The Tell-Tale Sign Of Lyme Disease: Mother Shares Photo Of Her ‘Bullseye’ Rash After She Caught The Infection While Walking Her Dog in the Park

August 12, 2019

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-7300843/The-tell-tale-sign-Lyme-disease-Mothers-photo-bullseye-rash-walking-dog.html

The tell-tale sign of Lyme disease: Mother shares photo of her ‘bullseye’ rash after she caught the infection while walking her dog in the park

  • Kate Allen got tick bites on a summer’s day and three days later a rash appeared
  • She had 15 circular rashes, some which reached 12 inches (30cm) across
  • Other early symptoms of memory loss and fever led to a diagnosis of Lyme
  • Left untreated, the infection can spread to the organs and be deadly
  • Ms Allen was treated with antibiotics, but fears the infection remains 

By VANESSA CHALMERS HEALTH REPORTER FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 30 July 2019

A mother has shared a photo of the ‘bullseye’ rash that proved to be a sign of her Lyme disease.

Kate Allen, 28, from Leicester, spotted raised bumps on her skin after walking her dog through long grass in the park in 30°C.

Three days later, she had expanding circular red areas on both legs with a clear centre forming a pattern, some reaching 12 inches (30 cm) across.

Feeling feverish, lethargic, and more forgetful, a doctor diagnosed a mild form of Lyme disease – an infection spread by ticks.

Ms Allen had circular red areas on both legs with a clear centre forming a pattern - also known as a 'bullseye' rash (pictured). She shared her photo on social media to raise awareness

 

The doctor prescribed Ms Allen a 21-day course of antibiotics (pictured) to treat a mild form of Lyme disease and stop it from spreading

Christine Jennings, 57, was just 32 when the bug latched onto her skin while she was playing with her young daughters.

Over the next week, the former interior designer and artist developed what she thought was a virus, with migraines, a rash and swollen joints.

However, it was just the beginning of a 25-year battle with Lyme disease, in which her health has deteriorated to the point of being bed-ridden.

A spokeswoman from Lyme Disease Action said: ‘Humid weather brings the ticks above ground looking for a meal and walkers and campers need to be aware of the risk of tick bites in shaded areas and long grass.

‘The majority of UK ticks are not infected with Lyme disease, and the risk of disease can be minimised by prompt removal of the tick, without squashing the body.

‘Awareness is key, and ticks should not deter people from enjoying the outside, with all the benefits it brings.’

According to the NHS, it is recommended to cover skin while walking outdoors and use insect repellent on clothes and skin.

WHAT IS LYME DISEASE?

Lyme disease is caused by a bacteria that is transmitted to humans through the bite of infected black-legged ticks.

The most common symptoms of the disease are fever, headache, fatigue and a skin rash called erythema migrans.

The disease can typically be treated by several weeks of oral antibiotics.

But if left untreated, the infection can spread to the joints, heart and nervous symptoms and be deadly.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU ARE INFECTED?

During the first three to 30 days of infection, these symptoms may occur:

  • Fever
  • Chills
  • Headache
  • Fatigue
  • Muscle and joint aches
  • Swollen lymph nodes
  • Erythema migrans (EM) rash

The rash occurs in approximately 80 per cent of infected people.

It can expand to up to 12 inches (30 cm), eventually clearing and giving off the appearance of a target or a ‘bull’s-eye’.

Later symptoms of Lyme disease include:

  • Severe headaches and neck stiffness
  • Additional rashes
  • Arthritis with joint pain and swelling
  • Facial or Bell’s palsy
  • Heart palpitations
  • Problems with short-term memory
  • Nerve pain

Source: CDC

__________________

**Comment**

Please remember that while a “bullseye” rash is indicative of Lyme disease, you can still be infected with Lyme without the rash. 

