Thank you to homeopath Chelsea Smock for contributing this important work - you can access more of Chelsea’s insightful mind over at Infinity in a Teacup !
WHAT IS SUCCESS?
By homeopath Chelsea Smock, Austin, Texas.1
“Since no paradigm ever solves all the problems it defines, and since no two paradigms leave all the same problems unsolved, paradigm debates always involve the question: Which problems is it more significant to have solved?” — Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.
How does homeopathy measure success?
Here in this space, Sarah does a beautiful job of presenting us with quality research from the homeopathic community. And when I read that research, I’m always struck with how our measure of success differs, in the homeopathic community, from the measure of success in conventional medicine.
We are working in two different worlds.
What do you think, when you hear the word successful?
What does it mean, to have a successful outcome, in the arena of health?
Understanding this basic question determines the kind of outcomes we expect, and allow, as practitioners.
Let’s take a basic example. The conventional advice given to parents, when a child has a fever, is to give acetaminophen (Tylenol). Why? Because acetaminophen reduces fevers.
Is this a successful outcome?
If our measure of success — our goal — is no fever, or low fever, then the answer would be yes, because taking acetaminophen usually reduces the fever.
But what if reducing the fever interferes with the healing process?
What if reducing the fever prevents the body from bringing itself back into balance?
What if reducing the fever forces the body to use other measures to maintain balance, measures that are harder to turn on and off, and take longer to resolve?
What if reducing the fever in the short term, weakens the body in the long term?
What problem are we trying to solve?
When we set out to understand something, scientifically, it’s important to ask questions at every stage of the game. We have to question our questions. We have to question our process. We have to question our expectations, and our biases. We have to look at the big picture, and try to understand what would be a measure of success.
We have to ask: what are the important problems?
In the example of the fever, many of us, when faced with a toddler running a fever of 103 F (39.5 C), immediately jump to conclusion that the important problem is the high fever, and therefore the measure of success is reducing fever. We focus on the local symptom of fever, without consideration for the long-term consequences of interfering with that fever.
But why is that?
We see fever as a symptom to eliminate, because of the paradigm of health that dominates our culture.
Even while acknowledging that fever “may help the immune system fight disease”2 the standard advice is to give a fever-reducing chemical drug for many fevers. The paradigm of conventional medicine sees symptoms like fever as at best, benign, and at worst mortally dangerous. There is no consideration that there may be a risk involved in chemically interfering with the body’s processes, in order to eliminate that symptom.
So what is the problem with taking a fever away?
From the perspective of western medicine, there is no problem — because in their paradigm, fever is a sign of ILLNESS and no fever is a sign of HEALTH.
In homeopathy, we do not like to take a fever away artificially, because we see fever as a sign of strength and health in the system, and we want to allow the organism to do its work.
In homeopathy, rather than measuring success by the absence of symptoms, we measure success as moving in the direction of health.
And what we mean by direction of health, is that the system is becoming more and more flexible — that it is capable of responding to and overcoming stress with minimal support.
Because we are looking at health from the perspective of flexibility, we approach every illness — whether the flu, or an autoimmune disease — by asking questions that will help us understand what is an appropriate, effective response of the system, and what actually needs support.
In other words the problem we are solving for is long term health.
Short term comfort vs long term health
In homeopathy, we see symptoms as the organism’s best response to a stress. Just as a baby will cry when it is hungry, our organism produces symptoms in order to meet a need, or elicit a response from you.
If a baby is crying, we try to figure out what the need is. We know that if the baby is hungry, and we feed it, it will stop crying. Forcing a baby to stop crying, or ignoring the cries without addressing the underlying need only creates more problems.
It is the same for every symptom our body produces. If we focus on eliminating the symptom without making an effort to understand what purpose the symptom is serving, as part of an overall response of the organism to a stress, we can actually end up making ourselves sicker.
For instance. I’ve been on a journey with the autoimmune disease alopecia for 30 years now. I could measure my “success” in dealing with this condition by tracking how much hair I have on my head. And I certainly do track my hair growth — but I do not use that as the primary measure of success.
If hair growth alone were my measure of success, my most logical move would be to take cortisone internally. This has a fairly high rate of success in suppressing the alopecia, and allowing hair to grow — in the short term. However, in the long term, that treatment will damage my kidneys, and interfere with the function of my hormonal system.
When I heard about this, I knew that I was willing to deal with unpredictable hair growth, in order to protect my kidneys and hormonal system.
I could have had the short-term comfort of a full head of hair, but I would have had to sacrifice my long term health.
What constitutes success in homeopathy?
In order to know that we have succeeded with a homeopathic remedy, we must see an overall improvement in health, not simply an amelioration of local symptoms.
This means that along with tracking your physical symptoms, we are tracking energy levels, mood, the health of your relationships, your ability to concentrate and think clearly, among other things. We want to see improvement on all of these levels, in order to claim success.
So when we work with you, or when we publish research, we look at the condition of the whole person, on every level, and we look for improvement on every level.
In the short term, this may mean that local symptoms stay the same, or even get worse for a little while.
We have patience for this process, because we understand that once the deeper issues start to resolve, the organism will have the energy and the flexibility to address more superficial issues.
So when you read about homeopathy, keep this in mind. Notice. We’re asking different questions, and we’re looking for different answers than conventional medical research.
We do not settle for the elimination of a fever, or a rash, or local pain. We do not settle for short-term results.
We do not settle for an intervention that must be repeated indefinitely in order to “help.”
In classical homeopathy, we are always working towards developing long-term freedom and flexibility in the organism.
Before you accept health information or advice from any source — try asking this question: what is their measure of success?
What problem are they solving for?
The value of our research, information, and actions depends on how we answer this question. Our long term healing depends on whether we are willing to ask this — and how we answer it.
This is a GUEST POST by homeopath Chelsea Smock from Infinity in a Teacup
You can support Chelsea by subscribing to her work, and engaging by leaving your comments and a like below.
https:// www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/fever/symptoms-causes/syc-20352759
Bless you Chelsea!
The more I read this piece the more powerful your words become!
Clearly you have the ability to empower the people you work so hard for, and your colleagues too.
I start my day extra inspired thanks to your take on the art and science of good homeopathy.
And, as always, I look forward to reading more from you!
Aude Sapere
Great post! I totally agree with Sarah. Rereading this article, the words come alive, spring into their power, stimulating the true journey of healing. Thank you both 💕🙏