It took me 12 years to get a proper mental health diagnosis. That needs to change | Mental Health Perspectives
A few weeks after my 6th birthday, I went to bed one night a happy, healthy child, and I woke up the next morning riddled with anxiety, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), tics, and a laundry list of psychiatric symptoms I’d never experienced before. I couldn’t sit still for more than a few seconds without moving my body; I could barely write my own name, and I was so afraid of choking that I couldn’t even swallow my own saliva. I saw doctors, therapists, psychiatrists and behavior specialists, and none of them could provide a diagnosis, other than “anxiety.”
I did have anxiety. I cried most of the day because the entire world felt like it was crashing down on me. But there was something else.
I had PANDAS: Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorder Associated with Streptococcal infections. PANDAS and its sister diagnosis PANS (Post-infectious Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Syndrome) are infection-mediated neuropsychiatric disorders. That means that when an infection develops in the body, the immune system sends a misdirected immune response to the brain. It causes inflammation in the areas of the brain responsible for emotions, behavior, sleep and impulse control. (See link for article)
________________
**Comment**
While PANDAS is associated with strep, PANS includes tick-borne illness infections. One Lyme literate doctor in Wisconsin has stated that 80% of his PANS patients have Lyme/MSIDS.
For more:
- https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2020/07/25/what-is-pans-pandas-and-why-are-cases-on-the-rise/
- https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/12/01/guidelines-for-treating-pans-its-real/
- https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/05/13/one-familys-story-of-strep-lyme-disease-and-pans-pandas/
- https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/07/28/stories-of-pandas/
- https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/01/05/scary-side-of-childhood-strep/
- https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/04/11/hidden-invaders-infections-can-trigger-immune-attacks-on-kids-brains-provoking-devastating-psychiatric-disorders/
- https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/10/09/today-is-panspandas-awareness-day/