rescue remedy makes me insane. Huh?

[ZoshaMosha]

If you were to ask me, I'd say I don't believe in homeopathy or flower essences.  I'd say they probably work by placebo effect and that they don't stand up to the scrutiny of an actual clinical trial.  But I was curious, so I did buy some Bach flower essences a couple years ago.  I found no effect from any of them except the Rescue Remedy, which is billed as a natural stress reducer.

It is sold as something that is completely safe and gentle to use on even pets.

But it is anything but gentle to me.  A couple years ago, I took Rescue Remedy a few times and found myself screaming and lashing out in anger at anyone close to me, usually my kids.  Crying, hyperventillating, relentless anger and rage were other symptoms.  I am not usually this way.  I stopped taking it.  I thought that maybe these behaviors were coincidental, maybe, but the correlation was strong.

Last night, I was cleaning out my medicine cabinet and found my old bottle of Rescue Remedy.  I just took a couple drops and about an hour later flew into the most maniacal rage.  I was boiling over with anger.  I had to remove myself from my kids to avoid verbally abusing them, something I never do.  The rage passed about a half hour later and I admit I did feel pretty calm and serene after.

Is this how homeopathy works?  I've changed my mind about homeopathy.  It seems to be strong stuff.  What does this mean that this gentle over-the-counter "stress reliever" makes me spin out of control?  This happens every time I use the stuff.  I'm really just curious.

[AllisonR]

I don't know. I tried rescue remedy once and it didn't do diddly-sqat for me. However, I am taking herbal, natural, over the counter sleeping pills, and they do work, quite well, for me. I think it is logical. Medicinal plants, up until the 1900s were all natural products found in the enviornment. What else could they be? All the chemical processes of the current times (modern western medicine) have not been around very long. And in fact many of them are based on info about natural products. Find a plant in a jungle that causes or prevents XYZ, and then today make it in synthetic form. Why would anyone do this, if the original plant did not do anything?

There are plants out there that do stop bleeding, or reduce heart palpitations... whatever, so why not some plants and herbs that are stress reducers? I mean, I don't think anyone would say that pot, which is a natural plant, does not do anything at all to the people who smoke it. I can't attribute placebo effect to all the people that smoke! There might be SOME people that it does not effect, but there are a whole lot of people who really want to eat after smoking. Placebo, I doubt that. And I think that might be good for some people that have nausea, for whatever reasons. Though that is off point. 

[richella]

I don't know what to make of  your experience, but I sure wouldn't touch that stuff again!

One thing about Bach, and homeopathy in general, you get the one which is specific to your needs. Sounds like today you used RR at a time when you weren't experiencing anxiety, so it wasn't something beneficial to you. The wrong one for me usually has very little or no effect; the right one helps a lot. Years ago, for some stupid reason, I took a homeopathic for poison ivy when I really had hives. The label said to take it until the symptoms subside, but they didn't, so I kept taking it until the bottle was gone. By that time I'd started getting hives every time I used a particular brand of sunblock I was using concurrently, and ever since, whenever I use that brand, I get hives. I had used that sunblock before with no hives. I know, it's a stupid story, I don't even know what the point is, maybe just to pay attention to the details when you are choosing/using these things, because unwanted reactions are certainly not unheard of. (Most of the stuff in the stores isn't terribly strong, though. Professional homeopaths often use much stronger stuff.)

RR is a blend of several essences, all pertaining to particular kinds of anxiety/fear/etc, so it may affect a person differently than the single remedies. I haven't found it very useful for myself; I did find it somewhat helpful for a very short time for dd when she was having night terrors. If you are looking for provable treatments you don't want to know what worked best for the night terrors . . .

I have a friend who says that the Bach brand is compromised in some way (she's not a big one for details), and the FES brand is considered (by whoever knows these things) to be superior. I haven't compared them. Been happy with Bach when I used them.

I ramble. Maybe something here is useful to you, maybe not . . .

Here's an abstract from an article on meta-analysis of clinical trials of homeopathy for diarrhea, finding a positive effect, calling for more study with bigger groups.

Couple other articles which might be of interest, though I can't access the full articles right now.

http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10.1089/acm.2005.11.793

http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10.1089/acm.2000.6.49

http://journals.lww.com/pidj/Abstract/2003/03000/Homeopathy_for_childhood_diarrhea__combined.5.aspx

[RiverTam]

It sounds like you have a drug reaction. Anyone can have a drug reaction. For whatever reason, individuals don't always use a drug in the same way or clear it from their bodies in the same way.

I do really well on Zoloft, for example, but can't handle Lexapro. They're the same family and do the same things, but Lexapro sent me into serotonin syndrome (loss of motor control, fever, giddiness, followed by vomiting). Zoloft doesn't do that to me.

[MadelinesMama]

How very strange!  I agree you should probably stay away from it.  My husband told me I needed to stop taking RR because it made me act completely out of it.  Guess it relaxed me a little toooo much.

[Shantimama]

I had a strong reaction to it too but I think in my case it was because the smell reminded me of alcohol, which always triggers an intense reaction in me.

[mich]

I have also tried RR several times in the past and have had the opposite effect than what is promised. It upsets me

I also have the reaction you describe, anger, lashing out, whenever I have Vanillan, the artificial vanilla flavoring. I wish I know why, but i lose all my patience and react with such anger whenever I have it. 

Weird.