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Materia Medica Viva Volume 7 – page 1502

“Yes. Yes, but it is only so strong recently; that is why I stressed it. I don’t know. Do I really have thirst?” Should you then choose another symptom, the same hedging will occur.
The extent of the explanations can be truly fantastic. Of course, there are other patients, who are not Cannabis, who also try to explain their symptoms away. In a Cannabis case the important thing to remember is the intensity with which the symptoms are given, the underlying anxiety about health, and the exaggerated degree to which they attempt to sabotage symptom validity by providing discrediting theories. In addition, in follow-up visits they find it difficult to report whether or not they are better, which is partly due to the confusion that prevails in their minds. Consequently, the evaluating physician must be very circumspect in analysing the patient’s response.
An interesting case might help to illustrate the way that the Cannabis anxiety about health manifests. There was a patient at our clinic who over a period of time had been treated with no success. Though he had been given Arsenicum and Nitricum acidum, etc. without effect, he continued to come back for treatment because he had studied some homeopathy and felt there was something to it. As he helped us with our public relations, in the course of this work he would come to discuss matters with me. He could talk and talk to the point where I would grow tired of the discussions. Between his discourses he would, of course, bring up the subject of his health and could be quite nagging about his health care. In his primary job he also was known to talk and talk and speculate considerably.
All the while, several doctors at the clinic were trying to treat him. He would go
from one doctor to another complaining, “He did not pay the right attention to my case.” I would be given the case reports and would prescribe on the basis of the symptomatology without result. Finally I saw the disconnection in his thinking and the anxiety about his health. At that point I thought, Oh, my God,