CDC Now Lists Lyme As Infection That Can Cause Chronic Symptoms – Don’t Expect Much From This

October 31, 2023

https://www.lymedisease.org/cdc-chronic-lyme-iaccpac/

CDC now lists Lyme as infection that can cause chronic symptoms

A new page on the CDC website is headlined Chronic Symptoms Following Infections.

It goes on to say: “Infections can sometimes leave people with symptoms that last for weeks to months or longer, even after appropriate treatment.”

(I quibble with their use of “appropriate.” But I’ll leave that alone for now.)

Look what the CDC web page says next–and notice what’s at the top of the list:

Some disease agents that have been linked to chronic symptoms

Some people with chronic symptoms following infections may not know which infection triggered the symptoms, or even recognize that they had an infection before their chronic symptoms began. People with chronic symptoms and unknown preceding infection may be diagnosed with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome.

Why is this significant?

For years, the CDC and others in the medical establishment have been loathe to acknowledge that Lyme disease can turn chronic.

For a long time, the agency openly endorsed the IDSA Lyme treatment guidelines, which flatly deny that chronic Lyme exists. Even when the CDC removed the link to the IDSA guidelines from their website and softened some language, there was little support for the concept of persistent symptoms of Lyme disease.

Then along came COVID…

COVID-19 changed all that. Soon after the beginning of the pandemic, so many people began experiencing long-term symptoms of the illness that the term “long COVID” entered the national lexicon. Among the most prominent symptoms of long COVID were debilitating fatigue and brain fog–two symptoms also common in people with persistent Lyme disease, ME/CFS, and a host of other chronic conditions.

According to a 2022 CDC survey, nearly 18 million Americans have suffered from long COVID at some point since the pandemic began, and almost 9 million did at the time of the survey.

Those numbers were too big to ignore–and it opened the door for looking at other chronic conditions that shared symptoms with long COVID.

In June 2023, the National Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM), brought together high-level health officials, academic researchers, and knowledgeable patient advocates to look at the question of “infection-associated chronic illnesss.”

And just this past week, patient advocates that have joined IACCPAC–the Infection-Associated Chronic Conditions Patient Advocacy Coalition–held an online webinar introducing the coalition and its goals.

These are the groups currently involved in IACCPAC:

LymeDisease.org’s Lorraine Johnson was among the panelists at the IACCPAC workshop. She emphasized that patients can’t wait for decades-long studies to determine which treatments are best. It’s essential to accelerate research now.

The various conditions listed above are different in many ways, but they share many unique challenges. By working together, we’ll be able to accomplish things that are much harder to do individually.

I believe things are starting to shift. Stay tuned.

TOUCHED BY LYME is written by Dorothy Kupcha Leland, President of LymeDisease.org. She is co-author of When Your Child Has Lyme Disease: A Parent’s Survival Guide, and of Finding Resilience: A Teen’s Journey Through Lyme Disease. Contact her at dleland@lymedisease.org.

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**Comment**

The only reason the CDC changes anything is if it benefits their bottom-line and their vested interests. Admitting diseases can be “chronic,” “persistent,” or “long haul” will assist their “vaccine” narrative – particularly using the mRNA platform.  Rather than finding safe, cheap, repurposed drugs to help patients, or accurate testing, it will all be used for lucrative “vaccine” research and development.

I don’t expect much to happen from this, other than many Lyme advocates will continue to support government agencies that have only gas-lit and ignored patient suffering.

If you click on the Lyme link, it leads you here with the infamously biased title Post-Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome.  While it at least states that some experts believe it’s an auto-immune response while others hypothesize that PTLDS is from persistent but difficult to detect infection, while yet others believe it’s due to other causes unrelated to Borrelia burgdorferi infection, here’s the kicker: 

Studies funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have found that long-term outcomes are no better for patients who received additional prolonged antibiotic treatment than for patients who received placebo. Long-term antibiotic treatment for Lyme disease has been associated with serious, sometimes deadly complications, as described in the links below.  Patients with PTLDS usually get better over time, but it can take many months to feel completely well.

This right here means nothing is going to change. While long-term antibiotics may not be the answer for every Lyme/MSIDS patient, they saved my life, my husband’s life, and the lives of countless others, but due to this unchanging threatening verbiage – no mainstream doctor will dare to prescribe the very thing that could save lives.

I’m not a negative person, but I am a realist.  A pig with lip-stick on is still a pig.

Don’t expect much from this other than gad-loads of money continuing to be spent on the wrong things – including “climate change.”

