Lilium tigrinum

Mind

The mental picture of Lilium tigrinum is dominated by an intense conflict between sexual desire and moral-religious repression. The individual is overwhelmed by irritability, hurriedness, anxiety, and guilt, particularly around perceived sinful or impure thoughts. [Hale] described the mind as “alternating between exaltation and depression,” often accompanied by a sense of deep inner struggle.

There is a hurried, fidgety restlessness—she rushes around, tries to do many things at once, and forgets everything. Anxious, as if something dreadful is about to happen. Desires to pray constantly, yet believes she is beyond redemption. [Kent] noted a “constant struggle between desire and duty.” The woman may feel that her sexual organs are controlling her, with excessive focus on the pelvic region. Emotional outbursts, weeping fits, and fear of insanity are frequent.

Religious delusions are common: she believes she has sinned beyond forgiveness, or that she is possessed. Feels compelled to perform religious acts, yet is tormented by sexual thoughts. Hysteria and emotional volatility alternate with deep despair.

Sleep

Disturbed by palpitations, heat, or anxiety. Dreams vivid and anxious. Wakes with pelvic pain or restlessness. Talks or cries out in sleep. Drowsy during the day, sleepless at night.

Dreams

Dreams of sin, damnation, or of being pursued. Sexual dreams with guilt. Dreams of being unworthy, falling, or failing religious duties. Dreams continue after waking.

Generalities

Left-sided complaints predominate. Intolerable bearing-down in pelvis. Marked alternation of mental and physical symptoms. Highly sympathetic, oversensitive, torn by inner conflict. Worse warm rooms, emotions, suppression of sexuality. Better with distraction and pressure on the vulva.

Fever

Flushes of heat alternating with chills. Low-grade fevers with pelvic congestion. Heat in face and chest, coldness in extremities. Fever worsens in afternoon.

Chill Heat Sweat

Chill begins in feet or hands. Internal heat without thirst. Perspiration profuse during sleep or anxiety. Feels flushed but skin dry.

Head

Headaches are often congestive, with a sensation of weight, pressure, or fullness, especially in the forehead or temples. Worse in the afternoon and from heat. Pain may alternate sides, or be accompanied by blurred vision. Dull, heavy ache as if the head were pressed down. Head feels hot, with flushed face and cold feet. [Hering] reports headaches from uterine congestion or suppressed menses.

Eyes

Eyes feel heavy, dry, or smarting. Vision may be blurred during headaches or emotional excitement. Sensitive to light. Eyeballs feel enlarged or protruding. Dark circles under eyes from exhaustion or crying.

Ears

Buzzing or fullness in ears. Hypersensitive to noise during menses. Stitching pain in left ear radiating from jaw. Dull hearing in hysterical states.

Nose

Dryness of nostrils. Fluent coryza alternating with dryness. Epistaxis during menses. Constant desire to blow nose, though it feels obstructed. Sense of pressure or heaviness at the root of the nose.

Face

Flushed and hot during palpitations or emotional episodes. Twitching of facial muscles. Expression of anxiety or sadness. Lips dry or cracked. Face often looks pinched or tired after uterine symptoms.

Mouth

Dryness of mouth and tongue. Metallic or bitter taste. Tongue coated yellow or brown. Ulceration of buccal mucosa during hormonal changes. Speech hurried, stammering under stress.

Teeth

Toothache during menses or pregnancy. Drawing pain in upper molars. Teeth feel elongated or loose. Bleeding gums in nervous women.

Throat

Tightness, dryness, or soreness of throat, especially on the left side. Difficulty swallowing during emotional tension. Feeling of a ball rising in the throat—globus hystericus. Hawking of thick mucus.

Chest

Palpitations violent and irregular, often with faintness. Pain under left breast. Sensation of fullness, constriction, or heat. Worse lying on left side or after emotional upset. Breathing is short and hurried. Chest symptoms often alternate with uterine or rectal issues.

Heart

Racing, irregular, or thumping heartbeat, often from emotional or sexual conflict. Constrictive feeling around heart. Anxiety centred in the chest. Palpitations worse lying down or from excitement. [Kent] notes emotional causes of heart pathology in this remedy.

Respiration

Tightness of chest, < emotional strain. Dyspnoea on exertion. Cannot take a deep breath. Air hunger during menses or hysteria. Breathing feels oppressed, especially when sitting still or in warm room.

Stomach

Aversion to food with sinking, empty feeling. Nausea with uterine pain. Sensation as if something were alive in stomach. Craving for pickles, vinegar, or indigestible things. Belching relieves pressure. < in morning, > evening.

Abdomen

Fullness, bloating, and pressing pain, especially in lower abdomen. Sensation as if everything would fall out. Left-sided ovarian pain—sharp, cutting, dragging. Intolerable bearing-down feeling as if uterus and intestines would prolapse. Needs to cross legs or press upward with hands. [Boericke] confirms this is one of the hallmark symptoms.

Rectum

Constipation alternating with soft, thin stools. Ineffectual urging. Sensation of heaviness and pressure in rectum, like prolapse. Constant desire to evacuate, even when not needed. Itching and burning after stool. Worse before or during menses.

Urinary

Frequent urging with scanty flow. Burning during urination. Bladder feels irritable, sensitive to touch. Urination relieves pelvic pressure. Involuntary urination during laughter or coughing. Urine may be dark, offensive, or cloudy.

Food

Craving for sour, indigestible food. Aversion to meat or heavy food. < after sweets. Symptoms < from fasting. Craves vinegar and pickles.

Male

Less frequently indicated, but useful in prostatitis with bearing-down sensation or sexual irritability. Pain in testicles. Sexual thoughts with repression and guilt. Left-sided inguinal pain. Palpitations after coition.

Female

One of the greatest female remedies in the materia medica. Lilium tigrinum is a cornerstone remedy for uterine displacements, prolapse, ovarian inflammation, and sexual-emotional conflict. There is intolerable bearing-down in the pelvis, as if the uterus would drop out. Must cross legs tightly or press against the vulva for relief. [Hale] called this “the uterine remedy par excellence.”

Menses may be early, profuse, dark, and clotted. Leucorrhoea is acrid, yellow, with backache. Pain radiates from left ovary to groin and thigh. Sexual desire may be excessive or entirely suppressed, often with guilt and religious conflict. Hysteria during PMS or menopause. Miscarriage threatened by emotional strain.

Back

Aching in the small of the back, especially before or during menses. Heaviness and dragging from sacrum into thighs. Sensitive spine, < touch or pressure. Lumbosacral stiffness in uterine complaints.

Extremities

Trembling, weakness, or numbness, especially during emotional episodes. Feet cold, especially at night. Restlessness in limbs. Cramps in calves during menses. Swelling of ankles in the evening.

Skin

Dry and hot during uterine symptoms. Itching worse at night. Vesicular eruptions in axilla or groins. Eczema in hysterical women. Acne in young girls with suppressed menses.