posted
I saw at least three and they were all crazy and none of them diagnosed me for Lyme disease.
Since when is out of control anxiety "Just normal depression like 20% of society".
They all need to go back to med school but one died recently of natural causes (I had no hand in it) and another had a brain aneurism after he retired and the third just plain has a giant ego.
I don't know if they will ever get that there is a disease on the planet called Lyme disease not to mention Bartonella.
They forgot to read the Brochure What Your Psychiatrist Needs to Know About Lyme Disease.
northstar
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 7911
posted
I just read an interesting study based on population in Florida.....80% of people committed to mental institution actually had physical (not mental) problems. this did not list the physical problem, i.e. lyme or whatever.
(not sure which counties were involved).
The bipolar, if behaviorally true (severe swings) is only a symptom of the infection. The infection is the root cause. But the medical community looks at a mental condition as a dead end dx, rather than a temporary symptom. There are some bipolars who may not have lyme, but there may be other infections causing the imbalance, or something disturbing the neurochemistry.
Northstar
Posts: 1331 | From hither and yonder | Registered: Sep 2005
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posted
It's my psychiatrist who helped me - all docs & specialists were stymied - all diagnostic tests negative - I was getting sicker and sicker, but apparently there was nothing at all wrong with me!
PCP sent me to the psych. I actually went just because I was having an incredibly hard time dealing with the whole situation (DUH!). SHE is the one who said - you are not crazy, you are sick! She had been an internist for a number of years & even though all dx tests (the usual ten million, including many Elisa) were negative, she encouraged me to keep searching for the answer and helped me with doc recs, etc.
So, along with the friend who gave me the name of an LLMD, PLUS the encouragement of this psych, I got my answer and I am getting treated & getting better all of the time.
But, interestingly enough, while this investigative process was going on, the psych prescribed some very heavy duty drugs to me to help the mental situation. I find it SO VERY INTERESTING that they would prescribe such drugs so much more easily than the simple abx that could have saved me about 1 1/2 years of agony and terror.
They are complete victims of fads and trends, the 'hot' thing in medicine & the 'drug du jour' - and THEY are the ones who accuse Lyme patients of getting dx'd with the 'DISEASE du jour'. Give me a break. If they aren't smart enough to find the answer, well, YOU must be crazy!!!!!!!
Sorry. Venting.
Now, looking back, I DO have to sort of agree that I WAS depressed at that time.
For crying out loud, WHO WOULDN'T BE????
Uh Oh. Still venting.
Best to you -
otm
Posts: 314 | From east coast | Registered: Oct 2007
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wow that was great to read...i was prescribed drugs and diagnosed as bipolar in three hours ...
pretty funny as there is no test but it took me 2 years to get diagnosed with Lyme which i told everyone....unreal...
the bipolar drugs do help the agitation but there are too many side effects to stay on them.
of all my symptoms i wish would clear up its the agitation....then i can tell the shrink to go ...
see i'm venting now.
Dave
-------------------- On my journey to wellness - One day at a time. Posts: 989 | From NJ | Registered: Sep 2008
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sparkle7
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 10397
posted
My doctors didn't tell me to see a psychiatrist.
I did go to see a psycho therapist just to make sure I wasn't having some kind of psychosomatic illness.
It was actually really helpful with other areas of my life but I came to the conclusion after 6 months that I wasn't creating my illness.
My therapist was very good & it was helpful to go.
It did take me about 9 years to find out I really had Lyme. All the doctors told me I had Fibromyalgia.
I can't see how they didn't check for Lyme in all of those years. I live in an area that is highly endemic...
Lyme can cause pretty sever cognitive & other brain related issues that are not necessarily mental illness.
It can be mis-interpreted by stupid doctors.
Posts: 7772 | From Northeast, again... | Registered: Oct 2006
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Ocean
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 3496
posted
Angelica, You are too funny, loved your post. Very true though.
My mom had me go to counseling when I was very depressed. I saw a woman who was supposed to tell me who the best person for me to see was and she seemed very strange. I never went back.
However, if you look at the symptoms for anxiety and depression, they DO have a lot of similarities for Lyme. Tight neck, panic attacks, fatigue, crying, ect.
I had a few years of being almost normal, then in 2003 was feeling horrible again and went up into 2007 believing I just had Anxiety disorder.
lymie tony z
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 5130
posted
OK DaveNJ,
Hyperventilation occurs whenever a patient begins to have a panic attack. It's usually NEVER not there when going into a panic attack.
