Iodum has many fears. They have fears of death, insanity, accidents, misfortunes, evil, and water. They can have the delusion that they are sick, but they fear doctors, and like Arnica patients, may claim that they are well. They fear something will happen and imagine the worst.

They always feel as if they have forgotten something, and so they repeatedly check things like the stove or door locks to make sure they are okay. They leave their purchases on the store counter, and forget what they were about to say and do.

Although the driven, hurried quality was not so strong for Judy

as it is in many Iodum patients, she did have the extreme fear of doctors. She worried about everything, and especially felt like she had to check things to make sure she had not made a mistake for which she would be blamed. The feeling of the need for urgent action in the face of sudden danger that Sankaran describes was the feeling Judy had when she saw the attacker enter her house and try to rape her. She took action and survived.

Food plays a big role in the life of Iodums. The classic Iodum state is one of great hunger with emaciation. For Judy it was the feeling that she had to be thin. Her desire to be thin may have been a reaction to her mother's obesity. She also felt betrayed by her father, who always expected her to be perfect and never let her be herself.

People with eating disorders commonly have other obsessive and compulsive behaviors as well.

Although Judy was not hyperthyroid, she had many of the mental features of the Iodum state and the remedy worked very well, as we shall see.

When Judy returned after six weeks, she was feeling quite well. She was sleeping much better. She was only occasionally hot during sleep now. Her thyroid was normal sized and free from palpable nodules. She said her period seemed more normal, not as light. She felt neither chilly or too warm.

She felt comfortable coming to the doctor's office now, something which had terrified her on her first visit. She seemed relaxed and calm. She said her day to day feelings were more serene.

Her major emotional issues were coming up. She was becoming less critical of herself. She was working on her issues about body image and learning more about her eating and relationship to food. She realized that she had felt self-disgust for liking sex in the past, but it felt okay now. An ache in her hip joints went away with that realization. Judy was more in touch with her feelings. She was playing more, feeling more connected and letting go more easily.

She no longer had any obsessive thoughts or excessive fears. Blood did not bother her nearly as much, and she was able to have her blood drawn for testing with only a little nervousness. She had less desire for chocolate, but still a strong craving for potatoes (2).

Judy returned six weeks later. Her health was fine. She said she needed to live by the ocean, after traveling to Maine for two weeks.

She was reading a book about anger and abandonment. She realized her strong feeling of abandonment as a child, and the unfairness of her parents in requiring her to be the perfect child.

She wasn't so concerned about germs. She was able to go to the dentist with only a little anxiety about contamination. She was sleeping through the night mostly, though she was aware of some jaw clenching when she woke up.