Major Anxiety and Depression - Help!

Dear Wonderful Lyme Group,

I come to you asking for some help with my anxiety and depression. It has been absolutely through the roof lately, which makes no sense. I am generally not a depressed person and, indeed, not usually this anxious. Do you have suggestions for helping me with this? We have been working on getting my body to detox better before I start treatment. I did find out my RBC and Hematocrit were on the low side, and my thyroid is still very unbalanced.

The stress levels have been very high as well. I am in school for a master's and working. We had to put our cat down yesterday as we found out she had cancer in her stomach, and it was why she was vomiting the last few months and not doing well.

I appreciate your help,
Megan

Post Edited (Savedbygrace12) : 4/11/2024 7:34:16 AM (GMT-8)

sorry to hear you are dealing with this i know how distressing it can be.

anxiety and depression are actually very common in people suffering with lyme and co-infections

it can affect people who never suffered before - or exacerbate any issues a person had before to an alarming extent

in general i feel its helpful to consider mental health as having two main components

one is biological - things like inflammation, in the CNS causing imbalances in brain function - leading to over-activity or under activity in various systems and making it harder to regulate emotions - as well as trouble with executive function - eg make decisions, follow directions etc

the other is more behavioural - the things we do, habits we form, patterns of thinking we tend to follow etc

i mention these two aspects - as often with an illness like lyme / bart etc - that biologically alters our brains - there is often not much we can do to stop that process in the short term (Pharma neurotransmitter drugs are rarely good long term solutions) which means its even more important we work on the other side of the equation - as at least we have some control over that.

this can often make the difference between unmanageable mental health issues and manageable ones

in fact the two interact and we can influence even the biological imbalance by having good mental health practices.
there is a long list of options that can all help here
-good sleep is key - ( there is very high correlation between poor sleep and depression)
-calming techniques - like meditation, breathing exercises, yoga, mindfulness,
-time in nature can be highly beneficial
-understanding ones thinking processes - identifying anxiety or depression inducing throughs that you can get -stuck in and finding ways to break those cycles can be very important and helpful.
-working with a therapist can be very helpful here also
not because you are crazy - but because you are dealing with an illness that changes your though processes and you my need help getting perspective and assistance changing them to something more normal / helpful

there have been a lot of threads on helpful tips for dealing with anxiety and depression in the short term - on the forum before - you can search on those terms in the search box - and i will try to find some and post below.

although with anxiety or depression will want relief right now and as a result often focus on things that might have an immediate effect - sometimes the only way to get to a better quality of life that lasts is to start a process that pays off in the longer term - so i would urge you to consider some of the behavioural approaches and not only the pills and supplements approach.

i hope its of some help

Hi,

I was also diagnosed with generalized anxiety and depression for 3 years, though it goes up and down randomly, and make no sense either, since I had no reason to be depressive or anxious. I also had symptoms that was not specific to this disorders so I didn't understand, nor the doctors did... Until we found out I actually had Lyme disease with high rates.

I know how horrific these syndrome can be. It was like a panic attack but 24H/24. I also had depersonalization/derealization long syndroms because of that. Alongside other Lyme's symptoms, it was simply unbearable. Just lived to suffer.

Anxiolytics were completely useless. So I eventually used to take low dose antidepressants. It helped to reduce the syndrome with time, but that was not fully enough. Moreover I don't know if it is the right way to go with our weird disease...
It actually started to disappear when I discovered I had Lyme and started to treat it. Symptoms have increased temporary though at the beginning of the treatment, but the doctor warned me it would happen.

Now I still have GAD episodes sometimes, but it is only some weeks per year and it is less violent. I'm still traumatized by my experience though, and I think it will stay with me for the rest of my life.

Post Edited (Noxon) : 4/11/2024 10:25:45 AM (GMT-8)

Megan, forgive me if my memory is fuzzy about this, but weren't you taking DIM and other things to change your hormone levels? It's possible that even if ultimately it will be good to have less estrogen in your body, your initial response to that could be serious depression. Maybe it will normalize over time, if that's the reason? Or maybe it's tipped too far int he other direction? Just another idea to throw on the pile.

Savedbygrace12 said...
Dear Wonderful Lyme Group,

I come to you asking for some help with my anxiety and depression. It has been absolutely through the roof lately, which makes no sense. I am generally not a depressed person and, indeed, not usually this anxious. Do you have suggestions for helping me with this? We have been working on getting my body to detox better before I start treatment. I did find out my RBC and Hematocrit were on the low side, and my thyroid is still very unbalanced.

The stress levels have been very high as well. I am in school for a master's and working. We had to put our cat down yesterday as we found out she had cancer in her stomach, and it was why she was vomiting the last few months and not doing well.

I appreciate your help,
Megan

Sorry to hear you had to put your cat down…we get so close to our pets - my Dusty (cat) is precious.

❤️