Horriable thoughts and impulses

I am now on day six of Biaxin. I am up to 2x 500mg a day pills. I feel agitated, depressed, and have these horrid thoughts and urges that come about. They involve hurting people. I am far from that kind of person and I wish it would go away. It scares me and I am thinking of leaving my wife and kids. I don't know if this is herxing or abx side effect. I did buhner herbs for three years and a lot of symptoms left. The only ones remaining are periods of these thoughts and nueropathy in the feet. Otherwise, I am pretty okay everywhere else. Has anyone ever gotten rid of this? Should I consider other meds? Is this permanent damage?

I have am on day four of Biaxin. Day on on 1 500mg tablet, Day 2 2 500mg tablet. Days three and four I dropped down back to one tablet because of the effects I was feeling. I do have some muscle twitching. My main problems are anxiety, GI, and feeling Spacey(drunk). Also, day two I had insomnia the whole night. Today, feelings of spaciness and crushing fatigue. I could go to sleep. I have twins and I need to be present for them. Will biaxin hit any pathogens in the CNS? I know it doesn't get into the tissues a lot, but will still do a little? I have another appointment with my LLMD and Wednesday and Im sure she is not going to be the happiest that Im not taking the full dose prescribed.

Yes they were and are. My worry is that these sometimes feel like they are uncontrollable. Like a I'm werewolf or something. I switched to abx after three years because I would like to clear my CNS of infection and I did make progress on the herbs after three years.

Re: the instrusive thoughts - while they can seem/feel frighteningly real, don't forget there is an important distinction separating thoughts/feelings from actions. And the fact that you don't identify with these thoughts as being part of you, and you find them distressing, means that you do not want to act on them. I know OCD/intrusive thoughts can make you feel like you are going to "snap" and do something horrible, but in reality it's just part of the fear/anxiety feeding the whole OCD cycle. I don't know if that helps at all but I've been there.

Worth looking into the inositol!

My daughter at age 9 had undiagnosed lyme and co-infections. She got strep and it was the perfect storm- joint swelling, pain, rashes, hives, and many more symptoms (jncluding neuropsychiatric symptoms). It took nearly a year but she was finally diagnosed with lyme, bartonella, babesia, ehrlichia, and mycoplasma. On top of that she was diagnosed with PANDAS, which stands for Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorder Associated with Strep. This is a subset of PANS (Pediatric Acute-Onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome), which can be caused by Lyme and co-infections among other things. This is caused by inflammation in the brain and symptoms include OCD (including intrusive thoughts), tics, emotional lability, and aggression among other symptoms. In other forums I have come across adults who have symptoms like this so the feeling is that it can happen in adults as well as children. There are similar stories, such as that of Susanah Cahalan (author of "Brain on Fire") who had anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis, which caused really bad neuropsych symptoms and the book "Infectious Madness" by Harriett Washington. Brain inflammation can definitely happen with these infections and with our bodies' overactive responses to them. Detox is very important for herxing but anti-inflammatories are also very important. Naproxen with doxy helped my daughter initially. Some people swear by round-the-clock ibuprofen (in my kids forums). My daughter takes Advanced Inflammation Support by Klaire Labs and this has been her natural, herbal anti-inflammatory for a couple years now. For detox she also did dry brushing, Epsom salt baths, activated charcoal, and some homeopathic tinctures. She's 14 now and doing so much better. Keep on fighting! Best wishes!

Also, have you done any parasite or babesia treatment? I had the worst psych symptoms and rage when trying to treat gut parasites. Even worse than mold.

Bicillin is supposed to be very good for PANDAS.

Hi, Woodduck. So sorry you are going through such a hard, scary time!

Intrusive violent thoughts are not something to push through. They could be a side effect of the medication, not necessarily a herx. And as side effects go, these are the sort that are considered adverse reactions and warrant stopping the drug.

If you choose to continue with this avenue of treatment, then I suggest you not to be alone with your kids and to get some help with the intrusive violent thoughts. As someone with a counseling background, ethically I feel like it's necessary to point out that no one acts on those thoughts ... until they do. No one is that kind of person ... until they are. Everyone can stop themselves from acting on urges ... until they can't stop themselves anymore. It's not about being a good person or a bad person or having enough willpower. As anyone who has had psych symptoms from these infections knows, something chemical is going on. (Absolutely no judgment!) If your heart were inflamed as part of a herx, then you would not be alone with young children and you would seek medical attention, right? And you might consider a different type of treatment?

There's a school of thought with Lyme that says to push through basically any ill effects of treatment, and the payoff will be worth it. That's really not always true. Some herxes are damaging and dangerous. Some Lyme docs (like Neil Nathan) do not believe in herxing and "pushing through" because extra challenges are the last things our dysfunctional bodies need. Some will disagree with that, certainly. I just like to point it out in order to give folks permission to stop something that is too hard on them.

And dump any doctor who makes you feel bad about not increasing doses of a drug that's giving you extremely dangerous side effects!

Thanks saraeli I do not feel shame more anger because of how life played out. My LLMD is a fan of Neil Nathan. I may back off the Biaxin and see what happens. I would hate to but before the ABX I took antifungals and anti histamnies and although I would have intrusive flairs things seem to be better. More times of optimism and lowering of inflammation. I am going to ask my LLMD if she knows of a LLMD psych dr. in SE WI. My kids need me.