Just like Fauci told the government NOT to do autopsies on COVID deaths, and just like they made it illegal to analyze what was in the COVID injections, the very thing that could end the Lyme wars are chronic Lyme post-mortem studies, but mark my words: these will not be done.

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Activism, Lyme

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Podcast: When a Family Has Lyme

https://www.lymedisease.org/podcast-when-multiple-members-of-your-family-have-lyme-disease/

PODCAST: When multiple members of your family have Lyme disease

By Fred Diamond

10/16/23

It’s hard enough managing your own or just your child’s persistent Lyme symptoms, but what do you do when multiple people in your family have Lyme and other tick-borne illnesses? What kind of support do you need and where do you get it?

On this week’s Love, Hope, Lyme Podcast, I talk with Jessica Snajder, founder of Partner in Lyme, a non-profit that distributes funds to families in Connecticut for medical care. She discusses how her family coped when she was diagnosed with Lyme three years after they started caring for her teenage daughter.

“I founded Partner in Lyme based on the experience my oldest daughter had with her diagnosis, the complications of treating Lyme, and the financial aspects of treating Lyme and I felt that something good had to come out of our family’s experience,” she said. “I have also become a patient. I was diagnosed with Lyme and have been in treatment myself. It has evolved from my daughter’s care to a nonprofit and then to a family experience.”

“Partner in Lyme was really born out of that desire to make something good come out of a really bad situation. We give financial support to Lyme survivors in Connecticut to spend on anything that falls under the wellness umbrella that helps them heal in their body, spirit, and soul.”

I asked her if everyone in Connecticut understands the disease, since it was named for a city in the state.

She said that it is not the case.

“Residents of Connecticut still are operating under such misconceptions about what Lyme disease is and what it is not. Not enough doctors are screening proactively at yearly checkups. Pediatricians are not looking for signs. There’s a lot of missed opportunity to catch people early on in treatment and it’s very hard to find a doctor to work with and afford.”

What Do Those Who Love a Persistent Lyme Survivor Need to Know?

Jessica said Lyme survivors might need emotional, physical, and financial support.

“No matter who that person is, they need emotional support. Chronic Lyme is isolating, it’s physically debilitating, and it impacts who you are. There’s a grief process that the person with Lyme goes through.  You’re going to mourn the things that you can no longer participate in, and how your life has changed through no desire of your own.”

She also said that sometimes physical support takes precedence and can be different from person to person.

“Everyone in my family has had different physical issues. One of us has had more neurological issues, which has resulted in them not being able to drive. Someone else has mobility issues and that has led at times to wheelchair use or spending days on the couch until a flare passes,” she said.

“For myself, it was a little bit of both plus memory issues. My family thought I was multitasking or maybe on my phone when they were speaking to me. They would get frustrated with me when I wouldn’t respond, but once they realized that this wasn’t me not paying attention, this is my mind being affected by a bacteria, then it was easier to say, ‘all right, I’ll repeat that for you,’ or, ‘I won’t get aggravated if I think that you’re just not listening to me.’

Not surprisingly, financial support is often needed.

“Unless you are a wealthy individual, it’s almost impossible to do all the things that you would like to do and that your doctor may advise you to do,” she suggested.

She said that people don’t understand you just cannot go to your primary care physician for chronic Lyme. She estimated that the average patient spends about $50,000 out of pocket a year, if they can. Since most people cannot afford that, they’re not getting the treatment that they need, which means they need even more emotional support and even more physical support, because their bodies are not getting what they need to heal.

Complications When She Got Lyme Disease

Jessica said she was diagnosed with Lyme three years after her daughter was diagnosed.

“My oldest daughter was diagnosed in 2018, after seeing 10 doctors and struggling for about a year and a half to figure out what was wrong with her. That affected her senior year of high school into college. There was a lot of support that had to be given just to get her to finish school. I was driving her to college, waiting for her to finish her classes, and then driving her home.”

Jessica said being a caregiver was deeply entrenched in her day-to-day life and helped her process her own diagnosis. “I had the benefit of understanding this disease deeply. I was one of those classic long COVID cases but because I knew enough about Lyme, I knew it was not normal that my joints were hurting too.”

“My biggest takeaway was just the heartbreak for wanting things to go back the way they were and knowing that they can’t easily, and they may never go back. It’s reframing your life. As a 50-year-old woman, it’s easier for me to do that than as a 20-year-old young person,” she observed. “My heart just broke a bit more for her when I realized how significantly this takes a toll on your mental health. Looking for joy, trying to experience joy in a different way.”

