Page 52 - Spring2013

Homeopathy Journal

BAD BOY, NAUGHTY GIRL:
HOMEOPATHIC APPROACHES TO BEHAVIORAL PROBLEMS
By Joette Calabrese, HMC, CCH, RSHom (NA)

Are there certain behaviors inherent in boys hours. A few days later, a school administrator
that are different from those displayed by girls? reported that Benny had bitten a boy during re-
Certainly! The masculine gender is generally cess. The other parents were alerted and conduct
associated with the attributes of risk taking and slips documenting other complaints began piling
competitive drive, while members of the femi- up on Benny’s family’s kitchen counter.
nine gender are often the multi-taskers in life, This worrying turn of events seemed to
who flourish on enhancing social order. have begun at the onset of the current school
Behavior is driven not only by gender, of year, shortly after the administration set a new
course, but can be colored by outside influences policy of providing lunches as part of the tuition.
such as environment, including foods in the diet, As a result, few families were motivated to send
and especially factory-processed concoctions their children off in the morning with a packed
with suspicious chemical additives. Yet even lunch. And in fact, it wasn’t long before it became
normally wholesome fare can become culprits unfashionable among the students to carry one.
at times. These external influences can launch Benny’s family had followed WAPF dietary
innocent gender-specific characteristics into the recommendations for years. But they had re-
troubled realm of deviant behavior. cently submitted to Benny’s participation in the
Take Benny, for instance. Benny is nine school lunch program because of the additional
years old and sometimes his parents feel over- social pressure which Benny would endure if he
whelmed by his actions. He elevates risk-taking trotted into school clasping an “uncool” lunch
bravado—or perhaps foolhardiness—to an art bag from home.
form. Climbing to dizzying heights in trees This small, or perhaps not-so-small, shift in
and swinging from one branch to another is a the contents of one meal per day may have taken
common, disquieting sight for his family and Benny’s otherwise well-formed boyish attributes
neighbors. in the wrong direction.
Early in the school year, Benny’s teacher Benny’s parents are homeopathy enthusiasts.
asked the class to contribute a drawing that would Never have their children been given a synthetic
later be transferred to a tee-shirt for a history les- medication as they wholly depend on the family
External son. The assignment was to depict a great leader homeopathy kit and chiropractic care for their
influences of our country. Benny completed his drawing and health needs. Benny’s mom had taken a course
can launch wasted no time in transferring it to his tee-shirt or two through the years and learned that the cor-
innocent so he could wear it to gym class. He handed in rect remedy can uproot behavioral disturbances,
his shirt with a drawing of Abraham Lincoln. especially those related to diet. She never saw a
gender- With Benny-type dash, it portrayed the president need until now to focus on this subject, but she

specific being assassinated, festooned with splatters of persisted in her belief that the right remedy and
characteristics red paint to depict blood. Some would call this consistent, nutrient-dense foods as the mainstay
kind of expression violent. Indeed, his teacher of Benny’s diet would be able to mitigate the
into the didn’t appreciate its subject matter and rejected influence of five aberrant school meals per week
troubled realm it. Benny took the discouragement in stride, but served at lunch. At least this was her wobbling
of deviant the school authorities began informally labeling hope. When she contacted the family homeopath
him as a potential risk for aggressive behavior,
behavior. and kept a mistrustful eye on him during school about Benny’s intensified aggressive behavior,
52 Wise Traditions SPRING 2013 SPRING 2013 Wise Traditions