Aggression with Intense Remorse

IN BRIEF

A 16-year-old youth on the autism spectrum suffers from bouts of aggression and violent tantrums followed by intense remorse, even suicidal ideation. A special homeopathic remedy greatly helps him and his family.

By Anke Zimmermann, BSc, FCAH

A Young Man with Violent Tantrums

Alexander is a 16-year-old youth with a basket full of different diagnoses, including autism, ADHD and OCD among others. The main problem, however, was bouts of intense aggression to self and others, including the family dog as well as other children on the school bus and at his school.
 
“From the time he was two years old he has scratched, pinched, pushed or choked us, covered our mouths to prevent us from breathing and used his nails to dig into our flesh. He mainly acts out like this if he feels you have wronged him or said no to something. He may stop hurting you for a few minutes but then will come back for more revenge when he remembers he was mad. Even if the person had nothing to do with why he was upset he will hurt them and make them cry as a way of releasing his anger. He also does this to our dog. He will pull our dog’s ears, pinch his skin and kick the dog as he walks by.”

He would also hurt himself: “He will bite his thumbs, peel the skin of his fingers and toes, pull out his eyebrows and hair and hit his head on the floor when having a tantrum.”
Moreover, his behaviour was so problematic at school that he received at least one or two serious incident write ups per week, because he has made someone bleed or hurt in a serious way: “I am afraid of him, and staff at school feel he can't be trusted for a minute while being around other students.”

Remorse

After hurting someone Alexander would suffer from intense remorse to the point of acting suicidal: “He gets very upset with himself after he has hurt someone and can’t forgive himself. Then he will make a motion of slicing his throat or to put needles into his arms, cry excessively for at least an hour while apologizing and asking if we’re mad or sad at him. He does not have a high level of developmental understanding, so this gesturing really scares us. When your child doesn’t know how to bathe himself independently or spend 20 minutes alone, it breaks your heart to think that he understands what suicide is.”

The family feels that the aggression started when he was put on psychiatric medications at age 2. At the time I saw him he was still on several psychiatric meds, including Risperidone, Apiprazole, Guanfacine and Escitalopram, all commonly used medications in the autism population.

“We question if these are the cause of his current severe aggression issues and significant weight gain of more than 60 pounds over the past year. Xavier’s excessive, impulsive, violent tantrums are directly linked to the start of these medications. He did have tantrums, scratched and pinched before these medications, however, not to this extent, or with the lack of emotion on his face when he is aggressive towards others. He makes you wonder if you need an exorcist or a doctor.”

In addition, Alexander has some other challenges, including severe drooling, which required him to always wear a bib.

So here we had a young man with developmental challenges who was nearly full grown, big and strong, with explosive attacks of rage with violence towards others as well as apparent suicidal ideation. This behaviour was not only displayed at home but also at school and the family and teachers were afraid of him and felt they could not trust him.

Lyssinum

What was striking in Alexander’s case was the degree of remorse he experienced after his attacks of rage, as well as the drooling. This immediately made me think of a very special homeopathic remedy called Lyssin, aka Lyssinum, or Hydrophobinum, originally derived from the saliva of a rabid dog in 1833 [1]. It is safe and one cannot contract rabies from it, in fact, potencies higher than 12C no longer contain any of the source material. Compare that to rabies shots which contains tens of thousands of killed rabies virus particles.

Rabies is a very serious viral infection usually transmitted via animal bites (including from foxes, bats and stray dogs), which causes encephalitis. The victim gradually becomes more and more deranged and violent as the virus attacks the brain and proceeds to attack and bite other creatures, which then continues the cycle. Vampire and werewolf lore is thought to be related to rabies. Domestic dogs and people who develop rabies often appear very remorseful after attacks as they did not intend to bite, they were just taken over by the virus.

The feature of rage alternating with deep remorse is a well-known symptom of this remedy.  Alexander was not naturally aggressive at all, in fact, outside of attacks, he was very loving and helpful to his family members as well as in his school and towards other students.

Alexander took Lyssinum 30C initially about once a week.

Because the family wanted to wean him off the antipsychotic medication, I also shared information about a couple of supplements that could be helpful, including EMPower Plus by True Hope [5] and Lithium orotate.

In short order Alexander’s aggression was much reduced, he was able to get off the Risperidone and lost 40 lbs in two months. He needed Lyssinum less and less often. A year later he is only on a small amount of one last medication, he is happy, no longer aggressive and - as a bonus - the drooling is also history!

Lyssinum indications

Lyssinum may be indicated with an etiology of a dog, or other animal bite, whether or not the animal was recently vaccinated against rabies. I have seen numerous children and adults develop Lyssinum symptoms after dog bites. One young boy became aggressive, growled, hid under tables, pretended to be a dog and developed a fear of werewolves after being accidentally bitten by a dog two years prior. The remedy cleared things up within a few months.

One of my autism kiddos suddenly developed aggression and started growling after doing very well for many months. Careful questioning revealed that the family had moved in with the grandmother, who had a small, grumpy dog that had nipped the boy repeatedly. Lyssinum saved the day.

As mentioned, it may also be indicated in ailments after rabies shots, even in previous generations. One of my other autism kiddos suddenly became aggressive and started growling and biting during her homeopathic care. I found out that her father had been given a series of rabies vaccines after being bitten by a bat long before she was born. Lyssinum helped again.

Another possible etiology is torture or ritual or recurring physical, emotional or sexual abuse, again, also sometimes from previous generations. One of the first symptoms a rabies victim experiences is an intense anticipatory anxiety of something terrible about to happen to them, not unlike the state of a torture or recurring abuse victim. I have very successfully used this with several of my autism kiddos who were bullied and/or felt traumatized by certain therapies, such as some ABA therapy.

In practice we may or may not always know about one or more of these etiologies, but if the symptom picture is clear the remedy can be given regardless.

It is likely an underused remedy in homeopathy. I use it in my practice at least once a month. Often it comes up as a layer remedy, meaning that it is just one of many remedies a child may need in a sequence over time.

Autism and aggression

Aggression towards self and others is a very serious problem in the autism community and increasing as more and more children are being diagnosed. Various researchers estimate it at affecting between 35-60% of children with autism.

The majority of those on the autism spectrum are boys, but of course they grow up to be big, strong men, often with a developmental age of a young child.

When testosterone kicks in during puberty aggression often escalates. This case demonstrates the potentially lifesaving effectiveness of homeopathy and supplementation in such cases.

Homeopathy has the potential to be highly effective in addressing anger, rage and aggression in children and adults if the remedies are carefully chosen and the cases closely monitored for a few months.

Homeopathy should become the first line of defence in such cases rather than the use of psychiatric medication, or worse, institutionalization.

References:
1. Allen, H.C., Materia Medica of the Nosodes, B. Jain Publisers, Pvt. Ltd, New Delhi, India – 110055