Empaths tend to take on the problems of others as their own. It is often difficult for them to set boundaries between themselves and others and say no, even when too much is being asked of them. It is common for empaths to feel drained after spending time around people or in crowds.

Some empaths have experienced early trauma such as emotional or physical abuse, or they were raised by alcoholic, depressed, or narcissistic parents.

Below is a case from my practice as a homeopath:

• A 38-year old female was complaining mostly of ‘weird’ feelings (her words) like she does not belong to this world, that sometimes she cannot feel her body, as if only her soul exists, without no physical body. 
• Her partner told her that it looks like lately she lives in ‘her own world’ because several times when they were crossing together small streets (with no traffic lights),  she did not even look to check the surroundings, to see if there was any car coming.
• Few times after paying for groceries, she took only part of the bags with groceries she bought, as if she was not aware of the other bag she was supposed to take, or maybe she forgot to take it. She mentioned also, that the crowds of people disturb her and affect her ability to concentrate on what she needs to do. As a result of what it is happening to her right now, she said she does not trust herself anymore.
• Even though she admits these are things she needs somehow to correct, when her partner wants to talk with her about these unusual situations she finds herself in, more often lately, she does not feel comfortable at all discussing about these awkward situations.
• She found herself daydreaming at work, and at home too; she had periods of times during her life when she was daydreaming, but lately this and the other symptoms are more intense and repeat more often.
• She feels like disconnected from reality, like not present in this world.
• Therefore, she said, she feels sad and nothing can make her feel more joyful at this time, in life.
• She is longing for something more meaningful in life, but she does not really know what that could be.
• She gets headaches approximately once or twice per month, but she does not know what the cause of her headaches could be. The headaches, affecting her temples, are not extremely painful, but they make her feel like ‘spacey’; sometimes she gets some spells of dizziness as well.
• She is a chilly person in general, with nose, hands and feet feeling cold almost all the time.
• She feels ‘disconnected’ from her partner, no desire for intimate relationship.
• She is thirsty in general, and drinks at least 2L of water per day, soups, coffee, and milk which she likes a lot, but unfortunately it causes the eczema on the occipital area to flare up.
• As a child she had many recurrent ear infections, as an adult she gets these very rarely.
• She decided not to have children.
• Her mother could not breastfeed her (due to some health issues).

Based on the totality of the symptoms presented, I recommended her a dose of Lac Maternum 1M.

First Followup –  Improvements (a month later)

• She did not get any headaches this month
• No dizziness
• No flare up eczema
• She felt a bit more connected to her partner (20 – 30%  improvement)
• A bit more present and aware of her surroundings (just by approximately 10%)
• Still affected by crowds of people which give her some anxiety
• She still feels sad, no joy

She noticed that she felt more tired than before, even though she slept the same number of hours and nothing changed in her sleep routine. She had the  same load of work.

Since there was improvement, I have decided to give her a dose of a higher potency of the same remedy Lac Maternum, 10M.

SECOND FOLLOWUP – 5 weeks later

• There are more improvements since the previous follow-up.
• The most important one was the fact that she felt much more aware of her surroundings (about 70 %). She was more present in this world, more aware of her surroundings.
• A bit more connected with her partner (approximately 50%).
• More aware of her symptoms in her body.
• The anxiety from being in crowds of people is back.
• Her tiredness got worse, even if she slept more.
• She started to feel overwhelmed at work and even by the chores at home (even though there were not so many).
• Bad news on TV about people and life or pet really affected her, like she feels the pain of those unfortunate people or pets.
• Loud music or people talking or laughing loudly at work or on the street or in public started to bother her more than in the past.

I recommended her one Vernix Caseosa 200CH and asked her to repeat one more dose, if needed.

THIRD FOLLOWUP – 4 weeks later

• She said she took 2 doses of Vernix Caseosa 200CH, because she felt she needed it.
• At work the boss is giving her now more work and she cannot say ‘no’, because she feels guilty if she says ‘no’ and so as a result she feels extremely overwhelmed now. At home she cannot even prepare dinner, because she does not have any energy left to do anything after work.
• She feels like the boss is taking advantage by giving her more assignments.
• She started to daydream again at work, probably as a copping mechanism
• She has a restless mind, she is thinking about everything that is happening in her life and how her life makes her feel now
• Her partner says she feels the need to be hugged more than before, because she said hugs feels like giving her more protection, more security from all the overwhelming situations from her life
• She is extremely tired and she sleeps more now, but she does not feel she wakes up with more energy to face the day. In fact she kind of feels anxious to go again through the day.
• Crowds of people make her feel even more anxious; sometimes she said she feels the pain especially of older people or kids crying.
• She said like she is too in touch with everything that she is feeling that she feels everything.
• She feels like quitting her demanding job to stay at home or go to her mother in the mountains area, to recover.
• She decided not to watch the bad news about life and people, since they affected her so much
• The allergies she used to suffer from in the past are coming back.
• She said she felt like life is too much for her right now and that she needs to retire from everything.

