Empaths & Lyme

Just curious, how many of you would consider yourself an empath? Someone that feels others emotions, challenges etc as their own? I have been reading about how Lyme can be triggered by stress, or a traumatic event and I just had the thought, I wonder if empaths tend to get lyme more than the average person.

I know this may be a little "out there" for a lot of you, but I am very spiritual and sensitive and I tend to take on peoples problems, I worry about strangers, I say prayers for road kill... I mean, come on!!! I know, even my husband says I'm a whack lol. I think there might be a connection between highly sensitive people and Lyme. What are your thoughts? And how do you retrain your brain to not take on the weight of the world?!

Definitely an interesring correlation.

Are you seeing improvements, Sandyfeet?

Just the beauty of having another day, no matter what it is like, makes me cry sometimes.





sandyfeet - It’s a gift to see life this way;).

Yes, absolutely. I am an empath/HSP and I experienced a lot of trauma growing up/as a young adult and the final trauma happened when I became a mother.

BrookieGirl said...
Just curious, how many of you would consider yourself an empath? Someone that feels others emotions, challenges etc as their own? I have been reading about how Lyme can be triggered by stress, or a traumatic event and I just had the thought, I wonder if empaths tend to get lyme more than the average person.

I know this may be a little "out there" for a lot of you, but I am very spiritual and sensitive and I tend to take on peoples problems, I worry about strangers, I say prayers for road kill... I mean, come on!!! I know, even my husband says I'm a whack lol. I think there might be a connection between highly sensitive people and Lyme. What are your thoughts? And how do you retrain your brain to not take on the weight of the world?!

I highly recommend The Art of Empathy by Karla McLaren, it both teaches people how to better understand and relate to their emotions, as well training empaths to rein in their abilities.

Her website gives a good overview of the book if you want to learn more.

Definitely yes here too. I've worked for seven years writing for a charity that does humanitarian aid, so I'm constantly absorbing and writing devastating stories -- almost channeling them. That was not the trigger -- there were more immediate personal stresses before I got sick, but it doesn't help. I used to hate it when people would say they had to stop watching news to protect their mental health, because I feel like we need to pay attention to situations around the country and the world. (The people experiencing them can't turn it off!) But I have had to start doing exactly that because I now feel the physical effects of it. I realized especially that if I browse social media and read these things at night, it makes the insomnia much worse, so I'm trying to read good books instead, and I've started diffusing lavender oil and taking L-theanine to help let go of some stress and anxiety.

sandyfeet said...


countingstarsx - motherhood was such a crucible for me! On top of all the turmoil I finally did some reading and learned so much about myself. My eldest is HSP (highly sensitive) as well which was my initial motivation. Thankfully I have two so I realized that some of us are just 'this way' lol.

Happy healing!

The last month of my pregnancy and first 2 months of motherhood were borderline traumatic in many ways -- mostly due to unexpected health/breastfeeding issues on both my and my daughters part. Shortly after that trauma passed was when I started experiencing symptoms. Then there was the stress of being alone with a newborn for 12+ hours a day while my partner worked. Oh all the emotions, and struggle!

Combine that with an emotionally abusive alcoholic for a mother, who I didn't part ways with for a few years and that mix had me crippled by the time my daughter was 1. But, I'm doing better now, and am working on healthy boundaries.

My early symptoms started when she was about 5 months old. At the time I thought it was sleep deprivation. It got worse and worse from there. I was at my worst when she was about 14 months old, I nearly had a mental breakdown.

She is 3.5 now, and I am a lot better. All of the mood stuff is for the most part gone. Still have brain fog and intense fatigue. A lot of aches and pains, but not as bad as it was. I would say I'm 50-60% improved.

countingstarsx said...

sandyfeet said...


countingstarsx - motherhood was such a crucible for me! On top of all the turmoil I finally did some reading and learned so much about myself. My eldest is HSP (highly sensitive) as well which was my initial motivation. Thankfully I have two so I realized that some of us are just 'this way' lol.

Happy healing!

The last month of my pregnancy and first 2 months of motherhood were borderline traumatic in many ways -- mostly due to unexpected health/breastfeeding issues on both my and my daughters part. Shortly after that trauma passed was when I started experiencing symptoms. Then there was the stress of being alone with a newborn for 12+ hours a day while my partner worked. Oh all the emotions, and struggle!

Combine that with an emotionally abusive alcoholic for a mother, who I didn't part ways with for a few years and that mix had me crippled by the time my daughter was 1. But, I'm doing better now, and am working on healthy boundaries.

i also had some extreme stress when our son was born. my water broke at 32 weeks. Because I live in a relatively small city, I had to wait for a helivac to take me to a bigger city that 'handled' premature babies.
By the time the helivac arrived, my contractions were becoming more frequent. It was about an hour to fly there...and they increased to a few minutes apart during the flight. I was very scared. He was breach and a C-section was required...and I was wondering how that would go on the helivac..

When we got to the hospital, the Obstetrician hooked me up to check his vitals...and did an internal...then he said "We need to do a C-section now, the baby is in distress with cord involvement"
They whisked me away to the O.R.
luckily our babe was okay - though premature. He had to stay in that hospital for two weeks until he no longer needed gavage feedings...and could suck from a bottle. I was unable to nurse him as his suck was just too weak...I tried for over a month.
If that wasn't enough to stress me out...5 weeks later he was diagnosed with Pyloric stenosis and had to go back to the hospital he was born to have intestinal surgery.

both my husband and I were a wreck. I did not get lyme symptoms after that though.. I remained healthy for another 20 years.

Speaking of my husband - lol. While I was in the hospital (in another city) with our son, my husband came home a few times...to get things that we needed for myself and the baby. One time a neighbor lady was walking her dog - and the dog came up on our lawn and took big dump. My husband yelled "Get your f--ing dog off my lawn"
He took his stress out on our neighbor...lol....

Sorry for the ramble...

Girlie, I am sorry to hear about your birth trauma too. I'm glad you were able to enjoy your little one's childhood though.

Thank you everyone else for your kind words, I hope you heal soon too. <3