Her Suggestion for Caregivers

When I asked her for advice for people who want to support Lyme survivors, Jessica said to avoid generalizing.

“When you share that you have Lyme, inevitably someone will say to you, “Oh, so-and-so had Lyme and they did X, Y and Z and they’re better. It’s no big deal. Well, yes, it’s a big deal. There are lot of misconceptions about how to treat Lyme and how not to treat Lyme. When you share these anecdotal stories of someone’s friend of a friend of a friend, it’s not received well.”

She advised not to minimize it and to try to think of it as if this person in your life was diagnosed with cancer. “Just cut off cancer and put in Lyme because the similarities between those two diseases are very strong and the quality of life for someone with Lyme consistently rates lower than someone who has been diagnosed with cancer.”

The biggest thing is to empathize with them. To not take anything that happens personally.

“If you are willing to set yourself aside and be selfless in your expression of how you love that person, whether you’re loving them as a friend or as a spouse, it’s humbling to set yourself aside and give that person what they need. It is a lesson in what love really is. Being compassionate, being kind, being selfless, seeking someone else’s well-being above your own.”

Learn more about Partner in Lyme here.

Click here to listen to all episodes of the Love, Hope, Lyme Podcast or on YouTube.

Fred Diamond is based in Fairfax, VA and can be contacted via Facebook. His popular book, “Love, Hope, Lyme: What Family Members, Partners, and Friends Who Love a Chronic Lyme Survivor Need to Know” is available on Amazon. The e-version of the book is always free to Lyme survivors. Send Fred a private message on Facebook for your copy.

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**Comment**

We spent about 15K per person about 10 years ago; however, our LLMD doesn’t test much as he just doesn’t feel they are accurate – plus they cost a lot of money. We stuck primarily with low cost antibiotics and when they were expensive we ordered from a Canadian pharmacy which gets most of these drugs from India making them much cheaper.  You have to plan a month in advance to do this successfully.  That said, we had to supplement with many things and supplements are rarely cheap.

The last I checked, an herbal treatment program runs about $300 a month per person unless you get the ground herb in bulk and make your own.

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Lyme, Treatment

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There’s Hope: People Starting to Question the COVID Narrative & Nobody Wants The Clot Shots

October 27, 2023

https://drtesslawrie.substack.com/p/starting-to-question-the-covid-narrative?

Starting to question the Covid narrative?

When you are ready, the World Council for Health is here for you

OCT 27, 2023
By Dr. Tess Lawrie

At some point you may decide to act on the nagging thoughts that won’t go away and start exploring. Once you start on this journey it will become impossible to un-know what you find out.

It is nearly four years now since the arrival of a Covid 19 – a watershed event that ruptured society along new fault lines. Governments around the World agreed on a common response and we were subjected to lockdowns, masks, and inoculations to combat a deadly virus. We were encouraged to comply with official guidelines by appealing to our virtuous natures: our respect for authority, trust in professionals, sense of responsibility, compassion for the vulnerable, and willingness to sacrifice our individual needs for the ‘greater good’.

While most people went along with what the World Health Organization decreed through national governments, a variety of experts and many others were skeptical, expressing concern about the draconian and unscientific measures imposed and their likely impacts on all aspects of human life. Despite their honorable intentions, dissident voices were roundly criticized for being selfish, uncaring, and a danger to society.

For these sceptics, most of the official guidelines made no sense at all. But instead of their well-researched concerns being taken seriously and debated, they were quickly denounced. The Covid caravan kept rumbling along, ignoring contradictory evidence and ethical concerns.  (See link for article).  This article was co-written by Alice Ashwell, Charlie Efford and Tess Lawrie.

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The World Council for Health (WCH) is one of a number of communities of people whose lives were turned upside-down by the Covid crisis. We have all seen many things we cannot ‘un-see’, and have been learning, growing, and becoming stronger together as we pursue our mission to empower health, freedom, and sovereignty.

We would love you to join our community, which you can do by signing up to our newsletter and participating in our regular Monday Better Way Live livestreams, where we keep up to date with the latest developments relating to our mission.

The WCH website and Substack are full of empowering resources to help you navigate these challenging times, improve your general health, heal from Covid-related injuries, and participate in campaigns that aim to create ‘a better way’ for all of us.

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https://standforhealthfreedom.com/cdc-oct-meeting/

ACIP Annual Review Was a Bust

The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) met October 25-26, 2023, for their annual review of the childhood and adult schedules, as well as updates on changes to come.

