Zero emotional control - is it herxing or Bartonella?

I got Lyme last spring, took doxy as long as my regular docs would give it to me, then took the Buhner herbal protocol between then and my first LLND appt.

The ND put me back on antibiotics: Biaxin, Plaquenil, and Ceftin. I have been increasingly CRAZY on these, with extreme emotional reactions and zero emotional control. With almost no warning, the least bit of frustration or worry (usually something someone says) causes me to hyperventilate, scratch myself, scream, or hit myself.

My boyfriend (whom I live with now, since I can't work right now) is having a hard time with it and is mad at me that I'm not taking psychiatric drugs. He wants me to take an anti-anxiety drug or something, but I'm not sure it would help, since my symptoms are more about lack of control than about anxiety. Also, I don't want to add additional chemicals to an already toxic brain.

I called my doctor about what was going on (I actually lost control during my appt last week, so he had a chance to see what I was talking about), and he said this was part of a normal herx. I am definitely herxing, since I am having some tiredness and pain, and I felt similarly when I first started taking tetracycline. My doctor told me to stop the Ceftin, which helped, but I am still too crazy to do anything on my own, on the B&P. He is out of the country for 2 weeks, so I can't get in touch with him until then.

However, I am concerned that - more than a herx - I might be having a Bartonella relapse. What's going on now is similar to what happened other times when I would try to stop doxycycline. Within a day or two, I would relapse with cognitive and emotional problems like what I'm having now. I'm also having an increase in sore soles of the feet (Bartonella symptom) when I wake up - it happens every day now, as opposed to every now and then while I was on the herbal protocol.

Advice please?

-Should I keep using the andrographis and Japanese knotweed that I was using before I started on the antibiotics? It's hard to have the presence of mind to remember to make the capsules (I make my own capsules) and to take that many capsules a day (it's hard on my stomach).

-Have you had this sort of emotional reaction while herxing? Does it abate? When?

-Could I be having a Bartonella relapse on Biaxin and Plaquenil? Supposedly Biaxin sort of helps, except it has poor CNS penetration.

-Have you had negative reactions to the drugs, Biaxin and Plaquenil?

-I think I also have pyroluria. Might the herxing or the drugs (or the Bartonella?) be increasing my pyroluria symptoms right now? My outbreaks might be characteristic of pyroluria.

-Would psychiatric drugs help or hurt? Are there any that help with this sort of thing? I need to calm down or else my boyfriend will throw me out ... he loves me, but it's really hard on him.

-This might sound crazy, but I think I might be dealing with trauma, (perhaps from a past life?), since my reactions are characteristic of trauma victims (my doctor asked if I'd had trauma when I told him my symptoms), but I can't think of any trauma I know about except being very sensitive to noise and sensations and being anorexic off and on for 6 years.

Biaxin can cause you to have a major herx. Biaxin may be the culprit, along with the Bartonella.

I think my Lyme has caused neuropsychiatic problems.  Fog, memory, concentration, mood swings. anxitey, depression.  When we discussed abx treatment I was told depression and moodiness are common with the treatment.

My periods of being overly emotional are worse during a herx.  But it can show up anytime.  A week ago I was sorting thru some things and it reminded me of all the things I used to do.  I literally cried some for the next few hours.  Then had moderate depression.  It lifted by the next day.

I have chosen to be treated for anxiety, depression and mood stability.  If I weren't being treated, then I would expect the emotional periods to be totally uncontrolled like what you describe.  If had the the stress of working too .... I think I'd just crash and end up in the hospital.

I suspect that many don't have this degree or type of neurologic involvement and so don't have as much of a problem with these emotional periods.  We are all different with this stuff ... I don't have the joint pains that are so common with Lyme. 

It's always a trade-off when deciding if you should seek treatment.  I know you don't want to be on more meds.  Maybe the question to ask is "are the emotional problems so bad that they have taken away what was left of my ability to cope with Lyme?"   If the problems are so severe that the answer is "yes", it seems  like it would be worthwhile to discuss this with a psychiatrist or psych ARNP.  In addition to anxiety and depression, there are also meds to help stabilitze mood.

There certainly is hope that continued abx treatment will help resolve my emotional problems. 

Hope this helps is some small way.  I just read your post and thought, "wow .... that's similar to the problems I'm having"

 

500mg Biaxin 2x a day
200ng tmyl(?) Plaquenil 2x a day

What's weird is that my physical herxing symptoms (pain in the usual places) were over within the first week and a half, but the emotional symptoms kept getting worse the longer I was on B&P.

I added Ceftin 1000mg 2x a day as directed by my doctor, but things got so bad that I could barely function, so he told me to stop taking it. He's out of the country.

I'm no expert on Lyme by any means but I wanted to say back in 2006 I took biaxin for sinus/ear infection and at that time my anxiety attacks first appeared. I was on Biaxin for maybe 2 days but the 2nd night a bad dream startled me out of my sleep and I jumped up in just a T-shirt and underwear and ran all the way out of my bed to the front of my house and out the door. I thought someone was breaking in. Any drug that would make me forget my children and run outside half naked was not the drug for me. I never took it again.

Consider that the Plaquenil could be causing some the issues. My mom was put on that drug many years ago for Lupus. She said that when she took it she felt different...it made her feel angry and she wanted to break things.