As a woman in her mid-20s, who has cultivated a life of adventure, I find it hard to remain content “lying low”. Being active every day helps me retain an innate curiosity I have about the world. When I am feeling self-assured and healthy, my outgoing personality only ever comes with a smile! That is why when I found myself cramping and irritable from PMS symptoms, I knew I had to do something. I couldn’t handle the imbalance; I didn’t feel like me. In this article you’ll learn how I found homeopathy as a real cure to my bad PMS symptoms
Another thing to know about me is that I do my best not to engage with over-the-counter solutions. I believe in my body’s natural defense systems and ways of expressing pain and seek to help it heal. It was uncomfortable to consider that the Advil I had taken for years was simply blocking pain, rather than aiding my body to steady itself. Every month it seemed to start the same – generally good attitude with irritable outbursts pre-flow, full cramping for the first couple days and a significant flow for most of the week. All the while just so highly emotionally and physically imbalanced that it felt like a new dawn on the final day of every month.
The more I researched, the less I enjoyed the treatments I was seeing online; from pain pills and heat pads I thought ‘there has to be another way’. My childhood did not consist of homeopathic remedies, we were given your classic OTC drugs like Vapor Rub and Nyquil. Which are each fine and helpful in their own ways; I just needed to understand how I sought to care for myself. I had just entered college and find it seems fitting that this all coincided with my new-found independence. Some insane amount of research later I stumbled upon Lychopodium clavatum, or Lyc for short. In homeopathy there are many uses for Lyc and it seemed it would help my PMS symptoms as a gentle alternative.
I would recommend speaking to your healthcare provider to understand all the risks and benefits associated with any homeopathic remedy. Note that in this instance, I did not. Lyc is a moss and I wouldn’t be ingesting venom or the sap of a tree with the name ‘vomit’. Feeling confident and in need of healing, I started out with one pill every two hours. You can take one pill (or equivalent drops) every hour for intense symptoms and every four for mild ones. Initially, I didn’t feel confident, but after a couple days I noticed improvement in my mood and discomfort. On day five I reduced my intake to once every three hours, then every four as my cycle ended.
I felt confident that this could be a sustained solution for me to feel more like myself and be more comfortable before and during my menstrual cycle. In the cycles that have come to follow since that initial experiment, I have gone through my share of this supplement. If you are like me, your period fluctuates in flow and pain so I do my best to retain how I feel, and dose as needed as it could change month-to-month. Again, the gentle nature of homeopathy made me feel confident about these decisions especially as PMS is mainly hormone-driven. I have had no adverse reactions to it, but that is why we should discuss natural remedies with a healthcare provider.
This initial step towards homeopathy not only helped my PMS symptoms and it quickly turned into a curiosity into herbalism. Through this, I learned about the ways I can use natural materials to aid my holistic wellbeing. I found a wonderful practitioner in Colorado while I was still in school to help navigate my research. The initial meeting was different from a traditional medical setting, but I left having felt listened to and cared for. I left to go abroad and had a string of serendipitous events that kept me moving, but eventually I settled in Portland, Oregon. As I am so new here, I have yet to connect with a provider but remain confident time will allow me to find a wonderful fit!
Lychopodium clavatum has been a wonderful aid to me in bringing me back to center during a time when my hormones make it seem like a losing battle. Something I would encourage you to do as you explore homeopathic remedies is to retain your values. I was not willing to explore animal-based solutions, and knew I wanted it to be sustainable and gentle. Do your research, listen to your body, and retain your values as you explore alternative remedies; I believe it will allow you to discover what is right for you. I wish you the best as your journey continues.
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