The article states, “The first signs are a distinctive circular rash.”  NOT TRUE. Many NEVER get the rash. The CDC information at the end of the article stating that 80% get the rash is WRONG. The ranges of those getting the rash are 25-80% – hardly a sure thing. https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/02/22/why-mainstream-lyme-msids-research-remains-in-the-dark-ages/

The spokesperson from Lyme Disease Action is not helping anyone when they state, “The Majority of UK ticks are not infected with Lyme Disease…”

It only takes ONE infected tick to make you ill.  ONE. Prudence would err on the side of caution. Do not take this lightly.  Do not be lazy.

Look at each tick as a monster from hell that can suck the very life out of you.

Perhaps this spokesperson didn’t know Lyme is three times higher than estimated in the UK:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/08/07/uk-lyme-disease-cases-three-times-higher-than-estimated/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/08/01/news-video-lyme-more-common-in-uk-than-thought/

While this article hones in on Lyme, please remember that ticks are filled with numerous pathogens and Lyme is often one of many. Each of these pathogens requires different testing and different medication. This is often NOT a one pathogen illness:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/10/30/study-shows-lyme-msids-patients-infected-with-many-pathogens-and-explains-why-we-are-so-sick/  Excerpt:

For the first time, Garg et al. show a 85% probability for multiple infections including not only tick-borne pathogens but also opportunistic microbes such as EBV and other viruses.

I’m thankful they included Bartonella as that one is often omitted but definitely a player.  I’m also thankful for the mention of viruses as they too are in the mix.  The mention of the persister form must be recognized as well as many out there deny its existence.

Key Quote:  “Our findings recognize that microbial infections in patients suffering from TBDs do not follow the one microbe, one disease Germ Theory as 65% of the TBD patients produce immune responses to various microbes.”

But there is another important point.

According to this review, 83% of all commercial tests focus only on Lyme (borrelia), despite the fact we are infected with more than one microbe.  The review also states it takes 11 different visits to 11 different doctors, utilizing 11 different tests to be properly diagnosed.  https://www.news-medical.net/news/20181101/Tick-borne-disease-is-multiple-microbial-in-nature.aspx?

And lastly, please remember that this 21 days of doxycycline is what mainstream medicine is going to give patients even when they admit freely that later symptoms of Lyme disease can involve the heart, brain, cause arthritis, neurological and cognitive issues, and nerve pain, and kill you. If you go onto develop those symptoms, they will tell you, “it’s all in your head, here’s an antidepressant, go home and be well.”  

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/06/30/child-with-lymemsidspans-told-by-doctors-she-made-it-all-up/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/05/15/life-with-lyme-disease-a-womans-15-year-journey-to-diagnosis/  A doctor told her she was, “too pretty to be sick.”

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/09/21/its-all-in-your-head-until-finally-a-lyme-diagnosis/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/02/16/lyme-is-all-in-your-head-a-wake-up-call-to-mental-health-professionals/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/06/11/dr-eugene-shapiro-medically-unexplained-symptoms/

Regarding the geographic maps ruling like an iron curtain supposedly showing where ticks are or are not, or telling people the majority of ticks in their area aren’t infected:

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/04/22/its-just-crazy-why-is-lyme-disease-treatment-so-difficult-to-find-in-mississippi/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/10/24/no-lyme-in-oklahoma-yeah-right/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/09/24/arkansas-kids-denied-lyme-treatment/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/05/31/no-lyme-in-the-south-guess-again/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/08/21/our-battle-ongoing-lyme-disease-in-australia/

 

Category:

Activism, Lyme, Treatment

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Tick-borne Pathogens Bartonella spp., Borrelia Burgdorferi Sensu Lato, Coxiella Burnetii & Rickettsia Spp. May Trigger Endocarditis

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31374162/

2019 Jul;28(7):957-963. doi: 10.17219/acem/94159.

Tick-borne pathogens Bartonella spp., Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato, Coxiella burnetii and Rickettsia spp. may trigger endocarditis.

Chmielewski T1, Kuśmierczyk M2, Fiecek B1, Roguska U1, Lewandowska G1, Parulski A2, Cielecka-Kuszyk J3, Tylewska-Wierzbanowska S1.

