Mimulus vs Rock Rose
Mimulus is for fear you can live alongside. Rock Rose is for the moments fear takes the controls. If your body got there before your mind did, that is Rock Rose.
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Why they get muddled
Both are fear, both sit in Bach's fear group, and both can arrive over exactly the same event. What separates them is not what you are afraid of, it is how far the fear has gone. A named worry about Thursday and a full panic about Thursday need different bottles, even though Thursday has not changed.
The differences
How far it has gone
Mimulus
Nerves. Unpleasant, sometimes for days, and you still get the day done around it.
Rock Rose
Past nerves. Your heart, your hands and your voice stop taking instructions.
What your body does
Mimulus
A dry mouth, a fast pulse, a stomach that drops before the thing.
Rock Rose
Freezing, going cold, shaking an hour afterwards.
How long it lasts
Mimulus
It builds for days ahead of a known event and fades once the event is over.
Rock Rose
It arrives in seconds and leaves you rattled long after the moment has passed.
Who else notices
Mimulus
Often nobody. Mimulus fear is carried quietly and played down when anyone asks.
Rock Rose
Everyone in the room. This is the fear that spreads.
Which one to pick
Choose Mimulus if
- You can name the thing, and you are dreading it rather than panicking about it
- There is a date in the diary that has been sitting on your chest for a week
- You go quiet about it rather than showing it
Choose Rock Rose if
- Your body took over before you had a thought about it
- You woke from it with your heart going, or you are still shaking now
- It was genuinely frightening rather than merely daunting
What if both sound right?
This is one of the most common pairs to take together, because they describe the same fear at two volumes. Mimulus for the week beforehand, Rock Rose for the moment itself. Plenty of people let the crisis formula do the second job, since Rock Rose is already one of the five in it.
Common questions
Which one is for panic attacks?
Rock Rose is the one people reach for, because it describes fear that has gone past anything you can reason with. It is usually worth taking alongside whichever remedy fits the pattern underneath, which is often Mimulus if you can name the trigger and Aspen if you cannot.
Is Rock Rose only for emergencies?
No, and this is the part people miss. It covers the aftermath as much as the moment: the hour afterwards when you are still shaking, the night after a nightmare, the day after a near miss. You do not have to catch the moment itself for it to be the right remedy.
What if I cannot name the fear at all?
Then neither of these is quite it, and Aspen is the closer match. The test is whether you can finish the sentence I am afraid of. Mimulus can, Aspen cannot, and Rock Rose is about intensity rather than about whether the fear has a name.
Keep narrowing
The pairs closest to this one, if neither of these two turns out to be it.
MimulusvsAspen
If you can finish the sentence I am afraid of, it is Mimulus. If you cannot, it is Aspen. That one test settles most cases in about five seconds.
AspenvsRock Rose
Aspen hums and Rock Rose shouts. If the feeling is a background unease you have been carrying all week, that is Aspen. If it seized you and you are still shaking, that is Rock Rose.
Rock RosevsCherry Plum
Rock Rose is terror at something happening to you. Cherry Plum is fear of what you might do. The question to ask is whether the danger feels outside you or inside you.
LarchvsPine
Larch doubts what you can do. Pine blames you for what you did. If the feeling is I would not be able to, that is Larch. If it is I should not have, that is Pine.
Still not sure?
Read both profiles in full, or start from the feeling and let the quiz narrow it for you.