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Unit 11: Nitric Acid

Transcript CD11-05
Nitric Acid by Janet Snowdon

They are not good company, they are not fun to be with, if you want to enjoy yourself, don't go out with a
Nitric Acid. They are miserable, and dissatisfied, not the kind of dissatisfaction you find with Tuberculinum,
because they are entertaining, and they are good fun to be with because they are always into something
different, and there's a lot of energy, and their dissatisfaction drives them on to do other things, but Nitric
Acid is just miserable and dissatisfied. They are worse in the morning, they are terrible in the morning, real
murder to be married to because the morning is just so bad for them: if you say good morning to them,
they are likely to thump you because they just can't stand any kind of 'good morning'; they are extremely
bad tempered in the morning. It's not just bad tempered, it's not a sort of violence, just unpleasant to be
around, and the nicer you try and be to them, the more horrible they are. They are best avoided altogether.

It's very interesting, I've discovered more and more, especially these days, family dynamics, as to the
remedies, I'm finding more and more children, where their problem lies with the parents, and particularly
with the mother, not because it's the mother, necessarily, but that it is usually the mother who spends
more time with the child. Particularly the mothers' anxieties that she puts onto the child. I have one child
who keeps getting chest infections, glandular infections and vomiting, and she keeps getting these
episodes and they can't find anything wrong and the mother brought her to me, I've given her Pulsatilla,
I've given her Calcarea, and I cannot get to what's going on with this child at-all, she's about thirteen. I've
asked her questions and the mother questions; the mother suffers from depression and I'm sure her
problems are related to the mother. I actually gave her Staphisagria last week. The mothers' anxiety is
projected: "mummies depression doesn't affect you, does it, Fiona dear?" Every time I enquire, if she picks
up any hint that I may think they child’s problems are emotional - "we're a very happy family, you know",
and this is all laid on to the child. The mother is talking a lot of the time, not about the child’s problems, but
she's saying things like "oh I'm so worried about her", and she's going on a school trip next year, and "I
know she's going to be ill, and I have sleepless nights worrying about you, Fiona, don't I?". This poor child is
sitting there, which is why I gave her Staphisagria, you couldn't actually see the child except in relation to
her mothers neurosis about her, and what the mother is actually laying on her. The next things she says is
"how many more times are we going to have to come and see you", and "don't tell me you're not going to
be able to help us either, you're our last hope and we were putting all our hope in you, weren't we Fiona?" I
can't get a thing out of the child, she just sits there and says yes and no. Every month she is ill for at least
two weeks of it. But you can only see the child in relation to the family dynamic; I asked the mother about

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 Unit 11: Nitric Acid

the depressions and she pursed her lips and said "everybody gets depressed, don't they?". I've no idea
what the father's like, but I suspect the whole family is dominated by the mothers depression.

To get back to Nitric Acid! If you discover that you are treating someone in a family who has got a Nitric
Acid around, they are likely to have a problem. There's a lot of hatred in Nitric Acid, they will hate you for
saying good morning to them, if you say it in a cheerful way, they will hate you all day and not forgive you for
it. That's the kind of thing that goes on with Nitric Acid. Nothing is right, you cannot please them when they
are in a bad mood, anything you say is wrong, anything you do is wrong; there is no way that you can
approach a Nitric Acid in the morning, and say or do the right thing. They will be absolutely horrible to
everyone all day long, and then suddenly about midday they are OK, and everybody else is really upset,
can't understand what's wrong, and suddenly the mood has lifted and they are fine. They are easy to confuse
with Nux Vomica with their irritability in the morning, but with Nitric Acid they come because they just
cannot forgive, they have a really unforgiving side to their nature. You upset a Nitric Acid and they will
never forget it, and they will never forgive you, even if superficially they appear to forgive you and they may
work alongside you for years and you may never know that they are harbouring a resentment and hatred
towards you, because of some very slight thing that you said ten years previously. It goes very deep with
them, it's a very different thing from Natrum Mur., but it can be difficult to see the difference between the
two, because Natrum Mur. has an unforgiving side, and they also hold grudges, but although they are
irritable, doesn't have the kind of irritability and miserableness that Nitric Acid has, and you don't get the
same sense of either their own or others vulnerability, that Natrum Mur. have. They pay lip service to
forgiveness. They are very oversensitive to any noise, injury, jar, pain or slight. They really overreact to any
injury they feel someone has done to them. They can keep it to themselves, they are not very open people.
They can become very self centred in their misery and unhappiness, and quite unaware of what's going on
outside of them, because they are so wrapped up. They don't communicate well, because they are so
wrapped up. You know, some people you meet and you don't really feel you have a relationship with them,
you can talk to them and converse, and know them quite well, but it's as if there's something between
you; Nitric Acid are like that, wrapped up in themselves.