Much of the discussion revolved around how complicated the schedule is because it’s growing so quickly. Chair Grace Lee made the comment,

“I can see we’re going to need a bigger refrigerator for all the vaccines.” And Matt Daley observed, we’re “going to run into the situation where we can’t fit the schedule on one page.”

Top takeaways:

  1. The schedules are now for “vaccines and other immunizing agents,” because of the addition of nirsevimab, a monoclonal antibody, aimed at preventing RSV in infants. This is an unwelcome expansion of what can go on the table.
  2. The Mpox vaccine was put on the childhood schedule, even though the vaccine is not licensed for children. It is recommended for use in at-risk adolescents at the age of 18, with acknowledgement that the recommendation could change once data from trials in 12-18-year-olds is available. The committee voted for federal purchases of the Mpox vaccine through the Vaccines for Children (VFC) program. Mpox is the second non-licensed, EUA vaccine added to the schedule. This addition is notable for School-based Health Centers (SBHCs) as well, as the addition to the schedule would trigger the ability for children to be given the drug without parental knowledge or consent.
  3. The Adult Immunization Schedule is expanding in tandem with the childhood schedule, and the drumbeat for a “Vaccines for Adults” financing program to mirror VFC sounded loudly throughout the two days.
  4. The RSV vaccine was added to both the adult and childhood schedules for pregnant mothers, but as of publication, RSV is not covered by the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. People anticipate that it will be, but since RSV vaccines will be new to “vaccine court,” additional regulatory steps must be taken.
  5. Expect meningococcal (“meningitis”) vaccine recommendations to mutate as Pfizer’s new “pentavalent” vaccine was licensed. Though the ACIP wasn’t in lockstep yet about how to recommend three different meningococcal shots (one with five strains, one with four, and one with only one), they did all agree an update was necessary and that Pfizer’s new product should be paid for by taxpayers through VFC.
  6. Immunization manufacturers have a blank check for adding to the schedule on a rolling basis, as a new addendum has been added as a placeholder for anticipated changes or additions to the schedule. (We know the GBS vaccine for pregnant mothers is very close to the end of the pipeline.)
  7. A common talking point through many presentations were the shortcomings of “commercialization” through sales of the drugs directly from manufacturers, rather than a public health program of massive purchases and subsequent distribution. In other words, the government claims they’re better at getting people to take vaccines than the private sector is. Let’s keep an eye on where the rubber meets the road on this: Will we see an acceleration of public-private partnerships? Will the government become more of a market player as stock prices drop from their astronomical COVID heights?
  8. There was considerable discussion about the rush for the ACIP to publish recommendations after the FDA grants a new or expanded license. The 21st Century Cures Act mandates that the ACIP move along quickly, but one of the members also made a telling comment about the role of the ACIP in comparison to the practice of medicine: “No recommendation means people will have to make up what they’re going to do with no guidance.” That mentality reflects the fact that the “practice” of medicine (with the federal government at the helm) has become following directions, rather than individualized and thoughtful care.
  9. Injury claims in the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP) for COVID products are at 12,233; 9,221 of which are from the jab.
  10. Saved the best updates for last: As the number of recommended shots in pregnancy increases, uptake decreases. To address that, multiple presentations cited new propoganda statistics about how safe and effective flu shots during pregnancy are.
  11. The government’s National Immunization Survey showed 7.1% of adults and 2.1% of children self-reported getting the new 2023-2024 COVID shot. These numbers are higher than reality, because the data comes from people who are willing to answer a government survey, giving a very slanted picture.

If you’re feeling gloom and doom, be uplifted by the comment made by David Kimberlin from the American Academy of Pediatrics, who was stuttering in disbelief at the low numbers of people vaccinated with the latest COVID shot and the high number of people who say they don’t plan on it for themselves or their children. 

“Um… Two percent of children have received the current version of the vaccine, and 40% of parents say they’re not going to get their children vaccinated. Seven percent of adults have received the current vaccine; forty percent or so say they’re not going to get vaccinated. Uh, this is…I don’t even really have words for this…I-I-I-I-I appreciate everything that, you know, the AAP is doing, that-that ACIP is doing, CDC and so forth to, to make recommendations, but the recommendations are not being heard.”

