Lyme and depression/stress

Hello all! This is my first post here. I was wondering if anyone could give me some insight on Lyme and it's effects on ones mental status.

For the short story, my ex got bit by a tick and had the bull's eye rash. He had flu like symptoms and one day found the rash. Went to the doctor and they took the blood test and gave him a month long prescription (can't remember what it was) He has a bad memory already so he took his pills for a couple days, then just forgot and quit taking them. I said he should go back and get a new rx and make sure to take them but he never did. He said he got a letter back from the doctor saying his blood test was negative so he didn't have Lyme and didn't need any medication.

Fast forward about 4 months, and his stress levels are out the roof. He was acting moody, depressed, aloof, irrational, sometimes angry. He did have some body pains at this time and suffered from quite a few headaches but just blew it off as related to work. We end up breaking things off because he thought he would be less stressed.

My question to you all is, first, if you have the bulls eye is that proof positive that you have Lyme? Second, can Lyme affect your mental status in such a way?

Thank you all for the advice!

anxiety was my #1 symptom. When I got my tick bite I did various things but didn't treat it fully. ( I am now in solid treatment for it). And I let it go seven months. In that time I was watching for things I thought were lyme- such as joint pain, swollen lymphs, flu, fever. And I didn't have that. But I had massive anxiety- panic attacks, stress, felt overwhelmed and extremely depressed. It was horrible. Now I am just a couple weeks into treatment and my whole mental state is SO much better. I see now so much that ALL of those feeling were the lyme disease.

My only other symptom is./was ear issues.

Have him get the igenex test- it gives a better picture of it.

I found the igenex test mch more accurate th others tough I don't know what others are. I mean the igenex test told me for sure I had it. I was also told the tests are unreliable so waited 6 months to test- now I see if I had tested earler it would have been better.

Disease causes brain swelling and effects the central nervous system. It can effect vision, memory, cognitive function, moods, depression etc. I would suggest he get evaluated by a llmd as soon as possible. Good luck to you.

Hi Qwert15,

Welcome to the forum!!!

I would strongly suggest that your ex-husband sees a llmd (Lyme literate MD) as soon as possible. He had the tick bite, and was not sufficiently treated (4 weeks of Doxy that weren't finished, or even hardly started).

If you want us to help you find a llmd, you can start a new thread 'Looking for LLMD in______'. You will have to enable your email address though (My Profile, Edit Profile, show my Emailaddress), cause we are not allowed to put dr's names on the forum.

Depression and mental unstability are definitely symptoms of Lyme Disease (and also Bartonella, a so-called LD coinfection).

You can have a look at this article:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3474947/

Insomnia is a very irritating symptom we deal with, I was forced to go on Klonazepam to get about 7 hrs of sleep a night, without it, I get 2 hours. Some nights it doesn't even help, I often need to add antihistamine to get my heartrate down.

about the tendonitis: please tell his mother that steroids are very very bad for him: steroids suppress the immune system, and since we already have a compromised immune system, it can make things much much worse!!

I don't know if you have been going through the top thread on the Lyme page 'New to Lyme?.... Start here!'? It is packed with useful information that will certainly answer some of your questions: symptom lists of LD and coinfections, different treatment options, detoxing methods, usefull links, etc.

Don't hesitate to post if you have any more questions!

MarieLS