Is it all in my head?

(Skip to the last section if you don't to read about my situation)

Since the beginning of 2017 I heard from a family I lived with in Maine (I'm an exchange student from Denmark) I have heard about Lyme. What a terrible disease it is, how very few symptoms can occur and still be so dangerous with co-infections and how the misdiagnosis rate is etc.

I was in the forest in April once, I did live right next to a forest. But I never seen the ticks and received the EM-rash(I know about the chances you have of finding it on yourself and getting the rash)

I am starting to feel that it is all in my head now. The grandma who came over a couple of times a week told horror stories and many true stories about Lyme Disease. And the more stories she told, the more scared I became.

How it can hide in your tissues, that the bacteria is clever enough to hide from your immun system. (You guys know all about that.)

I think I might have made myself sick mentally by thinking about it all the time. I developed symptoms flu-like in the beginning(which could occur since I just got to another country with different environment), rashes(which could be from a brown tail moth), my left eyelid started to twitch and I got a tingling feeling in my left arm a couple of times. Immediately I thought that I was bit after the flu. And ever since symptoms has occurred, so I went to a doctor, who gave me the two-tired test. It came back negative, and this was 2-3 months after I believed I got bit.

I received doxycycline(200 mg/day) for a month at the same day as I received the test. Back then I didn't know about how it could hide in your tissues and therefore I was so happy because I thought, no matter what, I'm getting healed now.

However the grandma explained how it can hide(you know all about it), and I immediately got the same negative thoughts that there's a chance that it might not go away.

In my third week of the doxycycline, joint pain started emerging. That was my first symptom since I started taking antibiotics and one week after hearing from that it could hide in the tissues by the grandma

Ever since I have started on Buhner's protocol and I'm starting to feel better. But that might be mentally as well. I talked to a friend today and when I showed him the books he asked me(Are you even sure you have it? Not saying I don't believe you, but it could be the placebo effect, thinking about the symptoms and the disease all the time could make me sick mentally and give me all the symptoms)

I have taken the two-tier test twice. Once during 2-3. month and second at 4-5 month.
Both came back negative.(I know the test is only 30% accurate, but still those months would deliver a more accurate result)

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Which brings me to my question!

Can the placebo effect cause joint pain, brain fog, rash, eye-twitching and tremors?

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Remember I knew all about symptoms and I'm thinking about Borrelia, Babesia, Bartonella, Anaplasma, Mycoplasma and Ehrlichia ALL THE TIME!

I got bit by a tick in Denmark 2 years ago(discovered it after 2 hours of being attached on me) and called the doc. She told me to call her again if I received the EM-rash. I trusted her, didn't look up Lyme disease and nothing occurred. Fortunately I didn't receive the disease but I didn't worry about it either.(And I know that you can still get the disease without EM-rash.)

My plan is to hopefully get some of your opinions, because you are all so knowledge and have helped me out so much.

And to keep going on the protocol and take IGeneX test for Lyme.

If it comes back positive, I know that I haven't gotten mental.
If it comes back negative I will stop thinking about it and stop taking the protocol and live my life again.

Thank you PeteZa I will look for that one.



And to look at it statistically:

I know that Maine is the most popular place to get a tick-bite that is carrying the disease. But the month of April I have heard that the nymph or larvae aren't active, it is only the adult.

"In Maine, there were 87.9 confirmed cases of Lyme disease for every 100,000 state residents"

Source: http://247wallst.com/special-report/2016/07/02/the-states-with-the-most-lyme-disease/

The article stated that 300.000 people were bit every year which seems reliable, due to the harvard study.

Statistically there is a VERY low chance.

Chris12321:

I read all of your post and I don't think you are crazy.

I understand about reading things and then getting them because you've been thinking about them.

When I was a very small child, just learning to read, I read everything I could get my hands on and this included all the medical articles in reader's digest. Sometimes I would think I had a very bad headache when I was little and my mother would look at what I had been reading and it would include information about headaches.

However, my chronic lyme symptoms, and I got every symptom you can find to list, began when I was fresh outta high school, and I had NEVER heard of Lyme disease and had quite outgrown my "hypochondria" of reading things and thinking I felt them.

I was happily living my very active life of horse competitions, running, and playing advanced piano. I went to college to be a habilitative supports therapist for autistic children. I loved being up late and eating sweets.

Lyme took all those things away from me, except I still work when I feel good, because I can sit at my job. I was one sick little lady. I got down to 88 lbs and was literally dying. We finally figured out I had lyme from a friend who's mother had been misdiagnosed for years.

I said all that to say, I don't think you're crazy if you have Lyme, or if you don't. Because once I STARTED researching Lyme, I was DETERMINED I did NOT have this disease. I thought it was all in my head, that I was going psycho.

Sure, my Igenex test came back lit up like a Christmas tree, but it too, can come back falsely negative. If treatment with Buhner's seems to help, then maybe you have a case of Lyme.

I sincerely hope you do not have it, and that you can be well soon.
All the best!

Thank you so much WalkingbyFaith, LymeDontKillMandysVibe and Missouri for your support!

No doubt I'm still continuing my protocol, but I think I want to focus mentally for about 2 weeks, trying to convert and see if my symptoms really do disappear by not thinking about it at all(which is going to be a very tough task).

If I do have Lyme, it is going extremely well. The only symptom I'm dealing with at the moment are joint pains in elbows and knees. And that might be due to the exercise I've been doing.

This community is amazing, once again, thanks you SO much for your support! It means the world to me.

I hope every single one of you will go back to normal life with eating candy, grabbing a beer and having more energy!