People with Lyme disease experience many psychological symptoms, as a direct manifestation of the physical presence of the disease in the body and brain.
One of the very worst things you can do is to assume that your depression, anxiety, OCD behavior, or other issues, are a result of external circumstances. In most cases, these symptoms are a result of infections, not life circumstances.
This realization can lead to a very important and needed change in how you spend your time, energy, and money. Instead of looking around your life to fix your circumstances, you will likely benefit much more by looking around your herbs shelf for the right treatment to treat whatever infection you are dealing with.
Why are so many people averse to looking at the infections? Why do so many people tend to believe outside circumstances are the problem? Here’s an excerpt from my newest book, which explains this phenomenon:
Principle #18: Convincing yourself that it is time to rotate therapies or get more aggressive with your treatment may be difficult. Human beings are incredibly adaptable. After having a chronic illness for any length of time, you may quickly adapt to a state of illness. A very well-known and well-respected Lyme doctor has made the observation that one of the symptoms of Lyme disease and co-infections is the inability to perceive, or have insight into, the extent of your own disability or illness. In other words, you’re no longer able to actually determine how sick you really are. You don’t feel the urgency which you should feel. Another very well-known Lyme doctor has said that “Lyme disease patients will never self-navigate out of their own disease.” This is one of the reasons why people only begin to really understand their disability after they’ve made significant enough healing progress to allow their brains to function well enough to conduct an accurate and valid self-analysis. Sometimes, after a person has taken a significant leap forward in their healing progress, they can feel even more desperate and depressed, because, at their worst, they were not able to completely comprehend how sick they were. Typically, when they finally do get aggressive treatment, they have psychological breakthroughs in which they are often shocked—and even traumatized—by the realization that they have been so sick for so long. One of the results of this lack of insight is that very sick people sometimes do not have the wherewithal to commit themselves to an aggressive anti-Lyme protocol, or, if they do, they do not have the awareness necessary to determine if/when the protocol is no longer working. When you recognize this limitation, you will be able to more easily take an objective look at your situation and make appropriate decisions. Also, a good Lyme doctor is essential, because they can help nudge you along the correct path. Remember, the sickest people are sometimes the least able to make the kinds of aggressive and logical treatment decisions necessary to heal.
The first step to winning this battle is realizing that there is a battle there in the first place. After that, you can force yourself to reconcile the infections in your body, what they are doing to you, and seek aggressive treatment.
Of course, my normal disclaimer: Please consult a physician or psychiatrist regarding psychological manifestations of Lyme disease. I am a researcher, not a doctor.
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