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

Infections caused by tick-borne pathogens such as Bartonella spp., Borrelia burgdorferi s.l., Coxiella burnetii and Rickettsia spp. are capable of causing serious lesions of the mitral and aortic valves, leading to a need for valve replacement.

OBJECTIVES:

The aim of the study was to determine whether such cases are sporadic or frequent. An additional goal was to establish effective diagnostic methods to detect these infections.

MATERIAL AND METHODS:

The study involved 148 patients undergoing valve replacement. Blood samples were drawn for serological testing. Samples of the removed mitral and aortic valves were tested with PCR and immunohistochemical staining.

RESULTS:

Specific antibodies to

  • Bartonella spp. were detected in 47 patients (31.7%) and in 1 of the healthy controls (1%) (p < 0.05)
  • B. burgdorferi spirochetes were found in 18 of the patients (12.2%) and in 6 blood donors from the control group (5.8%) (p < 0.1)
  • Rickettsia spp. were detected in 12 (8.1%) 
  • C. burnetii phase I and II antigens in the serum of 1 patient. All the participants in the control group were seronegative to C. burnetii and Rickettsia spp. antigens.
  • PCR tests for detection of Bartonella spp., B. burgdorferi s.l., C. burnetii and Rickettsia spp. DNA in the valve samples were all negative.

Inflammation foci with mononuclear lymphoid cells in the aortic and mitral valves were seen in sections stained with hematoxiline and eozine. In sections dyed using the indirect immunofluorescence method with hyperimmune sera, Bartonella spp. and Rickettsia spp. were found.

CONCLUSIONS:

The results obtained indicate that laboratory diagnostics for patients with heart disorders should be expanded to include tests detecting tick-borne zoonoses such as bartonelloses, Lyme borreliosis, rickettsioses and Q fever.

________________

**Comment**

This article shows that tick borne pathogens are common with patients needing heart valve replacements. Unfortunately, testing still isn’t accurate. Finding antibodies, authorities would argue, doesn’t mean a person has symptoms; however, this issue desperately needs further research as finding antibodies does indicate the presence of pathogens.

A point to be made about the low percentage of those testing positive for Lyme might be due to the fact they only tested one strain: Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato.  There are 300 strains worldwide and 100 in the U.S. (and counting).

Bartonella is similar in the fact that a recent article pointed out that a 14-year-old boy with PANS caused by Bartonella henselae infection was NOT seropositive. Only one of the three blood samples tested positive before culturing and only two tested positive after culturing. A single blood draw might have missed confirming a diagnosis of bartonellosis.

How many doctors are going to hunt these infections to ground? How many have the time and doggedness it requires to find them? It’s far more likely they will take the results from a singular test, close the book, and move onto the next patient.

We desperately need accurate tests that pick up ALL the pathogens.

 

 

 

Category:

Bartonella, Heart Issues, Inflammation, Lyme, research, Rickettsia

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Lyme Disease: What It Is And Why Some Are Calling It The Next Pandemic

https://globalnews.ca/news/5728135/lyme-disease-what-it-is-next-pandemic/

August 8, 2019

By   Assignment Editor  Global News

It’s summer in North America and that means more people are outside enjoying the great outdoors. But, for some, simply heading out for a summer hike could make them sick.

There’s an increasing number of people across North America and around the world contracting Lyme disease. Lyme used to be considered an isolated disease found in North America and parts of Europe but it’s now found in 80 countries worldwide.

Its rise in North America has been particularly alarming. In the U.S. alone, the Centers for Disease Control says there are some 30,000 cases a year, but the CDC concedes the number is likely significantly higher than that. The Lyme Disease Association estimates the number is closer to a staggering 400,000 a year.

Some experts are sounding the alarm, calling it a pandemic.

“There are many countries around the world that are struggling with Lyme disease. It is a pandemic… There’s little doubt about that because it is so widely spread,” said Mary Beth Pfeiffer, an award-winning investigative journalist from upstate New York.

Pfeiffer began investigating Lyme disease when so many people in her community began getting sick and her initial research for the Poughkeepsie Journal eventually turned into a book, Lyme: The first Epidemic of Climate Change.