I decided to give her a dose of the same remedy Vernix Caseosa 1M (higher potency)

FORTH  FOLLOWUP – 3 weeks later

She said she felt some very small general improvement in what concerns all her symptoms mentioned at the previous followup.

So I decided to repeat the same remedy in the same potency.

FIFTH  FOLLOWUP – 4 weeks later

• There was definitely more improvement after the second dose of Vernix Caseosa. She has more energy for the things she needs to do. She is more in control with her life, she feels less overwhelmed. She is aware of her feelings caused by the outside stimuli (crowds of people, bad news on TV about life and people and pets, an over demanding boss and overwhelming job), but she can manage better those feelings now.

I recommended her another dose of the same remedy and potency in case there is no further improvement or in case the old symptoms start to come back.

Homeopathic remedies cannot change who we are, but they can help us understand ourselves better, help us become more present and aware of our surroundings and situations, empower us and help us cope  better with life.

The remedies used for healing this empath  case were Lac Maternum and Vernix Caseosa.

Characteristics of Lac Maternum (Jan Scholten)

Essence
“The main problem is the incarnation, incarnation in the contemporary world. The process of incarnation takes place during pregnancy and is not after birth. Maternal milk helps children gradually descend into the physical body. They cannot accept their physical condition, the difficulties of their role during this incarnation, dissatisfaction with the astral world, the non-adoption of the child by his parents at the beginning of pregnancy, or the fear of Responsibility for a new life.
For a baby, a newborn, breastfeeding is a symbol of love, warmth, and affection, which helps them to accept life. The breast is the largest sexual organ of the human body, and skin is the largest body in the body that is closely related to sexuality. Immediately after birth, the eyes of the newborn are closed and the child’s eyes are rarely opened in the first month of the baby. The child will start to know their mother according to her speech, touch, her scent. But the deepest feelings made by her breasts and breast feeding.
When the child is unwanted it becomes difficult to come in this world, this life. They don’t come into their body. They feel as an outsider in the world, as if watching through a glass window, as if everything is far away, distant and unreal. They can feel hovering, as if outside their body, watching their body as strange.”

Mind
“Not fully present or feeling incarnated.
Mother feels not connected to the baby, doesn’t feel really happy with the baby in her arms.
Everything seems unreal or distant.
Feeling of not being really present.
parents didn’t accept the pregnancy
Fear of the parents for the responsibility of having a child.
Anesthesia or medication during birth.
Not being weaned with the colostrum.
Drug addiction.
Autism, Asperger-syndrome
Ailments from and unwanted pregnancy, parents fearing the responsibility.
Feeling of separation between mother and child.
Feeling invisible to other people, of being overlooked.
Concentration problems, absent-minded, inattentive, diffuse, dreaming.
Body feeling lacking, stumbling, clumsy, tendency to fall.
Feeling body parts are separated, left and right side are not connected.
No interdependence between spirit and body.
Oversensitive to criticism.
Avoiding conflicts, doing what others advise.
Indecisive, misses her will.
Lack of courage, ambition.
Lack of sense of time.
Restless, cannot come to himself, nervousness alternates with peace.
Fear for life, anxiety about life.
Feeling unloved.
Slow.
Inability, weakness: lack of joy in life, exhaustion and
Alternating states: positive and cheerful with murderous and unmoved.
Does not know her boundaries: she does not know her identity.
Lack of self-confidence.
Problems in sexuality: lack of libido.
Eating disorders: bulimia, anorexia, too many candies.
Adopted child.
Dream: swimming in water; animal, spider.
Dream: breasts, sex.
Dream: family; children.”

Characteristics of Vernix Caseosa (Jan Scholten)

Essence
“They have a lack of protection against all outside influences. They are oversensitive and everything comes in too fast and intensive. They lack boundaries.”

Mind
“Everything comes too close, feels no way of protecting himself.
Mother was stressed around the time of birth.
Ailments from sexual abuse or terror.
Hypersensitive, everything is too intense: noise, odors, touch.
Delicate, needs protection.
Oversensitive, feels overwhelmed by all impressions, sounds, smells.
Feels attacked, unprotected, naked, with thin skin.
Feels overwhelmed, invaded, overstrained, overextended, overburdened, by work, household, the world.
Feels a victim, not respected.
Guilt feelings.
Cannot say no, has to do much for others, against his own will.
Delusion: being persecuted, attacked, influenced, affected.
Fear: open places; agarophobia.
Autism.
Does not play boy games; stands alone in the school yard”

General
“Sensation: sore.
Physical: seams of tight clothes are intolerable.”

Body
General: allergies; exhausted; fatigue, exhaustion; chronic fatigue syndrome.
Head: skin sensitive, itching, scabs.
Ears: sensitive to noise, wears headphones at school for noise reduction.
Face: eczema; acne!
Female:
Pregnancy: trauma; too many impressions.
Labour: too many impressions.
Skin: sensitive, itching; thick; eczema, eruption, face, head, wet, offensive, scaly; sebaceous gland problems; allergies.