Italy emergency camps after earthquake 

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Tiziana Di Giampietro M. D., Pediatrician, SIOMI Councelor Italy Hospital South Tuscany

 The earthquake of L’Aquila Homeopathic therapy for the treatment of panic attacks in traumatic events

20/01/2011   News

In this communication I would like to talk about my personal experience with children who had Panic Attacks after the earthquake.9th April 2009 Abruzzi Region in the center of Italy. 6.3 Richter scale destroying the town and many old villages causing the death of 300 people, wounding of 1,500 another 65,000 people in emergency camps. Hundreds of tremors hit the town.. The survivors of this disaster started having panic attacks and were emotionally disturbed. My intervention was done in a situation of real emergency

 I had already started working on the organization of children’s aid since the early hours after the quake, when Dr Simonetta Bernardini, scientific coordinator Hospital Pitigliano (south Tuscany), entrusted me with the distribution of homeopathic remedies for fear-related symptoms generated by that dreadful experience.

 The treatments were given to children who presented symptoms of acute psychological trauma: earth tremors still alive in the minds of those who had experienced them, had left feelings of fear, pain and bitterness for the loss of the loved people and personal effects. All the typical reactions that can develop after exposure to any traumatic event had been witnessed after the earthquake: “Fight – Flight – Freezing”. In some of the people there was an evolution from a stage of acute Panic attacks to chronic PTSD.

 With this initiative we wanted to avoid this progression. Parents told me that even if their children, who played seemingly calm during the day, at night, remembering the shocking event became whiny, pressed against their mothers and had nightmares. Therefore Homeopathy, leads to the recovery of body and mind homeostasis and, without inducing toxicity and addiction, can precede or support drug treatment and/or Psychotherapy.

 The initiative was supported also by Tuscany Region, with AIFA and Italian Civil Emergency authorization.

Homeopathic’s

Remedies were made available by the French Laboratoires Boiron. A team of SIOMI homeopaths decided to choose three drugs for that particular health emergency: Arnica, Gelsemium and Ignatia, with all therapy instructions related to them. The drugs were given to many children and adults, quickly after the earthquake and during the following weeks. Many people have regained their balance and courage to get back to their normal lives thanks to homeopathic therapies. I administered 30 C potency for physical and mental traumas.

Outcome

Children as well as adults who related that they felt no longer the trembling in their limbs and belly, the motor and emotional block caused by fear.

Children were calmer, they had no more nightmares and were not as morbidly attached to their mothers as before. They asked for the “magic potion” in sweet granules to be melt in their mouths. All those I had the opportunity to talk to, told me that they felt a change in their way of dealing with fear. It was still there, but they felt themselves no longer numb with fright.

 In my view this is the therapeutic aim to be pursued through the homeopathic treatment: not to erase an event or an emotion from our memory, but to change our way of facing it so that the resulting reaction won’t create sufference but only “experiences” which let us grow inwardly in good and bad fortune. 

 For more personalized advice and treatment options, consider booking an appointment at Christine’s Natural Therapies.