Health effects of Lyme

Lyme disease is caused by a bacteria called Borrelia burgdorferi that the tick contracts from hosts like deer or rodents. It’s then passed on to humans after a walk in tall grass or a hike in the wilderness.

“The bacteria is called a spirochete because of its spiral shape, and that gives it a great amount of motility so it’s able to move around in your system and throughout your tissue quite readily,” said Jim Wilson, the founder of the Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation (CanLyme).

The good news is that if a tick bite is caught early, within the first few hours or weeks, a course of antibiotics can pretty much eliminate the disease. But if it isn’t, that spirochete can wreak havoc on the body.

“Once you miss the opportunity to treat it acutely, the bacteria can disseminate from the site of tick bite,” said Dr. Kieran Moore, the principal investigator with the Canadian Institute of Health Research-funded Canadian Lyme Disease Research Network.

“It can be spread to your joints and cause rheumatological Lyme or it can spread into nerve tissue and cause nerve tissue damage, or it can attach to the muscle of the heart and the nerve conduction system of the heart and cause all types of different cardiac presentations.”

Unfortunately, many cases of Lyme aren’t caught early enough and patients continue to deteriorate without knowing why.

“I just kept deteriorating with really weird heart palpitations and cognitive issues like unable to concentrate, slurred speech, trouble swallowing, light sensitivity, sound sensitivity and just a rapid deterioration to the point where I had to come home from work,” said Barry Philpott, a Lyme disease patient.

Why it’s so hard to get treatment

Philpott isn’t the only patient who describes a decline in health without any explanation before finally getting a Lyme disease diagnosis. It’s virtually never the first thing a doctor looks for and Moore says that’s part of the problem.

“We need significant work to educate physicians both in the front lines — emergency medicine and primary care — as well as our specialist colleagues regarding the myriad of signs and symptoms that Lyme disease can present as,” said Moore.

The other issue: there is still no completely reliable test for Lyme.

“We know that the current diagnostic tests for Lyme disease are insensitive,” said Moore.

These diagnostic tests are particularly insensitive in the early stages of the disease, which means people could be going undiagnosed or misdiagnosed, leaving them vulnerable. Physicians and advocates for patients say this is the time to be especially vigilant.

“If someone presents in June, July or August just with undifferentiated fever, chills, muscle aches, headaches, neck stiffness… think Lyme disease,” said Moore.

Lyme and why it isn’t going away

Lyme isn’t going away. If anything, it’s getting worse.

“It has spread very quickly from the early ’80s onwards and we think that’s associated with climate change,” said Moore.

Pfeiffer, the investigative journalist, agrees.

“There are a number of things that are driving this epidemic and climate is one of the prime ones,” Pfeiffer said. “We’re certainly seeing that it’s warmer and it’s more humid in many places, especially in Canada, in the U.S., in the northeast and the midwest England.”

In her research, Pfeiffer also found a general lack of alarm over the disease, which she says is part of the reason Lyme has gone under-diagnosed and under-treated, especially in North America.

“We don’t have a handle and we need to do the work that we haven’t done,” she said. “I often compare Lyme disease to AIDS. The AIDS virus was identified in 1983. The Lyme disease bacterium was identified in 1981.

“The number of clinical trials that have been done for AIDS number about 11,000. You look at clinical trials for Lyme disease, there’s about 60. When I looked up those numbers it amazed me. Sixty trials for Lyme disease, 11,000 for AIDS.

“I’m not saying that AIDS did not deserve the attention it got, but Lyme disease is not getting the attention it deserves.”

Solutions to combating Lyme disease

Experts agree that it’s incumbent upon the medical community to start treating Lyme disease with more urgency. Since 2017 there has been a slight increase in funding for research in Canada. But other countries, including the U.S. are slower. Canada has also started educating physicians on recognizing signs and symptoms. However, it’s also important for people to educate themselves.

“Number one, educating people about the risk. Wherever you are going camping this year you should know, are ticks present and is the agent that causes Lyme disease present in those ticks, and you should be taking the appropriate precautions,” Dr. Moore said.