Category:

Activism, vaccines, Viruses

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Spike Protein in Heart Cells Within 48 Hours of Injection

https://www.theepochtimes.com/health/mrna-covid-vaccines-form-spike-protein-in-heart-cells-but-cause-different-anomalies-research-article

mRNA COVID Vaccines Form Spike Protein in Heart Cells, but Cause Different Anomalies: Research Article

New research observing rat and human heart cells shows that within 48 hours of vaccination, the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines form spike proteins.
10/22/2023

New research out of Germany observing rat and human heart cells shows that within 48 hours of vaccination, the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines form spike proteins.

Spike proteins, made from the mRNA instructions inside the vaccines, were detected in the heart cells. While both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines caused cell abnormalities, the two induced different anomalies.

The different responses the cells had to the two mRNA vaccines suggest an mRNA toxicity reaction in these cells, according to Dr. Peter McCullough, a leading internist, cardiologist, and epidemiologist who has published over 1,000 research reports and is the lead author of one of the first widely utilized treatment regimens for SARS-CoV-2 patients. He added that 48 hours was a short amount of time to observe this.

“The findings support both the diagnosis and treatment of cardiac events following mRNA-based COVID vaccination,” the authors wrote, adding that the findings may explain persistent cardiac symptoms among long-COVID patients.(See link for article)

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**Comment**

The article has now been updated and includes a video comparing unvaxxed rat heart cells vs vaxxed.  They found:

  • Pfizer-“vaxxed” cells displayed stronger, sustained contractions (1B) due to increased protein kinase A (PKA) activity. PKA levels are linked to heart performance; the higher the PKA level, the stronger the heart contractions.
  • Moderna-“vaxxed” cells developed irregular heart contractions and disrupted calcium regulation. The authors attributed the change in cell activity to disturbances in RyR2 receptors. These receptors play a key role in coordinating heart contractions using calcium. Some of the heart muscles administered Moderna vaccines developed irregular and peristaltic contractions (1C and 1D), whereas others had irregular and arrhythmic contractions (1E and 1F).

The authors also found damage is closer to cardiomyopathy by toxic stress (heart muscles are structurally and functionally abnormal in the absence of other heart diseases) than myocarditis & pericarditis (heart muscles are inflamed and damaged.)

Also, the varying responses indicate the cardiac abnormalities may suggest toxicity in the mRNA itself rather than the spike protein which both injections have.

For more:

How ‘the powers that be’ are covering up the injection damage:

How the injections are causing heart damage:

Category:

Heart Issues, research, vaccines, Viruses

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Finding Happiness Even When You’re Chronically Ill

https://www.lymedisease.org/happiness-when-chronically-ill/

Finding happiness even when you’re chronically ill

By Mark Rego, MD

10/10/23

In my years of psychiatric practice and my following years of illness, one problem has appeared unsolvable. How does someone who is chronically ill (me included) build a happy life?

The usual recipes for happiness simply do not work if your life is marked by continuous illness. The obstacles of disease will sabotage plans taken from normal life.

So, how do you advise someone whose life has been brought to a halt by illness on how to build a new, contented existence? Is there a different recipe for the chronically ill?

Chronic illness: physical and mental dimensions

So, what and who do I mean by chronically ill? What are the limitations of being ill, and how do they thwart the usual formulas for happiness? And, finally, is there a way around these barriers?

The diseases I have in mind are things like rheumatologic disorders (severe arthritis, such as rheumatoid arthritis and Lupus), neurologic disorders (multiple sclerosis, degenerative diseases), severe mental illness (when severe, almost any mental disorder fits here), injuries that leave you impaired and in pain, cancer, and other severe medical conditions, such as organ failure (congestive heart failure, kidney failure, liver insufficiency, significant breathing impairment, etc.). [Editor’s note: and persistent Lyme disease!]

When serious enough, these illnesses have something in common. They leave you greatly diminished. This can be forever or for long stretches that will undo much of your life.

There is less of all of you, not just a bad bone, back, or blood test. You can no longer get up in the morning and go out to live your plans. Work, taking care of yourself, having regular personal interactions, and, lastly, some frequent enjoyment become parts of your past.

Your shrinking world

This is not normal aging or the physical limitations that many people face. It is a fundamental change in all of your life. A change that shrinks your world to a lesser version of everything you knew.

People will compliment your fighting spirit. You are brave and heroic and have amazing coping skills. But it rings hollow. In reality, you tread water very well. Or, perhaps, you are told it’s the journey, not the destination. But the sick already have a journey; what they want is a life.

You work hard to get better, go to doctors, take medicines, and do rehabilitation and psychotherapy. If you’re in this group, you know that this work is never done.

