Severe depression and/or anxiety sufferers- remember its not forever

But it might take extra work to discover its cause. There have been many here in the past who've overcome it, which should be refreshing to hear.

Im writing this out of the blue, since I just tonight heard of a past local acquaintance who decided to end it permanently (another one bit the dust, ..jees ). Now we certainty don't know whats going on in peoples heads, but from the out side this guy seemed mostly OK. He had recently retired in a financially comfortable, well thought out plan, ....but had minimal interests to keep busy in retired life (he was bored),.... was however, a decent guy who would drop by occasionally to see "whats up".

Like average citizens he didnt know much about health and took Drs words on everything, smoked like a chimney but gave up his old drinking habit years ago... and I dont think he drank ever again. No other major health problems that I knew about. But the mental demons were apparently there... some visits he was becoming obviously depressed and getting worse.

I know this affects many individuals, but one thing "lymies" have is it teaches you "self doctoring" habits that should help us out in our older years.

With lyme possibly for 45 years and hypothyroid on top of it, I know something about this, not as much as some others though I suppose. I also had a self structured daily life and personal goals I had a passion for (not the typical ones were told we should have lol!) which helped me keep faith in my future even when I was lethargic. And I had several hobbies.

But it only got better once I took charge of my health. I can thank the invention of the internet for that as library trips were not nearly as successful in the early 90's as online info later on was.

Im making this post just to tell anyone out there struggling to not give up. Lyme can do this and so can your endocrine system, adrenals cant be messed up and thyroid needs to be optimal. The TSH thyroid range is so laxed its ridiculous, 3.5 to 5 will create hypo and depression in many people yet its "in range". Right now my TSH is .55 with thyroid med and I feel pretty good most days, sometimes still tired, but not depressed. Adrenals is another animal, takes time and sometimes environmental adjustments (make life changes for less stress). I also used /experimented with quite a few natural supplements for mental health / stress, luckily they dont cost much. Experimented with thyroid meds to- and levels.

And you need to do things, obviously not like you did before, but learn to temporarily adapt vs doing nothing.

When I could barely walk, Id drive to the lake beach and just relax, sometimes in my parked vehicle but with a nice lake veiw. Id drive to the stream crossing and just relax there in a fold up chair listening to the water flow. Id go down there in the winter too, better on a sunny winter day though. I listened to a lot of newly discovered online music too. Eventually I could do more physical things and there was hope. As my physical body got better, so did my brain/mental health. Cant replace lost time though.. and I tell myself to stay healthy/fit so I can live longer doing the things I want/like to do.

Lastly, cant forget the gut and brain have a hormone and amino acid shared connection. This is probably more obvious to some than others. In my experience, I can honestly say that avoiding offending foods to me has also helped my mental health, purely by coincidence. I started to examine foods effects on me in 2008, then went way deeper in 2015-2018, with the outcome helping today.

Maybe this short piece flying off the top of my head will help someone out. Thought I'd put this out there as a reminder.

Thanks for bringing up this important topic, astroman. Very sorry to hear about your friend.

I would like to add the importance of recognizing the potential impact of ENVIRONMENTAL TOXINS like mold/mycotoxins/inflammagens found in water damaged buildings and heavy metals, especially in older homes.

Environmental toxins can cause intense brain and neurological symptoms including depression, anxiety, rage, fatigue, cognitive dysfunction, and much more. This can be a real danger to people in retirement.

People often neglect proper maintenance and upkeep in their home during their working years and can’t afford to do much during their retirement years or are afraid to spend money on what they don’t think is necessary. Then, they find themselves spending many more hours in the environment of their homes (or workshops, garages, sheds) during retirement, greatly increasing their hours of exposure with lesser and lesser time away from there.

Add increasing age, reducing immune function, slowed metabolism, and you have a recipe for increasing toxicity. I was told by my CIRS doctor that CIRS tends to affect older people mentally more than physically, and can cause them to think they have dementia.

It is true that CIRS/mold affects women disproportionately to men, but men are not safe from developing it. Men also tend to have much higher levels of toxic exposures over a lifetime due to occupational and recreational choices. Genetics plays the biggest role and precious few, even in the Lyme world, know their genetics in regard to CIRS susceptibility.

I have had many bouts of wanting to die because of toxin overload and brain inflammation. Thankfully, they have been short lived, and I never really felt suicidal in the true sense of the word. It was more like a rush of hysteria and hopelessly combined with horrible physical symptoms that made me want to run off in woods and die. Toxins will definitely do that to you.

There needs to be more awareness of the impact of toxins on people’s physical and mental health. There also needs to be more support for older people, poor people, disabled people, and single women in the upkeep and repairs of their homes and property. We need more community and family involvement - people who will observe their family and their neighbors and make caring for them a priority instead of only being responsible for me, myself, and I.

Bailey - after being here for years, yes, having that hopeless feeling that your slowly approaching death from experiencing rapidly decaying health from lyme is not uncommon. Before I finally went down the
"lyme hole", I was sure of it one time too- the morning I woke 80-90% blind on top of all the other symptoms. It was scary. I came to the reality that I might not wake up some morning. That was twelve years ago. Ive been near normal for four years now , whatever normal is (I dont really know 100% as an adult).

Bailey said...
Thanks astroman. The whole experience has made me rather empathetic toward soldiers, dealing with the uncertainty that you may die or you may live.

I didn’t know there were forum rules about talking about giving up. Sorry I didn’t mean to violate anything. I tend to be a tad more stoical approaching taboo subjects than most so I don’t always feel the social inhibitions as strongly as most.

Bailey - you posted :
“ For me it gets confusing trying to figure out whether it’s time to give up and accept I may just be dying. Part of me wants to make my peace with accepting death as an outcome and sees that as healthy the other part gets scared once I accept it as “acceptable” I won’t try as desperately to avoid it. “

I didn’t think you were talking about actively taking your life. (Suicide)
- but more on the lines of maybe letting go some - and just accepting what will be

That isn’t against the forum rules.



The Forum Rule:

“ 1. No discussion of any illegal activity or threats of violence (ie. threats of suicide, self-harm, or physical harm). ”

I have also had some really bad lows with this disease.

I told my husband more than once that I didn’t want to live like this anymore. (Usually when I was herxing badly) No one understands except a few (if you’re lucky) close family/friends)

It’s a long hard grind for most of us with chronic Lyme.

But just stick with it , keep fighting and you will get there!
Don’t give in to it.