I’m a 17 year old senior in high school with lyme. I was diagnosed around a year ago but the docs think I’ve been sick since i was about 12 years old. Lately, I’ve been especially struggling with fatigue and flu-like symptoms. I’ve had to miss so much school and all of this combined has made my depression an extra special pain in the ass. I’ve gone through this entire lyme journey alone and I’m really tired of being so isolated.
Feeling depressed is debilitating
Let you also have chronic Lyme disease. Antidepressants help by taking the edge off. I am curious about your treatment. My husband has chronic Lyme disease and I extremely depressed. We have been married 40 years. We have been going through this for 4 years. We have been to so many specialists with out any results. We are now going to a Lyme disease dr. There has not been any improvements in 3 months. We are on a medicine break. He just got sicker. I wish you all the best.
Hi AnaM,
I’m glad you have reached out to us, you are definitely not alone here. Do you have anyone you can talk to about your depression?
Meli
I am so sorry to hear about your husband. Lyme disease doesn’t just affect the sick person, but everyone around them. One “treatment” that I would stay away from is antibiotics. They absolutely destroy your system, making it impossible to heal. Chinese medicine has been the biggest help so far, especially acupuncture and herbal remedies. On a day to day basis, I eat a gluten and dairy free diet and I avoid sugar (sometimes I just can’t help myself when there’s chocolate in the house) and I also drink water constantly. I notice that dehydration makes me feel so, so sick. My doctor recommended 2 liters per day. That’s a lot of water so I don’t always end up drinking that much but I carry a water bottle everywhere I go. Also I put lemon juice in my water because that really helps to detox the Lymphatic system. All the best of luck!
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Hi AnaM.
It’s obvious that you’ve worked hard at finding ways to manage your Lyme disease, I guess that’s half the battle. Echoing Meli’s question, have you been able to find any kind of support to help with the depression? I’m wondering whether your school has been able to offer anything in terms of support or catering for your current needs.
I realise that treatment decisions are ultimately up to you, but your statement that antibiotics destroy the system and should be avoided is unlikely to be one that many doctors would agree with. It is really helpful if members make it clear that their views of a particular treatment are indeed just that - their own opinion - rather than a reflection of medical practice.
All the best to you,
Christina from Mod Support
hello Anna, I was suck for over ten years, left a job with a great pension because I couldn’t ifigre out why I wasnt happy anymore. Have been being treated for just over three years now, and THANK GOD, my doc tells me i am way way over the worst of it probably for rest of my life. YOU WILL GET TO THAT POINT! Can you define why you are so alone? I can really relate to that, my now ex-wife deserted me later to divorce me the same week i was diagnosed, which was also the same week of my birthday and anniversary. Oh yes I also started a state job that same week I had to leave a few weeks later because one the treatments started I like you could not even remotely function, at 48 years old with 4 college degrees i had to move back in with my parents in Virginia for almost a year six hundred miles from any friends and my home-I GET IT to be alone and osolated, my own family although letting me stay there truely did not understand the disease and the evil stress of a divorce, the when I came home, i was still alone but just y own home
what saved my life was an injection treatment called LDI, it is very big in europe for immune illmess like Lyme, most docs here have no clue and just throw you on antibiotics which do not truly work. If you would like to learn about Lyme, try out a web site called envits treatment centers, they have great videos on the disease and what treatments really work along with real patients with lyme. YOU ARE NOT ALONE!! WE ARE ALL HERE- beam folks like me anytime, jeep your faith, prayer will see you through.
Ana, you are not alone. i know this feeling. people don’t understand what a life robbing disease this is. i have chronic lymes, vascular damage from rocky mountain spotted fever, and have had ehrlichiosis, hell most of the tick borne diseases. my luck right? i still can’t believe it after 20 years, but that’s what hunting and paintball got me i guess. here’s my advice, which i give to anyone with sustained lymes infection: support your intestinal health, choose a nutritional plan for your symptoms, and bolster your mental and emotional well being. the doctors will only be able to help so much. they can’t cure me, many many have tried, but i truly hope that isn’t the case for you. if not, you cannot afford to lose time to depression and memory failure. use paper and pen! support your life with notation, to supplement your foggy head and lackluster thinking. it’s going to happen, you will lose some of your mental ability, short and long term. it will come and go, or maybe not, but this is the best thing i have ever done to support my career. i am a chef, and when i’m not in the midst of a flare up i am one of the best in my area. do you know how hard this is to have done with fricken lymes? i’ve lost jobs at times of emotional imbalance, but i’ve always managed to come back and score a sweet job on the rebound. learn to persist, put your money where it will truly help, and if you can’t get rid of this damned disease, stop trying and circumvent its evil symptoms with sideways thinking, rather than direct. i wish you happiness, and if not, i truly wish for you strength to endure. best Ana.
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