posted
anyone have experience, can the psychiatric and cognitive problems go away cured and your brain returns to normal? how long does it take? or are there scars and the brain may be weakened...
i used to have the healthiest brain, not a touch of problems with things like stress, depression, anxiety, etc.
i used to be a genius, now i have cognitive problems...
now i've seen terrible anxiety/agitation, depression, psychosis, my family doctor thought i was having a schizophrenic break, but now he doesn't think so...
i'm thinking ahead, and i just need to get through now...
Posts: 98 | From San Francisco | Registered: Oct 2006
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david1097
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 3662
posted
Not so simple answer. It depends on many factors, however if it is lyme that is the problem, with effective treatment things will improve. The big question is how much permanent damage has been done.
That being said, it take MANY MONTHS to recover to the maximum possible. Some people, the luck ones get away with only a few weeks of treatment and then start to fully recover. This effect is what keeps driving the ego's of the infectious disease Dr's. However for reasons not fully understood, others need many months of treatment in order to stop the disease progression or activity. It is hard to figure out who will see what effect.
Note that all the Dr's agree that if you are co-infected with something plus lyme, treatment is much more difficult and recovery will take longer.
To summarize, If you are just starting treatmentthen things will get worse for a while and then better but it takes a long time (several months) to reach the best that you will be.
Good luck
Posts: 1184 | From north america | Registered: Feb 2003
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Cobweb
Unregistered
posted
I was told by LLMD that cognitive function would improve- I now know which way to turn the pages in a book! But I have only been in treatment for 7 months. Psyche problems like depression seem to be pretty well entrenched, intense mood swings, etc.
Sometimes I don't have a migraine-but it still feels like my brain hurts-like it's bruised.
Vermont_Lymie
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9780
posted
Some questions first: When did you start treatment? Are you on antibiotics?
Were you diagnosed with lyme disease, and have you seen a llmd?
My lyme symptoms included alot of anxiety, and fortunately, that major symptom started to fade away after only four weeks of antibiotics.
The memory and cognitive symptoms have taken a bit longer to improve. Now I have been on antibiotics for almost 5 months. While I had alot of improvement in these areas, it has been a bumpy road and I have had some truly bad days during treatment where the old symptoms return. Those days are rough because it is hard to figure out whether the abx are failing, or if it is a herx, or a lyme flare-up.
I don't have an llmd willing to discuss these issues, and that is where the information and feedback from folks on lymennet has been hugely helpful. You should spend as much time as possible reading about lyme disease and the lymenet discussions posted here on nutrition, treatment, etc.
I was impatient at first, but now I figure that it is going to take at least one year or more for my brain to really heal. But it is well on its way and overall, I have had vast improvement in anxiety and cognitive symptoms during the last five months. And yes, my depressive feelings have almost completely lifted from these last five months of abx!
Also doing probiotics, vitamins, herbal and mineral supplements and saunas whenever possible. Something is working, and I attribute it to a combination of abx treatment, supplements, and the support and information available from the lymenet community.
Posts: 2557 | From home | Registered: Aug 2006
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savebabe
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9847
posted
My psych symptoms really started to lift when I recieved the IV. I also took paxil for a while to get me through the tough times.
Posts: 1603 | From ny | Registered: Aug 2006
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posted
I had terrible psychiatric symptoms about 10 years ago, and they did pass with antidepressants and therapy -- now, I know they were lyme related, but at the time, I had no idea why I was in such bad shape.
I go through bouts of cognitive and mood stuff when I'm herxing, though...
-------------------- "Looks like freedom but it feels like death.. It's something in between, I guess"
Leonard Cohen, from the song "Closing Time" Posts: 822 | From California | Registered: Jan 2006
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Andie333
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 7370
posted
I was undiagnosed for 9 years prior to treatment.
When I first started taking antibiotics, I was in the car one day trying to sing along to a song. I absolutely could NOT remember the lyrics (I used to sing semi-professionally years ago).
I was also really anxious and unbelievably depressed.
My anxiety was the first to go. The depression started to lift about 6 or 7 months into treatment.
It took my memory much longer to improve. After 16 months of antibiotics, I can think pretty clearly. But I do get overwhelmed if too much is going on at once...
My memory's better, too. I can remember song lyrics, but when it comes to short-term, day-to-day stuff, I'm toast.
Andie
Posts: 2549 | From never never land | Registered: May 2005
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well, the "diagnosis" is that my family (with 2 docs) diagnosed me based on my recount of a rash and what must have been a tick on my leg, and was bold enough to give me 6 weeks of ceftriaxone pretty much right away. my mom had tried to ask my new PCP if it could be lyme disease, but his response was it was really rare. we're still working on him, since he's doubtful since the blood tests have been negative.
finally also started seeing the lyme specialist in sf, and have been on doxycycline for a month. there was about a 2 week break between my ceftriaxone and starting the oral doxycycline. i'm still mostly incapacitated, some things are better, some things are worse.
a dermatologist i saw actually said he thought it was lyme disease... the only doctor outside of my family and lyme specialists!
Posts: 98 | From San Francisco | Registered: Oct 2006
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posted
minimonkey, wow have you been on antibiotic treatment for 10 years? how long before you were diagnosed?
hm... do you think therapy helps with lyme-related depression and anxiety, etc.? i was under the impression that something caused by a physiological root basis rather than psychological basis would be tougher to treat with therapy. if you know what i mean...
Posts: 98 | From San Francisco | Registered: Oct 2006
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posted
haha, thanks. i was wonder how people would react to my unmodest statement about being a genius. thanks for the support.
Posts: 98 | From San Francisco | Registered: Oct 2006
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thanks for the support.
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