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Does anyone have any tips on dealing with really bad anxiety?
I am absolutely terrified by sudden noises and my whole body reacts with jumpiness, sometimes with a little scream. It is embarrassing in public.
I was standing outside a hotel in DC and someone beeped their horn and my reaction got me some strange looks.
My anxiety is so bad that the OCD (counting things in my head, repeating words and phrases in my head, spelling things in my head, rhythms in my head, flexing leg muscles in rhythm) is in overdrive.
I have neuropsychiatric lyme that is no longer active in the blood, so I am on biweekly bicillin shots for maintenance. I just had the first one on Monday, so perhaps I am herxing?
As for psych meds, I am on 15mg Lexapro, 25mg nortriptyline, 5mg Abilify (low doses of this antipsychotic are effective for extreme anxiety).
I have been told by a prominent thought LLMD thought leader that the stress my brain went through with the lyme has exacerbated underlying conditions of anxiety and OCD (I did have both, mildly, before lyme) and now I need psych meds to restore balance.
The problem is, nothing seems to be working.
Another tidbit is that my previous LLMD, who I no longer see, gave me Welchol (very similar to cholestyramine) and it gave me a huge lyme rage herx. I was feeling like myself before that and since that happened in late May, I just haven't recovered.
I read in "Desperation Medicine" that cholestyramine creates a storm of tissue necrosis factor, which causes the symptom increase. When given cholestyramine, lyme patients should be given diabetes drugs, which are tissue necrosis factor blockers. I was never given this.
So, should I now go see someone who actually knows how to do this protocol and get myself detoxed from the tissue necrosis factor?
Any ideas/thoughts/similar experiences would be most welcome. Thank you for your help!
[ 09. October 2006, 07:35 AM: Message edited by: NoVAChick ]
Posts: 48 | From USA | Registered: Aug 2006
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I don't really have any advice for you but wanted to offer some encouragement!
I know that the anxiety issues I had in the past have come back while I was sick. In the past I needed medications to get past the anxiety. This time I found that meditation ( not medication) and prayer was more than enough to calm my irrational (and rational) fears.
It sounds like you need a little of both! Hopefully someone else will be able to offer more information for you.
Karen
Posts: 154 | From Medford, NJ | Registered: Jun 2006
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No, I haven't been treated for Bart. I have never tested positive for it or for any other co-infections. Doesn't Bart make the bottoms of your feet hurt? I have that on occasion, but not consistently.
Posts: 48 | From USA | Registered: Aug 2006
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It does sound like it could be a herx. I agree that treatment for bart may make a big difference. Many tests do not show positive, when you actually have it. {sound familiar?}
As with any of these TBD's, just because you don't have one of the symptoms doesn't mean you don't have it.
I never had Bells Palsy nor a rash, but I do have lyme!
Hope you can get some help!
PS... I don't know that much about the tumor necrosis factor and CSM. I do know that I was unable to tolerate the Actos, so I only took one pill and had no trouble with the CSM until it killed my stomach.
-------------------- --Lymetutu-- Opinions, not medical advice! Posts: 96239 | From Texas | Registered: Feb 2001
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Hubby never had OCD type symptoms, but very bad sound sensitivity and impulsive irritability and major problems with negativity. The things I think helped his brain the most supplement wise were CoQ10 at 400mg minimum, Resveratrol (Japanese knotweed source is best) and 5HTP to help replenish serotonin levels -- very important to take Resveratrol with 5HTP. 5HTP by itself may actually make things worse.
SAMe at 600mg has also been helpful to improve moods and detox. L-theanine is also helpful and can be taken during the day -- won't make you sleepy.
The tumor necrosis factor is just one of the inflammatory responses that can be activated by Lyme. Antioxidants such as CoQ10 can help block inflammation in the brain and elsewhere.
I have not read this book, but the reviews seem pretty good. It is about a Lyme patient who has OCD and treated with nutritional supplements.
"Too Good to Be True? Nutrients Quiet the Unquiet Brain"
In my opinion supplements can help greatly and may be even more effective than psychotropic drugs. The docs who usually know the most about nutrition and amino acids and neurotransmitters usually are members of ACAM (American College for Advancement in Medicine).
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Two Cases Of Lyme Disease-Associated Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Lyme Disease Foundation's XV International Conference on Lyme disease and other Tick-borne Disorders
Farmington CT April 6-7, 2002
TWO CASES OF LYME DISEASE-ASSOCIATED OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE DISORDER (OCD) ARE DESCRIBED. OBSESSIONS MAY BE TERMINATED SUDDENLY AND PERMANENTLY BY THE FIRST INJECTION OF IM PENICILLIN
Abstract by Virginia T. Sherr, M.D.
Known, but more often unsuspected, streptococcal infections have been revealed to be capable of creating obsessive compulsive symptoms that are in perfect agreement with the criteria of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, Edition IV--American Psychiatric Association.
(1) In addition, these symptoms have cleared up following aggressive treatment by appropriate antibiotics.
In relationship to another infection, chronic neuroborreliosis (chronic neuro-Lyme disease), the author finds there is much evidence that the spirochetal microbe, Borrelia burgdorferi, the cause of Lyme disease (LD), may likewise negatively affect parts of the brain that control OCD.
In the case of the streptococcal and now spirochetal infections, it has been shown that antibiotics can be effective treatments of the psychiatric disorder. The disorder itself is one of the few wherein treatment improvements can be monitored and actually visualized by PET and more recently devised scans following therapy. Disordered dopamine and serotonin chemistry at the neuron level may create a kind of circular effect of thoughts or behavioral rituals. Some areas of the brain that are affected are the orbital frontal cortex, the caudate nuclei and the anterior cingulate regions.
The following cases represent 2 patients who experienced the onset of severe obsessive and/or compulsive symptoms with onset of LD and how their treatment with antibiotics led to the defeat or the amelioration of those symptoms.
Patient 1--Obsessions. A circumspect 50 y-o woman developed constant, intrusive, sexual fantasies about a man whom she actively disliked. She felt helpless in the face of this unwanted, total preoccupation and was contemplating suicide when her LD was diagnosed and treated.
Obsessions continued to torture her despite use of a variety of antibiotics and psychotropics until she received IM Bicillin 2.4 million units. Within 24 hours of the first dose her mind was cleared of the ideation. She was grateful that this burden had been lifted from her.
The obsessions have not returned in the past 5 months. Now it takes great mental effort for her to think of the man at all.
Patient 2--Compulsive hand washing. A medical student had such a severe hand-washing ritual that he confined himself to his own room. He feared vague but horrific contaminations that might, through him, somehow harm his family.
He described himself as having "magical thinking" that led to washing his hands raw. Debilitated, he thought that he was doomed. "When diagnosed and treated with antibiotics for LD, I felt much better and lost the magical thinking but the hand-washing continued."
Luvox was added to his medications. This controlled the ritual washing enough to allow him to enroll in a different graduate program, living independently.
In similar cases, usual OCD treatments such as high dose SSRI medications do not work well until treatment with antibiotics is undertaken.
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