“Wear light-coloured clothing so you can see the ticks if they drop off the leaves or grasses and fall on to you. Use a repellant like DEET or Picaridin to repel the ticks off your clothing or skin.”

The message: until there is more research and more treatment available, prevention is the best medicine.

— With files from Ely Bahhadi

__________________

**Comment**

Again, the very warmer winters Pffeiffer writes about in her book are lethal to black-legged ticks and the climate has nothing to do with this:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/11/07/ticks-on-the-move-due-to-migrating-birds-and-photoperiod-not-climate-change/

As to humidity – this is why ticks hide under snow and leaf litter. This is one of the reasons warmer winters are actually worse for tick survival. They are extremely adaptive to weather and can survive nearly anything but fire:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/01/20/polar-vorticks/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/07/18/frequent-prescribed-fires-can-reduce-risk-of-tick-borne-diseases/

Ontario officials have been called out on shoddy, biased research essentially ignoring previous research and utilizing a flawed model to predict a gradual northern migration of ticks.  The thing is, ticks already existed in those areas:   https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/06/17/ontario-public-health-officials-called-out-on-shoddy-biased-research-utilizing-an-erroneous-climate-change-model-to-program-a-futuristic-tick-problem/

Again, just because someone says something over and over doesn’t make it true.

Category:

Activism, Lyme, Ticks

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My Brush With Lyme Disease: How Tick Bites Turned Family Day Out To Disaster

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/aug/04/my-brush-with-lyme-disease-increase-new-forest-scotland

My brush with Lyme disease: how tick bites turned family day out to disaster

Our writer was not surprised by last week’s warning about increasing tick-borne infections
Tara Conlan at her home in Bentworth, Sussex, near the New Forest where she contracted Lyme Disease.
Tara Conlan at her home in Bentworth, Sussex, near the New Forest where she contracted Lyme disease. Photograph: Sonja Horsman/The Observer

Three years ago, a few weeks after a family trip to the New Forest, I started to feel constantly nauseous and tired. A small red patch appeared on my ankle. I turned to the web for some answers, and Google turned up trumps: much to my horror, my symptoms matched some of those for the tick-borne bacterial infection Lyme disease.

My GP was doubtful (we lived in London and I had not noticed any ticks on me) but agreed to a blood test. It came back positive so the rest of my family was tested. My husband and daughter also had it but, ironically, my son – on whom I had spotted a tick – did not. Lyme is like malaria in that you might get bitten by a mosquito but only some of them carry the disease.

Warnings issued last week that Lyme is on the rise – and that the number of cases may be three times higher than estimated – are no surprise to me. When I got it, I was shocked to find how easily it could be transmitted, how unreliable testing for it was, and how awful the consequences were for those who didn’t get the right diagnosis in time.

My symptoms ruined our Christmas holiday and the antibiotics affected my daughter’s health during school exams. But we were fortunate. I subsequently learned that of two others who contracted Lyme in the New Forest, one – a child – was affected neurologically.

Given that the hosts for the New Forest ticks were deer, suffice to say, I no longer felt like crying at the film Bambi and – unpopular opinion alert – I began hoping people would view the deer in Richmond Park not through misty eyes but through sights on a rifle. (I was not alone. A letter to the Timeslast week asked: “If deer are deemed to be a significant threat to human health, and an increase in the cull is thought to be a reasonable solution, then why are we even hesitating?”)

But my research revealed deer to be only part of the problem: the unpalatable truth is that ticks are carried by other animals, including cats, dogs and birds. The International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society states: “A patient’s residence does not necessarily reflect his or her Lyme disease risk. People travel, pets travel and ticks travel. “Migratory birds carry ticks over great distances,” it adds.

You can’t become immune to Lyme – a lesson that leading media analyst Claire Enders learned first-hand. She has had Lyme twice, with the second bout going undiagnosed for a year as her test results gave a false negative. An eloquent businesswoman from a medical Nobel prize-winning US family, she became such an authority on the illness that when she told Jeremy Hunt the NHS website’s Lyme guidance was inadequate, the then health secretary had it updated.