They tend to be apathetic and indifferent, they feel the world has done them wrong. Their apathy stems
from lack of initiative, they are not the sort of people who will go out and get things done, or initiate
change, or do things, there's not that kind of creativity about them, they are just sort of lost in some sort of
miserable apathy. They can have aversion to doing anything. They just don't have the sort of spontaneity
and liveliness that is required to get on with life. There is a disinclination to work, and what they call a
prostration of mind, a weak memory. They are unable to pay attention, partly because they don't step
outside of themselves. They can become so miserable they will start to think about suicide, but they have
a strong fear of death, so they wouldn't have the courage to commit suicide. One of the main symptoms
of Nitric Acids is 'anxiety about health', very strongly; their biggest anxiety as regards their health is a fear
of cancer. I find that fear of cancer is very widespread, people want you to reassure them without having
to state their fear of malignancy. Nitric Acid anxiety is impossible to convince them they are alright; you'll
do your best to explain that it's OK, and they haven't got cancer, send them off to their doctor for tests and
the doctor will tell them it's OK, but they won't be satisfied, they won't believe you and go from one doctor
to another, and phone you about the most trivial things. I have a Nitric Acid patient who transfers it onto
her family. She phoned me up because her husband, who was a former alcoholic actually, has started to
pass blood on urinating, and would I treat him. The next thing was "do you think it's cancer?". Immediately
she had started transferring the anxiety about herself to her husband. I don't think of certain remedies as
being for cancer. If you have that strong a fear of cancer then it is obviously going to figure a lot. So they are

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 Unit 11: Nitric Acid

always seeking reassurance, and you won't be able to reassure them. They will still go on to see another
doctor, and asking other people, it'll go on and on and on. Because they are so wrapped up in this world of
suspicion and misery of their own. You do have a problem communicating with Nitric Acids, and their
anxiety will always be there, it's almost as if they don't hear what you are saying; you can't communicate
with them, and they can't really communicate with you.

Kent talks a lot about complaints coming on from loss of sleep due to nursing the sick, night nursing; and I
must say I have often used it in mothers who have been up at night a lot with babies, because you do find
that if you lose a lot of sleep, perceptions get distorted, and people become anxious about things,
whereas if they were fully rested, they would not be so anxious.

Sexually they are quite easily excited and they can go into pure sexual gratification and superficial affairs.

On the physical level the pains are splinter type pains, like Hepar Sulph. What will often take me to Nitric
Acid are people who have swollen painful tonsils with splinter type pains on swallowing. It's much worse
on swallowing, and the pain goes up to the ears. It's so painful, it's a very painful tonsillitis, Nitric Acid, they
are unable even to swallow a teaspoonful of liquid, they can't even swallow their own saliva. Who else has
pains going up to the ears on swallowing? Hepar Sulph, Silica, Lachesis, Phos Ac, Phytolacca. The throat
can become very swollen with Nitric Acid, and they can have ulcers on the tonsils. I have found in Nitric
Acid inflammations of the throat that the pain and the ulcers is often on the soft palette, quite high up in
the throat. Catarrh of the Eustachian tubes. The tonsils can become indurated, which can impair their
hearing, and it's one of those symptoms: better riding in a carriage, I'm not quite sure that would be
nowadays, I don't think it would be better for riding in a car, I think it was something to do with a carriage
going over cobblestones. We don't really have anything to replace that nowadays. You may get this in
children, the trend being now to put in grommets, but it often comes from the throat, the problem.

Another cardinal symptom of Nitric Acid is a strong desire for fat and salt - several underlines. It would have
to be a very strong Nitric Acid case if they disliked fat, because it is a very marked desire for fat and salt,
and if there was someone who loathed fat, it would have to be strong, but I'm not saying I wouldn't give it.
If you get something which is a strong contra-indication, but you have a strong case on the mental and
emotional level, then the food cravings are less important. But these things like desire for fat and salt are
very useful if you are differentiating between remedies, and certainly if you've got symptoms on the
physical level with Nitric Acid, you'll be differentiating with remedies like Hepar Sulph and Silica, and so
this desire for fat and salt could be a reason to eliminate the other remedies. They also have a desire for
herring, and chalk. Bread disagrees.

Piles. Very painful piles, fissures of the anus, very painful. They are splinter pains, and there is something
about Nitric Acid piles, a distinguishing feature - they are extremely painful for a long time after they have
passed a stool, they are in agony for ages, it can be for hours and is very unpleasant. They can have
alternating constipation and diarrhoea.

They tend to have condylomata around the genitals and anus, soft moist warts, jagged, bleed easily. They
can be raw ulcers on the genitals, constant itching and burning. Gonorrhoea and related problems. There
is a problem with Nitric Acid with what they call the orifices, where the mucus membranes meet the skin;
if you get those symptoms in someone it is always worth considering, particularly if they are splinter type
pains.

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 Unit 11: Nitric Acid

A lot of destruction, destructive type discharges, excoriating, causing rawness and burning, and ulcers.
They tend to be chilly people, as you would expect, really.

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