Psychiatric symptoms are a very real part of this disease for many patients.
Posted by kday (Member # 22234) on :
No ****. (excuse me, I am not directing this at you)
Neuropsych symptoms were/are the worst for me. Those (along with heart) are the symptoms that always landed me in the hospital/ER.
The ER docs with egos always tried to tell me it was just a psychological problem while they drugged me to death with tranquilizers. They would send over evaluators, and it didn't take them long before they realized that I had atypical anxiety and neuropsychiatric problems. The term for my anxiety was called organic anxiety.
The few evaluators that evaluated me through this journey were thorough and good people. However, doctor's with their egos were blinded. Not all ER docs are bad, but in my experience, most are.
I feel especially horrible when I get a virus. This flares all my neuro and neuropsychiatric problems and causes head pain. Right now I am fighting some sort of cold or flu. Colds and flus are probably feel 10x worse than they did in my previous life. I just have to live one second at a time until this passes. It doesn't feel like it will, but it always does.
Posted by hurtingramma (Member # 7770) on :
My grandson was treated for congenital lyme for a year when he was 5. He is now 9 and is having major behavioral issues. He is being evaluated by a psychiatrist next week, and they will also do some "medical" tests. I told my daughter to INSIST that they re-test him for Lyme. They live in MD, and it could be a relapse, or a new bite.
He gets excellent grades in school, but has problems getting along with other kids. His teachers say he is "socially immature".
We shall see, I guess. I worry about him every day.
My daughter is also under treatment - again. She was symptom free for 2 years, and is now back on IV meds.
Posted by Keebler (Member # 12673) on :
- Adding to paulieinct link and other good comments: ----------
Regarding psychological and psychiatric matters caused by neurotoxic infections:
When to Suspect Lyme - by John D. Bleiweiss, M.D. -
Posted by sutherngrl (Member # 16270) on :
I developed a mood disorder due to lyme disease. I now have to take xanax and an anti-psychotic medication just to half way function. Still treating lyme also. I worry that the damage to the brain is permanent.
My doc says that 80% of ppl will get better with psych medication and be able to go off of it. 20% will need psych meds for the rest of their life.
Posted by seekhelp (Member # 15067) on :
SG, what can you do now with your meds that couldn't before?
Posted by sutherngrl (Member # 16270) on :
Seek, what do you mean exactly?
Posted by paulieinct (Member # 17514) on :
Sutherngrl: I can relate bigtime. I have just come to the stunning realization that my mom, who suffered serious psych issues and seizures her whole adult life, had Lyme and that all of us kids got it congenitally. She was hospitalized for years, had shock treatments, lots of meds. Nothing worked until she was put on Paxil the last three years of her life when she was already in a nursing home suffering from Parkinson's, dementia, and epilepsy. Near the end, docs told me an MRI showed a mass in her brain. By then it was too late to do anything.
Paxil was my miracle drug too. It was like turning on a switch to NORMAL for the first time in my life. And then 2 1/2 years ago I found out that all my psych issues were due to lifelong infection with TBD.
I have always assumed that Paxil would be a lifetime drug for me. Now that I am killing spirochetes en masse, who knows?
Because there is still such a stigma to mental illness, there is a reluctance, sometimes even on this board, to fully discuss these issues - especially when the Lyme denialists use psych issues to dismiss us.
Posted by sutherngrl (Member # 16270) on :
Paulieinct, it is a shame that the stigma to mental illness is still so prominent. Before LD, I probably was guilty of stigmatizing it myself; but now that I realize what lyme disease is capable of doing to your brain, I think it is important to discuss it.
Many ppl refuse to treat the psych issues; I was guilty of that myself for a time. I kept thinking that once the lyme was gone the psych issues would be too. Then my LLMD convinced me that you need to treat both the lyme and the psych issues. Now I see why that is important. I feel so much better since I started treating the psych issues too.
The major fatigue that I blamed soley on LD, was partially being caused by the psych stuff. Once I started an anti-psychotic medication, the fatigue greatly improved. It has helped me come closer to a more normal life style. What some ppl don't realize is that psych issues can be very exhausting. You add that to the fatigue from LD and you have a very horrible combination.