Having trouble today - Hopeless and Depressed

Goldengoose I'm so sorry that you are feeling blue. What are you doing for your Lyme treatment? Have you tested for co-infections as well as yeast? Are you doing anything different that may have triggered your going back down sooner? How's the detoxing?

I have heard that long time antidepressant use may result in the treatment not working anymore. While I'm not suggesting that you stop by no means but have you spoken with your doctor about herbal treatments like St. John's wort, etc? Are you doing any amino acids to build up your neurotransmitters?

I hope it gets better soon.

Golden, sorry you're having a rough patch when it's supposed to be your up cycle.

I've had low grade depression bouts for years, but it's always been tolerable as it came and went. (pre lyme) about 10 years ago however, a series of unfortunate events befell me : parents demise, 2 dogs demise, an injury. I was feeling way more depressed than usual.

I decided to go on antidepressants. Started with Prozac and it was awesome, for about 6 months then stopped working. Switched over to celexa, then zoloft, then Paxil. Each was great for about 6 months. I could have cycled back to Prozac but since the storm had passed, I decided to just titrate off. That was hard tapering off, but I've been okay since.

So, you might just do fine with a different ssri. Each time I switched ssri's, I felt good as new.

Can you get yourself outside today?

goldengoose said...
I guess I'm feeling like my best chance may be to just stop taking abx and plaquenil and working to keep my immune system as functional as possible. Maybe in 30 years when im almost 60 they will have a better cure so I dont have to end up getting alzheimers. But the argument that pretty much everybody, at least in New England has Lyme in their system makes sense to me. Even if I did take abx for years and years, I could always just get it again. The problem is getting worse and ticks are everywhere here, most people I know have had lyme. I dont know, Im just confused and depressed about this...

I totally agree that most people have the Bb microbe in their bodies, especially in the NE, and it doesn't manifest into Lyme disease in everyone.

For those who do become symptomatic, most people aren't treating simply for the fact that they cannot get an accurate dx. Most MDs are clueless about Lyme so don't know the real sx and therefore don't order the right tests. And if you're lucky enough to get tested, it's usually not the more accurate test and for a host of other reasons, these tests are only 50% accurate. And of course, you're really, really lucky if you know enough about Lyme to get yourself to a specialist and start treating.

The CDC suggests that over 300k people get Lyme each year. But due to the reasons I outlined in the previous paragraph, I'd guess that it's closer to 2 million... so yes, it's getting much, much worse.

I also completely understand your question about stopping tx and just focusing on immune function. I think getting the GI and your immune system more functional really is step 1 in a successful treatment approach.

- We take nearly everything orally and if our gut health isn't optimal, the chances for proper absorption are very small - we're spending a lot of time and effort chasing our tails.

- And, since 70% of our immune system IS our mucosal lining of our GI, if it's compromised our treatment won't work - there is no recovery from Lyme without the support of our own immune systems.

For those reasons, I think it's very smart to stop and heal GI first...and this could take some time.

But I also think you'll need to get back into treatment sooner rather than later. Yes, hopefully tx will be improved in 30 yrs but you don't want to allow the infections to do 30 yrs of damage to your body--it would likely be more than alz.

WIth a healed GI, you can then explore different modalities and I think you'll have a better result. But I don't think your immune system will be able to do it on its own... it can do a good job preventing Lyme but once symptoms develop, you're kind of launched into requiring treatment.

Hope that's helpful -

-p

Thanks all, don't know what I'd do without this forum. It truly is invaluable.

Hi Goldengoose,
Curious have you used any herbals that may be of help? There are some Buhner suggests for depression/anxiety and some that restore damage done by Lyme and co.

I was wondering when you have a stretch of good days and then the bad ones come, is there any trigger before the bad day that you notice.

Example:For me stress at work in the afternoon, loud noises, or the usual increase/or change in herbals/abx cause worse symptoms.

Just seeing if there is anything that's been overlooked that can might be of help.

I'm sorry your struggling with this this its no fun, and I understand about New England, I am doing constant tick checks, its a banner year for the tick population. Just be diligent in preventing them getting on you and checking for them.

Having a chronic illness can certainly wear you down both physically and mentally. I understand its not the same for everyone we all have different levels of tolerance, emotions, intensity of symptoms etc.

Please hang in there, and if your able try to do something that you enjoy. Even joy in small amounts can turn around our sadness some times.

Well take care,Jo

This: "having a good day or two is not to be taken for granted. That means your body is healing, it's capable of recovering from this, and it is showing you glimpses of that. If you can have a good day, you can have two, if you can have two, you can have a week, if you can have a week ..."



That's what I tell myself when I worry I have permanent damage. If it's capable of feeling good one day...then it's capable of that every day.

Well I'm not completely better yet - but have lost more than half of my symptoms - probably close to 3/4 of them.

I know an older lady who had Lyme undiagnosed for many years and is off all treatment now - treated with abx for over 3 years. She's been off treatment for over a year now,

I know another lady who treated with abx for six or seven months and healed - been well for three years now.

The ranger from Under Our Skin, and the blonde gal both healed using abx.

Christa (Justin and Christa story) healed - took 4 years and is still doing well several years later.

I believe Opugirl (forum member) healed with abx
Chapelle did as well.

Those are a few examples - I do know more people than who I listed.

I plan on transitioning to herbals when I get closer to healed.

I agree with Girlie: change to herbals and other modalities. Have you read Buhner?

I also agree with Pirouette: loads of cleaning do help with mood!!

And a suggestion, easy to take, no side effects: Stress Relief from Vital Force Tech.
It gives you such a good relaxing feeling.....

My 'feeling' statistics, after reading about lyme for more than 10 years:

- most people improve with any treatment they choose.
They may improve rather 'easily' to about 60%.
Some fast, some not as fast (it takes months or even more, and some persistence).
You base your improvements only on symptoms that clearly keep reducing: that is how you measure 'improvement'.

- reaching from 60-80% will require more tuning, more gut feeling, more trial and error but it is possible.
At this stage, you're back in active life, at least partially.
Many people may reach that. It takes more months.... sometimes years.
Supplements, herbals, other modalities of treatments are usually required to reach 80% or +.
You start seeing that targeting symptoms-only as a measure of improvement becomes less clear.

- reaching 80-100% is hard, very hard, but possible to a few.
It usually requires a much more holistic approach for that.
But at this stage, you are back to life, so that matters less.

It is hard to know when you exactly reach 100% because you barely have symptoms then.
Then you start to change the treatment strategies from symptom-relief to reinforcing the whole body.

At least, that is how I see progress in lyme treatment.

Golden Goose ,
I am in western Mass. I just started going to a very knowledgeable APRN, using integrative medicine.
She is located in New Hampshire. You mentioned you are in New England.

I decided at this stage in the battle, I need more guidance to fine tune the herbal protocols/abx I have been on to hopefully get to the finish line.

Her philosophy is that without a strong digestive system(gut), we can never achieve our full health potential.

If you would like to look at her website to learn more about her approach just email me. I do believe she is only taking new patients in Sept.right now . There is a cancellation list.

She takes insurance too. It only cost me $15 co pay, instead of the 340 a visit my llmd gets.

Take care, Jo

Drink Bone broth, if you look up Dr Axes protocol for diverticulitis it has good information on healing the gut.

Have you been tested for more than Lyme and co's?
My understanding is that the molds can not only take up residence in your sinuses but also your gut.
Candida as well can be a huge gut issue.

Just a thought.

I'm treating all at the same time and six months in I'm doing so much better than I have in the last ten years.

Luck in battle!

VCL