The homeopathic view of suppression, what is it? You may hear the term “suppression” quite a bit once you start reading and studying about homeopathy. You may have been told by your homeopath not to give fever reducers if a fever arises during treatment to avoid suppression. Or you may have seen old symptoms return during homeopathic treatment, like a rash on the skin, and have been warned not to treat it with suppressive medications. You were probably told these symptoms are all good signs that the body is healing and to not suppress them. All of these things sound really strange to those new to homeopathy.
So what exactly is “suppression”?
Suppression is when the body is expressing symptoms of illness and medicinal interventions are applied to stop the body from expressing those symptoms. Examples of this would be:
- The body is expressing a fever and fever reducing medications like Tylenol are given to artificially reduce the fever.
- The body is expressing the symptoms of eczema on the skin and steroid creams are applied to the rash to stop the symptoms.
In both of these instances we have stopped the body from expressing its symptoms of illness, but the body has not been “cured” of its illness. In a way we have actually told the body to “shut up” when it was expressing those symptoms. Understandably, since symptoms of illness can be uncomfortable.
But in both of these instances we have interfered with the body’s natural way of handling illness.
How suppression interferes with the body’s natural way of handling illness.
In the case of the fever artificially lowered with fever reducers, the fever is actually the body’s way of healing during infections. Many times artificially reducing a fever will prolong the illness. It can also end up in cases of more serious illness, as in flu progressing to pneumonia. If you are fearful of fevers and have been instructed to always treat fevers by a medical professional this is a great article explaining fevers. Some fevers can be dangerous, but that is actually very rare.
In the case of applying topical steroid creams to an eczema rash, a rash on the skin is actually a minimally invasive way for the body to express symptoms of illness. The skin, although very important to the body, is a less vital organ within the body. Many times if the symptoms of eczema are suppressed you will find that the patient will soon after be diagnosed with a more serious illness, like asthma, chronic fatigue, celiac, and others, that is now occurring in a more vital organ within the body. Homeopaths see this as a situation in which the symptoms of the body were suppressed to a deeper level of the body. An eczema rash on the skin is not as life threatening or as life altering as asthma, celiac and the others.
What is different about homeopathy?
In homeopathy we follow “natural laws” of healing. Natural laws are known to be unchangeable foundations of the universe and of creation.
Homeopaths follow the law of like cures like, the law of using the minimum dose, and the direction of cure (not technically a law). Working in line with the laws of nature facilitates and supports true healing within the body. Working against the laws of nature brings chaos to the body and interferes with its function.
With homeopathy we are not working against the body, but with it. We are not giving “anti-” drugs, as in antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, antipyretics, antimalarials, anti-cholesterol drugs, and so many more that are given in “modern” medicine, what we homeopaths call “allopathic medicine”. Anti- means “against”, as in working against the body. Many will argue it isn’t that modern medicine is working against the body, but against the symptom. But who and what is producing the symptom? The body. So ultimately it IS working against the body.
In homeopathy we work WITH the body, not against it.
So in short the homeopathic view of suppression is the driving of a symptom or illness deeper into the body by applying medical interventions that are working against the body and not with it.
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