I got this after the ducks increased my dose of Prozak...
I was on my way to meet another lymie buddy in Cleveland(actually North Olmsted) at a Bob Evans restaurant to discuss a "SUPPOSEDLY GOOD PSYCHYATRIST AND LYME LITTERATE". However, I got up to the dead end of a main street(columbia road to lorain road) and had to make a left to get to Bob Evans to meet up with this guy. I began to start gulping for air...and I could'nt seem to get enough whenever I would breath in!
So I tried just that much harder and the breaths became shorter and less oxygen filled and faster and faster!
This Dave is Hyperventilating. One should always keep a paper bag handy if they are susceptable to panic attacks because hyperventilation is usually the begining of the episode. this is an ANXIETY ATTACK!....
OK... SEE the only thing about lyme or the co-infections is that they don't give us one or the other usually....they'll give us one and then the other almost back to back....
Soooo
If some duck or psychobabbler has got you pegged as some sort of guy suffering from the oedipus complex( suppressed, envy of your father, because he can make love to your mother, but you can't)then he may prescribe you anti-depressants which is probably what Hamlet needed!
However, just like Hamlet...in Shakespers play he(was probably infected with lyme) also needed an anti anxiety medication because he was abviously Bi-Polar....if not schitzo-phrenic...because he was having delusions and visions as well as hearing voices....
like I was...and There are a whole bunch of us out there that are misdiagnosed as being mentally disturbed prior to being diagnosed with an infection of the brain. Why?
Because the easiest courses to get thru and get a psychiatry degree is "BEHAVIORAL PSHYC"!
The innate and environment have made us crazy....Well...at least they are correct, in the most minute way, (one that the psychiatrist would never, ever come to a conclusion or diagnosis) these bugs can make us nuts...
However no amount of psychotropic masking drugs will ever mask our symptoms for long. Because the root cause(and infection of the brain) is never diagnosed and therefore, we never would get any kind of antibiotic to deal with the infection... from a psychyatrist or councelor or even a neurologist....
Yep....they see us one day...and we're manifesting as anxious or manic....then the next office visit about a month or two later and we're depressed so either they take us off the anti-anxiety and put us on an anti-depressant.
Some even get it a LITTLE! Diagnose us as bipolar and give us a seretonin re-uptake medication to deal with the "mania and the depression"...But OH OH!
Then we become "ENRAGED"!.....Well Crap...what do I do now with this patient....
That's when they decide they don't want us for a patient any longer and declare we are hypochondriacle or some kind of really good actor to be able to malinger so well to immitate all these disease manifestations to get out of work or out of something we did that was against society.....
OH I DON'T KNOW LIKE....Starting a war as a pre-emptive strike cuz they have (imaginary WMD)!
OR
Bailing out the "SUPER BANKS" to save the economy because a whole big $600.00 did'nt kickstart the economy....now we have to help the banks get out of debt....
INSTEAD OF....paying off all the mortgages of everyone who got a loan in the last five or six years....so they have a whole lot of money left over after they get their paychecks to go out and SPEND SPEND SPEND....which would enhance and give the economy worldwide a big shot in the arm!
Sorry I got off track!
zman
-------------------- I am not a doctor...opinions expressed are from personal experiences only and should never be viewed as coming from a healthcare provider. zman Posts: 2527 | From safety harbor florida(origin Cleve., Ohio | Registered: Jan 2004
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adamm
Unregistered
posted
Almost all Lyme patients. There are certain interests out there who
posted
My husband kept telling me to go even though I didn't have anxiety or depression. I just knew something was wrong and wanted to get a diagnosis(which took 6 months.I kept telling him "no, there's something physically wrong with me!" Now he's got lyme too! Karen
Posts: 82 | From east hampton ny | Registered: Jun 2006
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posted
I saw one mental health/family therapist... no help...I taught him about different anti-anxiety techniques. I saw two physchiatrists.. the first one didnt know how to help me, so she sent me to the 2nd one. The 2nd one said it was all just anxiety and I should learn to accept it and move on with my life...that there was nothing wrong with me. My neuro thought I should see another one since she thought it was all anxiety...
Then lo and behold... a positive lyme test...and Im onto treatment.
The bottom line, go if you think they will help you. Continue to see them if they are helping you... Drop them if its doing nothing and ticking you off..
Posts: 514 | From . | Registered: Apr 2008
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