About 4 years ago, I was diagnosed with Lyme’s Disease. I had the most bizarre symptoms like temporary loosing my ability to see, feeling like I had tiny pins in my hands and feet, and auditory hallucinations. The list goes on. A huge misconception about Lyme’s is that it just makes people tired, which often does occur. However, my hardest symptoms were the neurological aspects of feeling constantly in a state of panic while simultaneously depressed, every day was a huge emotional roller coaster that would vacillate from hour to hour. It felt like I had exchanged bodies with a stranger, leaving own sense of self feel completely estranged. What makes these diseases even more precarious is there very difficult to diagnose, often masquerading as other diseases or being accompanied by co-infections. It can feel and present as 4 different disease all in one. This means that symptoms come and go and new ones constantly pop up. While going through treatment, I also received a lot of unwarranted medical advice from non-medicine practicing people. Whether it was drinking a gallon of apple cider vinegar and flushing my antibiotics down the drain, or ingesting more aluminum to stabilize this bacteria, everyone but myself seemed to have the cure. These gross misunderstandings came on top of a lot of people’s first reaction to blame for “not checking for ticks”, which in reality can be very tricky to detect! These words have and continue to be harmful when talking to people with chronic illnesses because it often blames them for acquiring it in the first place. While it most certainly come from a good place, often times these conversations left me the most defeated as it felt like people grossly misunderstood what I was experiencing day to day. After 4 years, I can safely say that I am only dealing with the aftermath of the disease, with some pain symptoms, occasional insomnia, and general anxiety. For me, my best treatment was antibiotics (it took about 5,040 pills for 1.5 years really feel back to myself) as well as working tinctured herbs and plants like St. John’s Wort, Teasel root, Reshi, and Nettle. Both were equally important for my health and what ultimately subdued my symptoms. I am both incredible hurt and extremely grateful for this time in my life because it gave me a new set of tools to sometimes ditching the pill bottle and finding alternatives to produce a more gentle outcome. My relationship with the outdoors has completely been changed by this experience, often feeling nervous on walks outside, but this time of year is a nice visual reminder of all of the plants that helped me regain some sense of balance back in my life.
turnnoffyourmind
origamiaround
yousharknotpass
