Werkboek Klassieke Homeopathie

By Anja Hey

This remedy is made from the deadly nightshade, an ancient herb used in the witchcraft and magick.
It was also used in eyedrops by Italian women to increase their beaty: 'bella donna' mans 'beautiful woman' ; what this herb then does is dilating the pupils, making the eyes more prominent. This may explain the name, but it is not the main characteristic of the remedy.

Belladonna suits healthy and energetic persons who suddenly get ill because of exposure to coldness, sun fear or shock. The complaints suddenly arise and suddenlly disapear! And the character of all symptoms is:

Heat - readness - burning!

Pleae note that Belladonna hast active phases of pain, sensitivity, great exitement and possible violence, but in between lie passive periods of dullness, sleepiness and absence! This remedy has no periodicity, what means that you cannot predict when an active or passive period will start.

This is what an active Belladonna phase looks like:

The patient has a red hot head and cold hands and feet. Affected body-parts are red or purple-red, often swollen and extremely sensitive to touch.

Pains are burning, tearing and shooting.

The pupils of the eyes are dilated. That's because he is extremely scared, having hallucinations of ghosts, monsters and wild animals. He is fearfully excited and extremely irritable; wild, beating and biting, tearing things.

In his delirium he may try to escape the room.

He probably has terrifying nightmares. Terror suddenly falls upon him like an electric shock, during sleep, fever, raving and pain.

He continiously desires to take little nips from sour liquids, especially lemon(juice).

Belladonna can be the right medicine in acute inflammations (like appendicitis), sudden severe headache or migraine, flu, colic pains, convulsions. It is quite often used in children. The symptoms aggravate by touch, movement (the vibrations caused by touching the patients bed for instance cause unbearable pains), coldness, draughts of air, light, noise, at night. The patient feels better by warmth (warm rooms, the covering of blankets) and rest.