Yet she had to work hard to convince her doctors she had it again: “I was asked if I had a ‘Daily Mail illness’. It was demeaning. I felt devastated by the illness, so to be told it was in my head because the test was negative was awful.”

Enders was unable to walk and suffered nerve damage, but is thankfully better after an 18-month cycle of antibiotics and hydrotherapy.

Category:

Lyme, Ticks

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The Unfortunate Connections Between Lyme Disease & Mental Illness

August 11, 2019

https://pro.psychcentral.com/exhausted-woman/2019/07/the-unfortunate-connection-between-lyme-disease-and-mental-illness/

The Unfortunate Connection Between Lyme Disease and Mental Illness

By
Last updated: 25 Jul 2019

Carol has been a patient of mine for over five years. We have walked through some of the most difficult times in her life as she dealt with her failing marriage and then divorce, a move, significant career changes, undiagnosed medical issues, and co-parenting teenagers.

Yet during our discussions, there was an undercurrent of, “I don’t feel right.” Her feelings were understandable given her life circumstances. But when life settled down, her complaints of pain, stress, fogginess, anxiety, and depression intensified. One medical doctor after the other ran tests with no conclusive diagnosis so she was labeled psychosomatic.

But that didn’t make sense given that fact that she was consistent in therapy, did what was asked, and had significant improvements in several areas of her life. Something else seemed to be wrong. Finally, she found a doctor who tested her for Lyme disease, and she was properly diagnosed.

What is Lyme Disease? Lyme disease is an infectious disease caused by a bacteria and spread by ticks resulting in a suppression of the immune system. It can develop into a chronic multisystemic illness affecting the nervous system causing neurologic and psychiatric symptoms. These symptoms can mimic paranoia, dementia, schizophrenia, bipolar, panic attacks, depression, eating disorders, and obsessive-compulsive behaviors.

This explained everything. It was as if all the random pieces of a puzzle were put together for Carol. The problem is that the diagnosis doesn’t solve the problem, it only identifies it. Counselors and therapists need to differentiate between atypical psychiatric disorders and those associated with having Lyme disease in order to properly treat their clients. Here are some other misconceptions about Lyme disease and mental illness.

