The MICH Method:Matching The Remedy to the Disease
- Judyann McNamara, DHOM, N.D., DHP
- May 1, 2023
Chronic Disease and Perceived Stress
Stress can actually have a positive effect if the stressor represents real physical danger and the individual can act on it: fight, run away, physically defend or attack.[i] This intense physical action for just a short period of time is the basis of using physical exercise to reduce stress.
Stress can actually have a positive effect if the stressor represents real physical danger and the individual can act on it: fight, run away, physically defend or attack.[i] This intense physical action for just a short period of time is the basis of using physical exercise to reduce stress.
If however, the situation does not represent a physical danger, but is more psychological, as a perception or misinterpretation, there is no physical action the individual can take to respond and therefore no way to reduce the stress that is created.This internally induced stress is registered by the mitochondria, and is directly linked to the expression of metabolic diseases such as diabetes, auto-immune diseases, cardiovascular disease, diseases linked to the central nervous system (including depression), and other chronic disease.[ii]
Perceived Stress and Sense of Self
What we have found is that the most prevalent source of stress is related to the sense of self. We all have a self-image consisting of various personality traits and attributes that constitute our sense of self. Researchers have shown that just telling someone they will be questioned or tested produces a flood of stress hormones within microseconds. All we have to do is perceive a situation as being somehow threatening to our sense of self to create stress.
It is this perceived stress that is the cause of most chronic disease.
The Three S’s of Susceptibility due to Stress: Striving, Sense of Self and Sensation
We all want to be perceived by others in particular way: we “strive” to live up to the perception we want others to have of us. This particular “striving” around the sense of self causes us to react to any situation that could possibly threaten the self image we want to preserve and makes us susceptible to particular types of criticism or judgment etc. The sensations we experience around this susceptibility and perceived threat to our self image, define the particular form of stress that affects us.
The following case illustrates how these dimensions are used to prescribe and effectively treat the internal, perceived stress that causes chronic disease.
A CASE OF SEVERE ALLERGIES AND HAY FEVER
A client had severe hay fever symptoms every August, since he lost his white-collar job. Although he lived in the city now, he was brought up on a farm, and August was when farmwork was most intense. He abhorred manual work and strove to avoid it completely by getting an education.
He rejected manual labor, and considered having a managerial position not only as economically important, but as a condition essential to his identity. His sense of self was of one who “uses his brain, not his hands”. He strove to prove his intelligence and mental acuity. He insisted strongly on how he wants to use his intelligence, not his body. He associated intelligence with his soul, with purity. This idealization of intelligence represents his striving: an idealized idea of who he is, and what he should be doing with his life.
He perceived the loss of his job, and perhaps the need to go back to the farm or do manual labor, as a threat to the “white collar identity” he wanted to preserve and strove for. He became susceptible to pollen through what it represents to him: hard, physical work.
Sensation
Although he did find work after his initial layoff, he continued to be susceptible to every criticism at work, every remark by his boss. When his boss made a comment, it is “as if” he was falling into a hole, “as if” he needed to “hold on” to his job. This sensation was of being “pushed out” of his first job. The provings of Sabadilla, of the Lilliflorae family, has exactly these sensations as well as the symptoms and mental state he expressed. When the client took his first dose of Sabadilla, he experienced a sense of relief on all levels: mentally, emotionally and physically. Not only did his hayfever never return, he reported a major shift in his relationships and his perceptions of life. He felt “freer” and more aware and in touch with the world: as if “everything is brighter, more alive”
A Multi-dimensional approach
This multi-dimensional understanding provides a complete picture of the person and his disease and allows us to prescribe very deeply and accurately. It accurately reflects the beauty and the complexity of the human being. Such prescriptions not only address the physical ailments, they change the client’s fixed idea of themselves, their perceptions, their interpretations and their defensiveness, inspiring much healthier and richer relationships. These prescriptions provoke greater freedom and optimism in the clients, and increase vital energy and awareness of life. When prescriptions result in such profound global changes in the individual’s life, we refer to them as “Noumedynamic”[i] prescriptions. Noume- is related to the word “noumenon”, derived from the Latin “numen” which means deity, divine will or divine presence. A “noumenal” force such as the soul, or vital force is the fundamental organizing principle of the organism, maintaining its integrity and wholeness in a dynamic adaptive and evolutionary process.
What homeopathy provides is an effective tool that aids the person in releasing attachment to the “hard-wired” sense of self. This reduction of the rigid sense of self allows greater freedom of response, improved adaptation resulting in less stress, symptoms and chronic disease.
Over the last eighteen years, the MICH community of homeopaths, has been able to apply effective homeopathic treatment to their clients’ susceptibility through the individual’s perceptions, subjective experience, and interpretations in relationship to stress.
About Judyann McNamara, DHOM, N.D., DHP
Originally a physicist and biomedical researcher (biophysics), Judyann has had a clinical practice for over 25 years, has held conferences since 1984 and has been a teacher of courses in physics, science, health, holism and spirituality since 1975. She is a Homeopath with classical unicist training, a Naturopath, and the founder of MICH.
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Reference[1] McEwen et al. Central effects of stress hormones in health and disease: Understanding the protective and damaging effects of stress and stress mediators, European Journal of Pharmacology, Volume 583, Issues 2–3, 7 April 2008, Pages 174–185. [2] Picard, Juster, & McEwen. Mitochondrial allostatic load, Nature Reviews Endocrinology 10, 303–310 (2014)