Thanksgiving… Christmas or Hannukkah … New Year … Oh, what glorious holidays! No matter how bad the previous year was, these holidays offer a ray of hope: for hardworking people, a winding down time; for students, it’s like crossing the finish line of a marathon; for everyone, a time to reunite with close friends and family. But what should be a time of total happiness and relaxation often turns into a swamp of despair, mental exhaustion and physical breakdown. This article shows you how homeopathy, your year-around friend, can help you enjoy your well-earned vacation.

What about the busy businessman and stressed-out career woman, holding their breath just long enough to collapse at the first holiday? Then they find themselves incapable of unwinding: they wake up at 3 a.m., already planning their next day in the office. They toss and turn with an overactive mind until they get thrown out of bed by their fed-up spouse. Don’t wait: Nux vomica is what you need!

Nux vomica, the “poison chestnut”, is also your savior for the holiday season when food seems to pop-up everywhere and every family member turns into a food pusher. “You absolutely have to taste this cake I made for you,” and “Aren’t you going to taste this special liqueur that grandfather saved for you?” Temptations, temptations! But the next day your stomach feels like the sewers of New York, just the thought of food turns you off, and you have a hangover bigger than the Eiffel Tower. Before you succumb to a TV ad for the King of Antacids, try Nux Vomica—the cheapest and fastest working remedy available. Any hangover will be annihilated and yes, even avoided if you take this remedy in advance before your night of boozing and dining. The same goes for the effects of overeating, or eating too much rich food.

For travelers’ diarrhea, I recommended Arsenicum in a previous article. But some people have the opposite problem when they travel. They get constipated the moment they leave home, often with gas, bloating and burping. Lycopodium or Club Moss will be their life saver.

The students among you have just finished a marathon. Do you feel like your brain has been going through the washer/dryer, with no more functioning brain cells left? You must feel that you’ll need the whole holiday just to recuperate for next semester. What’s worse, I’m amazed at the amount of stimulating drugs students take. It’s like playing with fire, because often the body gives up before the final test. And if not, the price you pay for whipping your body like a dead horse is physical collapse. The real solution, of course, is to study from day one, but the party beasts among you are now facing this uphill battle of physical and mental exhaustion. As in any condition, you will succumb mentally and emotionally first. Not a good thought when you have to cram all that knowledge into your ever-shrinking brain. Two homeopathic remedies should be part of every student’s armory. Kali Phosphoricum (potassium phosphate) is ideal for the nervous, sensitive, weak individual, when worry and mental fatigue bring on brain fag. It’s one of the greatest nerve remedies, wonderful for nervous exhaustion and mental and physical depression from overstudying. It’s great when the slightest labor seems like a heavy task, causing forgetfulness, loss of memory and despair about passing tests.

An equally powerful mind-stimulating remedy is Picric acid. It acts upon the brain, spinal cord, kidneys and sexual organs and will help with weakness and tiredness in body and mind. This remedy covers brain fatigue with sexual excitement: students who are mentally worn out and use increased sexual activity (often masturbation) to relax, which itself leads to physical exhaustion. There is no better remedy for the worn-out person with a lack of will power to undertake anything and a dread of failing exams. You don’t need expensive prescription “smart drugs” when inexpensive, over-the-counter homeopathic remedies can be obtained without fear of a backlash.

One of the greatest secrets for students is the remedy for performance anxiety or anticipation anxiety, that “squeezy stomach” before an exam. And you feel as though you’re about to explode in a stream of diarrhea. Not a good way to start a test! Besides, the anxiety can be so overriding that you forget everything you learned. Argentum nitricum is THE remedy for anticipation, apprehension and fear. Be it stage fright or examination fright, Argentum Nitricum will come to the rescue. And for those leery travelers who are afraid to fly to visit their family for the holidays, this remedy is Number One for fear for flying.

Holidays can also be a depressing time because they bring up sad memories of deceased relatives. Many times I have seen my patients’ existing symptoms exacerbate or new symptoms come up because the memory of their lost loved ones opens the wound in their heart again. Do you know how much that hurts? It is impossible to hide these feelings and yet you are overcome with guilt and remorse because you can’t add to the joyful holiday atmosphere. If you start taking Ignatia (St. Ignatius’ bean) two weeks before the holidays, it will give you a calmness, a soothing healing, a feeling that your deceased loved ones are smiling above your head and approving of your serene spirit. Besides emotional turmoil, it will prevent many physical ailments: a stiff neck, a painful shoulder, arthritis complaints, severe headaches and physical exhaustion. When these symptoms are linked to memories of grief and loss, Ignatia will be your friend in need.

The holiday season has an exhausting effect on most housewives. Most people’s favorite time of year often turns into a nightmare for the unrewarded woman who guides the family ship through rough waters throughout the year. All that holiday shopping, cooking and entertaining can lead to what we call in homeopathy a Sepia state: a total burn-out and exhaustion, leading to indifference and apathy with yelling and snapping at your children and husband and inexplicable crying spells. Not the right music for the holidays! Sepia (ink of the cuttlefish) can give you the physical and emotional reserves to get through.

Finally, the holidays unfortunately can be a time when you get the phone call every parent dreads most: one of your children has been injured, or worse, in a travel or skiing accident. Or perhaps you get a call that an elderly reclusive relative has been hospitalized. The holidays are the worst time for widows and widowers, the time they are most likely to fall ill. If you react to bad news like someone hit you on the head with a hammer, if you feel paralyzed, numb, dizzy and unable to move (like a flu with chills, muscle pains and fatigue), then Gelsemium (yellow jasmine) is your knight in silver armor. It will lift you out of this daze and get your mental and physical machinery in motion. Other people react differently to hearing bad news. Their first thought is “Why me?” Their stomach turns into a knot and they feel like a frog in their throat prevents them from swallowing—although when they try to eat they have no problem! In fact they often react to these circumstances by eating their refrigerator empty. Often they follow the three “S” pattern: they sit, sigh and sob. Ignatia will come to their rescue!