  1. Often called psychosomatic. When a patient is improperly diagnosed or not diagnosed at all, some physicians deem their condition to be psychosomatic. This is a mischaracterization of psychosomatic disorders. Lyme pain is real, not imagined. Often, patients lose their health, livelihoods, relationship, home, and dignity in the process of getting diagnosed. This is not due to an improper coping mechanism or a cognitive manifestation of emotional stress. Never tell a Lyme patient that what they feel is not real.
  2. Neuropsychiatric symptoms are prominent. Lyme patients tend to have trouble with mood regulation, cognition, energy, sensory processing, and/or sleep. This can manifest into paranoia, hallucinations, mania, and/or obsessive-compulsive behaviors. Memory loss and concentration issues mirror other psychological disorders. This might make a patient look like they are in the early stages of dementia, have attention-deficit, or a traumatic brain injury. Sensory processing issues such as sensitivity to lights and sounds are also typical. This results in avoiding daylight, staying at home, avoiding crowned areas such as stores, parks, or restaurants.
  3. Often misdiagnosed. Lyme disease looks like other neurological conditions and sometimes is misdiagnosed as chronic fatigue or fibromyalgia. Patients experience extreme fatigue despite sleeping for 10-12 hours a night and/or napping. When they push through one day, they may need 2-3 days of taking it easy to fully recover. The misdiagnosis is frustrating for the patients because it slows down proper treatment.
  4. Lyme can resemble Alzheimer’s. Unfortunately, Lyme disease looks like the early phases of Alzheimer’s with rage, short-term memory loss, personality changes, a slower speed of thinking, difficulty remembering words or names, and impaired fine motor control such as buttoning a shirt. This misdiagnosis has devastating consequences as often Alzheimer’s patients are placed in assisted living or locked nursing homes.
  5. Anxiety and panic attacks are side effects. Having been told by doctors that what they are feeling is a figment of their imagination, Lyme patients naturally develop anxious thoughts. In addition, some of the medical treatments for Lyme can have a side effect of increased anxiety. Left unchecked, this manifests into panic attacks. Further left alone, turns into paranoid thoughts, actions, and phobias. Many become fearful of the attacks and therefore isolate from social gatherings.
  6. Brain fog looks like abuse fog. Because Lyme disease can affect the brain, patients often look like they are not thinking clearly. This mimics abuse fog which occurs when a person is being abused. Thoughts tend to be hopeless, distorted, and disorganized. Patients are unable to concentrate, to comprehend during reading, have memory issues, and poor mental clarity. Everyday tasks can become more difficult including participating in therapy.
  7. Depression is common. All chronic illnesses potentially cause major depression due to the recurrent nature of the disease. Depression can range from moderate to severe levels and occurs in approximately 60% of patients. Feelings of being moody and irritable are common. Inflammation, pain, interpersonal stressors, economic loss, and a sense of doom contribute to the severity of the depression. Typical depression remedies do not work on Lyme patients. Therapy is very helpful as are support groups with other Lyme patients.
  8. Psychological ramifications are untreated. Most therapists are not aware of the damaging effects of a long-term chronic illness like Lyme disease and as a result, fail to properly diagnose. As a result, some Lyme patients are unnecessarily hospitalized in mental facilities. This further increases the existing social isolation done by friends, family, and community which contribute to feelings of loss.
  9. Increase in suicidal and suicide. Living with Lyme disease is hard and debilitating. Friends and family rarely comprehend the magnitude of the disease resulting in a feeling of isolation. Discouragement, fear, helplessness, frustration, loss, grief, and loneliness are a result. As the disease progresses and mobility or cognitive functioning decreases, suicidal idealization increases. Some, seeing no way out, do unfortunately take their own lives.

Lyme patients often feel abandoned by the medical community, friends, and family members. It is imperative that therapists be sensitive to this and not contribute these feelings whether by accident in misdiagnosis of other mental illnesses or more intentional by not being empathetic to a person suffering from a chronic illness.

If you or someone you know is struggling, please reach out for assistance. The national suicide prevention lifeline is 800-273-8255 or www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org.

Christine Hammond, MS, LMHC

Christine is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor by the State of Florida with over fifteen years of experience in counseling, teaching and ministry.  She works primarily with exhausted women and their families in conflict situations to ensure peaceful resolutions at home and in the workplace. She has blogs, articles, and newsletters designed to assist in meeting your needs.  As author of the award winning book, The Exhausted Woman’s Handbook, Christine is a guest speaker at churches, women’s organizations, and corporations.  You can connect with her at her website Grow with Christine at www.growwithchristine.com.

_____________________-

For more: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2015/10/18/psychiatric-lymemsids/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/04/07/missing-links-connect-the-dots-between-lyme-mental-health/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/05/09/ilads-announces-1st-ever-conference-for-mental-health-issues-related-to-tick-borne-diseases/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/08/25/neuropsychiatric-lyme-borreliosis-an-overview-with-a-focus-on-a-specialty-psychiatrists-clinical-practice/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/06/04/ld-diagnosis-took-forever-because-of-mental-health-stigma/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/11/01/lyme-mental-illness-dr-jane-marke/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/06/20/suicide-lyme-and-associated-diseases/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/12/20/diagnosing-ld-in-children-with-neuropsychiatric-illness/

Please remember, there are other pathogens that can cause neuropsychiatric issues. Recently, this came out about a young boy with schizophrenia-like symptoms who was diagnosed with Bartonella:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/03/21/bartonella-sudden-onset-adolescent-schizophrenia-a-case-study/

Toxoplasmosis, found in the Ixodes ricinus tick (castor bean tick) causes many mental issues and psychiatrist E. Fuller Torry believes that 75% of schizophrenia is associated with infections, with Toxo a significant portion.  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/05/21/toxoplasmosis/

 

Category:

Lyme, Psychological Aspects

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