I am providing a more detailed report on a symptom progression I personally experienced, which I only retrospectively categorized and understood within the logic of the 5BN. At the time of the symptoms, I was superficially familiar with the 5BN and knew that a separation conflict was involved and that it had to do with my child (which was also obvious from the circumstances), but I was only able to classify the exact course of events afterward.

First, my life situation at the time in broad outline:

• Older child living 50/50 with mother (me) and father; during the divorce I had agreed to many things without discussion or dispute in order to maintain optimal contact between the child and the father (the relationship had always been good until a few months earlier—he had now met a new partner—and I knew how important that was for our child)
• the older child alternates 50/50 between his father and me; I suffer greatly from often feeling that I cannot support him emotionally the way I would like to (the “wind” at the father’s home shifted due to the new partner, resulting in many more conservative “rules” that we had consciously not practiced and that I had always assumed the father saw the same way. However, I have to acknowledge that the father is adapting to the new partner and that things that had previously been taken for granted are no longer being lived.)
• Younger child, about 6 months old at the time, was practically fused to me day and night—I carried the baby all day, several hours daily outside through the forest, and had a lot to manage alone; there was also a dog who of course needed to go out
• Conclusion: I want to support my older child without disturbing his relationship with his father / however, I experience that I cannot establish contact with my older child when he is with his father, as this is prevented / I am “bound” by the younger child and the intense demands and cannot move as freely as I would like / I allowed a lot to be done to me without taking a clear stand in order to maintain a good contact space with the father of my older child, which ultimately achieved nothing (I refrained from asserting my position “for nothing”)

The course of the symptoms with my (retrospective) probable 5BN classification

• Due to walking for hours every day and some sand in my shoes, one day I develop chafed areas between my toes (on both feet!). I do not pay much attention to it, but I am slightly annoyed that I did not pay better attention when putting on my shoes.
• In the evening, my left foot is clearly reddened and somewhat painful, which makes sense to me due to the mechanical injury. What is interesting, however, is that the right foot has nothing, although it was “strained” in exactly the same way (I am right-handed; my left leg relates to my mother-child themes).
• For about two days, the redness remains localized between the toes.
• On the third day “after the wound,” it is a handover day: the father picks up our child from me and takes him back to his place (for me, once again the beginning of separation from my older child and the knowledge that during this time I will hear nothing from him and will not know how he is doing or be able to support him emotionally).
• On the day of the handover, the father and I have a serious argument in which I actually send him out of the apartment because I find his words absolutely intrusive and disrespectful (understood retrospectively: this was probably the resolution of a longer self-devaluation conflict, because I had never powerfully asserted my position toward him—for the sake of the child. But on that day I had “shown him the door” and finally set a clear boundary—from that moment on, it was clear to me that only by taking a strong stand would I be able to optimally accompany my son).
• The following day, the foot becomes very swollen and extremely painful; I can hardly step on it, I am extremely weak and tired, and simply feel miserable (here the healing phase of the self-esteem conflict was running, certainly involving lymph tissue and the musculoskeletal system of the foot [new mesoderm], which I had experienced in thematic relation to my child with my ex-partner and resolved through “throwing him out”).
• I struggle laboriously through the next few days and observe that the pain and my general condition improve again after about 1.5 weeks, but that a red line forms, which travels further and further up the foot (a dermatologist friend tells me it is erysipelas, St. Anthony’s fire. So now the epidermis, ectoderm, is reacting and showing a separation conflict in the healing phase. I think this was about wanting to be separated from the constant boundary violations, which finally happened on the day of the argument.)
• The foot remains red for a longer time but no longer hurts. The red streak travels upward to the ankle. I do nothing further, just observe.
• After some time (I no longer remember the exact time interval), I remove a tick from my left lower leg (I live in an area where it is normal to remove several ticks daily if you have been outdoors—so this causes me no fear or anything similar).
• It is the first time that after a tick bite the area turns red and erythema migrans appears. It is clear to me that there must be a connection with the already “burdened” left leg (the epidermis, through redness, heat, and itching, again indicates a healing phase of a separation conflict).
• The red border spreads from the tick bite over many weeks and months across the entire leg up to the upper thigh. My inner attitude toward it was roughly this: (“Okay, the tick has made something visible here. Good that it is this way, because now it can heal.”)
  Since I also knew at the time that it had to be a separation conflict, I suspected here the separation conflict with my older child (I cannot move toward him, I am nailed to my place, I cannot “stand by his side”).
• About 9 months later, I move house and thereby get closer to my older son and physically move toward him. The situation with the father clarifies to the extent that there is a reasonably neutral contact, and through the move I made clear: I am here for my child (there had been—for me shocking—suggestions on his part that the child should live entirely with him and see me only on weekends).
• The redness subsides after about one year, once I had completed the move and thus made a clear movement toward my child. The circumstances are clarified and there are no more attempts to prevent contact between me and my child.
• Current classification: for me, the greatest stress regarding the separation conflict content arose from losing healthy contact with the father (in matters concerning the child) and therefore no longer being sure that my child was emotionally well. It was this trusting contact that I wanted to have again and from which I had been separated. Or possibly also this new manner of interaction from which I wanted to be separated again. Whenever the contact relaxed, I immediately felt better, even if the child was not physically with me at that moment. So it was not primarily the “not being there in person,” but the helplessness caused by the breakdown of contact (separation conflict) with the father that was at the forefront. The left leg reacted because the thematic reference was the child. Without a child, the breakdown of contact would not have affected me. Therefore, today I think this was the primary conflict content. And of course, depending on the external emotional climate, the conflict would fluctuate more toward resolution or more toward activity.

In this case, the SBS healed completely without my consciously classifying it within the 5BN, because life circumstances changed and I consciously moved forward. I also had no fear of the symptoms, so fortunately no secondary conflicts developed.

What would have been different if I had been able to consciously classify it at the moment the symptoms appeared? I think I would have been able to continue my path more sovereignly and clearly if I had understood the language of my body more precisely. Of course, I would not have been able to change the father’s behavior, but my way of dealing with the situation could have been much gentler and at the same time clearer, which would have led to a path that was emotionally less bumpy for me.

Note: Very likely, a program of the kidney collecting tubules (refugee conflict, endoderm) was also running, since during that time I felt extremely alone and abandoned. This intensified the healing symptoms and also the swelling of the foot. In addition, during the year described here I gained a few kilograms without changing my diet (water retention). This additional weight gradually reduced only after I had truly arrived at the new place—which was well after the symptoms in the leg described here had subsided.