What Does a PANS/PANDAS Healing Journey Look Like?
I’ve written before about what a homeopathic healing journey from chronic issues can look like and how there’s not a straight line between where one starts and a place of vitality and well-being. Today, I’m writing about what a PANS/PANDAS healing journey can look like. PANS/PANDAS is difficult and requires deep healing. If you are a caregiver for a child with PANS/PANDAS, please have hope, optimism, and confidence! Improvements are possible.
PANS/PANDAS energetic rebalancing often takes years and likely includes improvements and setbacks along the way. This is a sample of what one journey might look like. It’s based on a composite of clients from my practice and my personal experience. I’m sharing this example to help instill optimism and confidence for caregivers and to highlight why a long-term perspective is needed when dealing with the ups and downs of a healing journey.
Allison* presents with issues of emotional lability with rageful flares of dilated pupils, increased strength, and heat in her face and body. Other symptoms include intense anxiety, full body tics, sensory issues, ADHD, non-typical immune responses to illness including rarely getting sick, and food restrictions. She also has a history of croup and losing her voice. Temperamentally, Allison is described as social, friendly, silly, and outgoing when not experiencing rage or anxiety and she tends to “run warm” and be bothered by heat.
Remedies are always selected based on a totality of symptoms with an emphasis given to symptoms that are most outstanding and most limiting. In this case, a remedy with an affinity for rageful flares is a must. Because the rage and emotional lability are prominent and highly limiting to her, we started with a remedy that focuses on those symptoms. In this case, it’s called a flare remedy.
Flare remedy - the purpose of the flare remedy is to support healthy rebalancing of the inflammation in the brain. Some common flare remedies include Belladonna, Hyoscyamus, Stramonium, Apis, Tarentula, and Lachesis. In this case, Allison was prescribed Belladonna due to its affinity for rageful flares with heat and intolerance of heat.
Allison was on Belladonna for 6 months. She had a favorable response and, in her case, the rage disappeared quickly. After the flare remedy, her other symptoms became more prominent, namely her anxiety, tics, and sensory issues. The next remedy focused on all of her symptoms more equally, as well as on her general nature.
Constitutional remedy - the purpose of a constitutional remedy is to support the totality of symptoms and to match the energy of the client with the energy of a remedy. On the mental and emotional level, we needed a remedy that supports her outgoing nature as well as her anxiety and, on a physical level, we’re looking to match her tics, sensory issues, low immune response, and restrictive eating. Based on that totality of symptoms and her nature, Allison was prescribed Sulphur. Other common constitutional remedies include Calc carb, Lachesis, Natrum muriaticum, Nux vomica, Phosphorus, Pulsatilla, Silica and Thuja, to name a few.
After several months and potencies, it became apparent that the Sulphur was a little helpful, but not a lot. Her strong reaction to heat was improved, but the deeper symptoms like anxiety and tics weren’t really touched. It’s not uncommon for a well indicated remedy to not be as helpful as initially expected. When a well indicated remedy doesn’t act, it can be that the remedy selected isn’t as good of a match as expected, or it can be an indication that there is a block in the case. Common blocks include vaccine injury, multiple medications with adverse side effects, an environmental toxin like mold, or an inherited or miasmatic susceptibility. Miasms are a homeopathic term for familial inherited susceptibilities and miasmatic remedies are considered central to the inherited susceptibility. Allison’s history includes a very strong negative, personality-changing reaction to the Pneumococcal vaccine and, as such, a vaccine clearing was accompanied by a miasmatic remedy to address her underlying susceptibility.
Miasmatic and clearing remedies - there are 5 commonly prescribed miasmatic remedies: Syphilinum, Tuberculinum, Carcinosin, Medorrhinum, and Psorinum. Keep in mind that homeopathic remedies are the energetic signature of source substances and these remedies are considered to be the heart of the 5 main miasms. In this case, Carcinosin was chosen based on Allison’s vaccine response history, low immune function, and tics. Carcinosin is highly indicated for kids that have experienced negative vaccine responses, rarely get sick, and, when they do, their bodies do not mount fevers. A lack of a fever response is viewed to be a sign of low vitality or immune dysregulation. Getting sick periodically, including having high fevers and then recovering from the illness, is a sign of a healthy immune system.
Allison was prescribed the Pneumococcal vaccine clear protocol for 2 months and was prescribed daily doses of Carcinosin in increasing potencies for 18 months. Overall she did very well; her anxiety improved, her tics reduced, her sensory issues improved, and she started experiencing normal illness responses, including having a fever of 104 degrees for 4 days in a row. We celebrated that response because a high fever that resolves is a sign of great vitality and healthy immune function.
Constitutional remedy – During the course of care, it was discovered that Allison’s house had mold in it. It was remediated and her tics improved, but didn’t fully resolve. At this point, Allison’s symptom picture had evolved and was mainly centered on facial and vocal tics and, although she could still be quite social, she experienced medium social anxiety and had a very small friendship group, low self-esteem with displays of bravado, ADHD, and food cravings and aversions. Based on the tics, anxiety with bravado, and her high need for carbs, Agaricus was selected next.
Over the next 9 months, Allison’s tics reduced to the point of being almost gone except after excessive screen time. The bravado disappeared. Her ADHD symptoms diminished and she demonstrated improved executive functioning. She demonstrated more patience and comfortability taking responsibility for herself. She expanded both her friendship group and her palate and reduced her sugar intake.
Today, Allison is a social, friendly, highly capable and energetic teen. She has friends and participates in activities. She is still under active care and her tics and anxiety require the ongoing support of a constitutional remedy and, periodically, she needs an acute remedy for various things that come up.
Although rather lengthy, this sample is still a simplified composite story of what one healing journey could look like. In reality, each child has a unique set of symptoms that shifts in its own order. There are usually a few remedies tried and discarded along the way, there are likely acute remedies needed at times, there are frequently “healing responses” or aggravations to new potencies of a later discarded remedy, and other supports such as temporary dietary changes or therapy may be needed. But, if one holds a bird’s-eye view, a healing thread will crystalize.
PANS/PANDAS is difficult and requires deep healing over a time horizon. Staying the course requires optimism, confidence, patience, and perseverance. If you’re a caregiver, please take confidence in the process, recognize progress made, and maintain hope and optimism for the journey. It’s worth it!