Bug bites
Cuts and scrapes
Fractures and bone breaks (while these take 4-6 weeks to fully recover, most healing is done within 3 weeks and with no outside interventions the bone will heal on its own)
Cold and flu (when the symptoms/process are NOT consistent with previous experiences)
Sunburn/sun stroke
Injuries during sports (when the injury is NOT a repeat of a previous injury)
Emotional shock/fright/violation
We define “chronic” as symptoms that continue past the 3 week mark, and may go on indefinitely. These symptoms will often stay consistent, although there are times where they seem to disappear for a while, only to come back some time later. The main aspect of chronic symptoms is that they generally don’t change much and seem to hang around.
Some examples of chronic complaints include:
Insomnia
Anxiety
Depression
Diabetes
Thyroid under/over function
Stress
Weight issues
Seems simple, right? And yet its often not.
What about those times when you’re pretty sure its acute - you get a sore throat, it turns into sinus pain, which goes into your ears and ends with an ear ache. All that happens in 3 weeks. Acute, isn’t it?
If we zoom out for a moment though, we see that every winter you go through this same process once or twice. Seems to always follow the same order too. This is what we call an acute flare up of a chronic situation. That means, your system has an underlying susceptibility to getting sick in this way (throat to nose, nose to ear). You can use a remedy to help in the moment, in the acute flare up, to provide relief from those symptoms (yay, good job, this works with your body as it attempts to heal itself, rather than suppressing things).
The best approach however, is to address that underlying susceptibility with a constitutional or chronic remedy. This remedy is working at a deeper level, on the whole system, to help your body bring itself back into balance.
What would this process look like? If you are in the midst of the acute as described above, you select a remedy that fits those particular symptoms (throat, nose, ear). Once you are feeling better and recovered from it, you would need to work with a Homeopath (having a full consultation) so they can determine a remedy that works on the sensitivity of the system. They are going to explore not just the throat/nose/ear symptoms, but also your overall mental/emotional state and various body systems (elimination, digestion, circulation, etc.).
Some examples of an acute flare up of a chronic susceptibility include:
Seasonal allergies
Premenstrual irritability, cravings, pain, mood swings
Menstrual pain, bloating
Colds/flu that follow a fairly consistent pattern
Recurring anything eg. yeast infections, strep throat, rashes, migraines, UTI’s,
Asthma
Eczema
I hope this has helped to demystify some of the terminology you’ll hear Homeopaths using. As always, the more you learn and use homeopathy, the better you will get at it.
When dealing with true acutes or acute flare ups, home prescribing is certainly possible. That said, if we are trying to help ourselves, or the symptoms are too confusing, it can feel overwhelming. Then it is great to get support from a Homeopath - I offer acute appointments for just such situations. Book here.
For true chronic symptoms, and for working on the chronic susceptibility of the system, it is essential to work in depth with a Homeopath. For this, I have full consultations available here. Often after 2-6 months of regular appointments clients start to see notable improvement and feel their body coming back to balance.
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