What troubles me most about these situations is wherever I look for advice on building a happy life, these unlucky souls are not included.

Finding happiness in sickness and in health

Such advice is generally based on either finding meaningful activity or having strong connections to others. How does one do these things when isolated and disabled from chronic illness? Trouble walking, shortness of breath, persistent pain, problems with mood and thoughts, or the low energy that is almost universal in this group make even brief tasks quite difficult.

For meaningful activity or connecting to others, you need to be places on certain days, at certain times, and for a certain number of hours. Sickness knows no such schedules. Bad days appear when they will.

If lucky, you have folks who will visit. But these are visits to your life; they are not in your life the way immediate family members, coworkers, and others you may see and talk to regularly are. While such visits are greatly appreciated and enjoyed, they do not constitute the full dimensions of a social life. Being in someone’s life means knowing the ins and outs of their days. The catch-ups that occupy many visits are not needed in these connections.

Another common obstacle to happiness is depression itself. This is very often a part of the sickness process. But if we look at research about impediments to recovery from depression, we find that people who are in pain, chronically ill, disabled, or isolated all have difficulty recovering. The sick are often all of these.

Of course, sometimes things come together, and a different version of life takes shape. People find a place for themselves, maybe some work that is doable and meaningful. I am not sure how often this happens, but such experiences are not the rule.

Step 1: Build back a version of what you had

So, what are some guidelines for happiness for the sick? The first step is to build back a version of what was lost. This entails calls and emails to invite friends for a visit. As stated above, this will not be a full replacement for a social life, but without connections, people wither and become depressed. In addition, activities to pass your time with a modicum of interest or enjoyment must be found. Time passes very slowly without things to do.

The burden of rebuilding falls squarely upon the chronically ill. A life must be built brick by brick. But as discussed above, this is not enough. There is more work to be done.

Step 2: Acceptance as a necessary bridge

The next step is the work of acceptance. It is hard to underestimate how deeply we can reject the reality of our lives. Emotional acceptance of circumstances is not assured by the passage of time. There are, of course, many ways to walk this leg of the journey. Religions have ways to approach this, but many people find their own paths. This work is an ongoing process. Grieving losses such as your own health, work, and social life can be a lifelong process.

Acceptance is a bridge to the next step. This is because the flip side of acceptance is letting go of the burdens of normal life. By accepting your plight, you also allow yourself to participate less in worldly goings on. This frees you to spend time as you like.

Step 3: Building a bigger internal world

This brings us to the final and most important step: building an internal life. Normal life is lived in the world. It gets bigger as we do more, grow our skills and relationships, and expand our horizons. Chronic illness ends this.

As your external life grows smaller, your internal life must now expand. The path is lit by wonder, amazement, curiosity, and interest. Find what amazes you and begin there. This might be revisiting things that were fascinating in school but you could not do more of. Or perhaps you are learning something you have always wondered about. An art, craft, skill, a secret story to follow, or a new one to tell.

In my case, I took up portrait painting (something I never would have imagined) and studied areas of science that I loved in school but did not have any role in my job as a psychiatrist. Each time I begin one of these, I am excited about what I will discover. They are new worlds for me.

Find what amazes you and begin there

How does a chronically ill person find this? The way is to ask what amazes you. What makes a small smile appear on your lips, not because it is funny but because it is beautiful and amazing, incredibly interesting, beyond understanding? Then open a book, a web page, or whatever tools you need. A daily meal of what expands the horizons within your mind becomes the guiding path of your new life. The more something astonishes you, the more space it will open within you.

There is no one you must help here, nothing to build or express. No homework. No reports. No schedule or tasks to do. You do it just because it amazes, excites, piques your curiosity. This is enough and has been the driving energy behind the most incredible lives. This is when you exercise the flip side of acceptance and excuse yourself from needing to achieve something other than to be very interested.

Will this lead to other things? Maybe. But the point is, it does not need to. It will be just you and a happier you with a spacious inner world to explore.

The chronically ill build a happy life by constructing a version of normal life, finding acceptance for a new self, and, most importantly, expanding their inner life. You can reside in a small part of the external world but have endless room to roam in what delights and astounds you.

Mark Rego, MD, is a psychiatrist and a clinical assistant professor at the Yale School of Medicine. He is the author of Frontal Fatigue: The Impact of Modern Life and Technology on Mental Illness. You can learn more about his work at his website.

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Activism, Lyme, Psychological Aspects

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