Drug overdose and homeopathy.
This day, last year, my then 3 year old son found my husband’s sleeping tablets (which were hidden away inside several different bags in a drawer but he fossicked and found them). He took one Zopiclone 7.5mg tablet, by the time we realised we estimate 20 minutes had passed and he was very drowsy and drunk acting.
At this point we rang the Poisons centre- 0800 POISONS (NZ). The woman there was fantastic with quick and concise information – as it was only one tablet and he was over 15kg he would probably be fine, gave us signs and symptoms to monitor for, and present to hospital for monitoring if those occurred.
Meanwhile I went and got out my homeopathic remedies- Nux Vomica for overindulgence, drugs, and Opium for the drugged sleepy effect.
Shortly after speaking to her he started exhibiting some of the warning symptoms- he was unable to stand and badly slurring his speech. I repeated the Nux and Opium and prepared to go to hospital. 10 minutes later I gave him another dose and was sending our older kids to the car when I looked at him- he was talking normally and even walking around, albeit drunk looking.
We decided to stay and see what happened next.
The Nux Vomica and Opium seemed to last around 15 minutes. I could see it wearing off and he would lose the ability to walk straight and look more intoxicated. Repeating the dose made him improve and we could get through a bit longer. We continued like that for an hour and a half or so. At times he was like a belligerent drunk- very Nux, at others more a sleepy and not with it Opium.
After two hours the effect of the Zopiclone wore off and he was soon back to normal, and not wanting to go to bed.
I firmly believe it we hadn’t had the homeopathic remedies to give him we would have spent the evening in hospital. Fortunately we were able to stay at home which made life a lot easier.
The next day he was fine, although a slightly shorter attention span than normal, and there were no long term effects from this.
I recently shared this on a podcast with Eugenie Kruger (you can find it on Spotify as Homeopathy Hangouts).
There are a couple of things I want to discuss about this incident from a learning perspective.
Homeopathy is a complementary health discipline. If we had gone to hospital I still would have been using remedies to support him. But in this case the remedies solved the problem. Don’t be afraid to get a diagnosis. Pop into your Pharmacy and ask to speak to the Pharmacist, go to your Doctor, ring Healthline, or for overdoses and poisonings ring 0800 POISONS. Get a diagnosis, and ask what warning signs you need to look out for.
Potency- in this situation I used Nux Vomica 30c and Opium 12c. Why? Because that is what I had. If I had Opium in a higher potency I would have used it. I have Nux Vomica 1M but not 200c, and possibly I would have used 200c as it was an intense situation, but for most people, at home, 30c is a really useful potency to have on hand. If I had had 200c I may not have had to repeat the dose so often.
Repeating the dose is key in treating acute illnesses and injuries. If the response was wearing off in 5-10 minutes I would have repeated every 5-10 minutes. While the general rule of thumb is every 15 minutes for up to 6 doses, in reality if something is working but wearing off repeat more often, and keep repeating until symptoms change- in this case around 2 hours- so probably after 10 or more doses. Stop taking the remedy if it is having no effect- 3 doses or so should be enough to see some changes, and if no change (in mental emotional or in physical reaction) then stop, it’s not the right thing.
I hope you do not need to use this combination of remedies for this reason, but this does highlight some good practical homeopathic theory which I hope will be useful.