How Lyme Creates PTSD-Like Responses
How Lyme Creates PTSD-Like Responses
Lyme Disease is a complex illness which is difficult to treat and diagnose, and it causes massive imbalances in the body. Symptoms can be debilitating and are often dismissed by doctors and even close family members, which can be traumatic to patients.
So, it’s no wonder that they often suffer from PTSD. If you want to know more about how Lyme patients develop PTSD-like neurological response, look at the vital information below.
What is PTSD?
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) occurs when a person experiences something traumatic or life-threatening. It’s typically associated with war veterans and survivors of sexual abuse - but many things, such as the sudden loss of a partner, an accident, assault or chronic illness, can cause it.
It’s normal to have a short-term trauma response to a distressing event, such as anxiety, poor sleep, nightmares and feeling emotionally numb. But, if symptoms persist for more than a month, this is a strong indicator of PTSD.
Doctors typically prescribe trauma-focused psychotherapies and sometimes medication to treat PTSD. Patients generally recover faster when they have support from their family and friends.
PTSD can be mild, moderate or severe, and symptoms include:
Hopelessness
Memory problems
Brain fog
Feeling detached from friends and family
Feeling emotionally numb
Not getting any pleasure from life
Trouble sleeping
Irritability
Outbursts of anger
Self-destructive behavior
An aversion to places or situations because they induce anxiety
An aversion to thinking or talking about a past trauma
How Do Lyme Patients Develop PTSD?
Lyme is a stealth pathogen and can change form to invade most of the cells in the body. It massively affects the limbic system, which regulates our fight or flight mode. Often in Lyme patients, the limbic system is in overdrive, which means the body constantly feels under attack and in a state of stress.
When the body is under constant attack and thinks it might die, it seems obvious that this will cause emotional trauma. Studies show that long-term stress from chronic illness can cause a complex, medically induced form of PTSD, which comes from an internal source rather than an external one, such as physical trauma.
Lyme symptoms alone are very distressing, and when patients are dismissed by the institutions that are supposed to help them or friends and family, this can also lead to trauma. Lyme disease is difficult to diagnose, and patients often have to walk a long and distressing road before getting a diagnosis. In some cases, they can face months of ongoing trauma while they try to work out what's causing their symptoms.
How Can Lyme Patients Manage PTSD?
If you have Lyme and are experiencing PTSD symptoms, it’s crucial to get a diagnosis and treatment. Traditionally, PTSD is treated with trauma-focused psychotherapies, medication, or a mix of both, but it’s also vital to take a holistic approach to healing. This means building a support group, eating healthily, exercising, and meditating.
You can also potentially improve Lyme and PTSD symptoms with cognitive brain retraining programs such as DNRS. Brain retraining programs help you control your conscious and subconscious thoughts through affirmations, visualizations, and meditation. You can find out more about how brain retraining works in this article we wrote about it. DNRS is particularly good for Lyme patients because it focuses on the limbic system.
Conclusion
If you have Lyme and suspect you suffer from PTSD, it’s crucial to seek medical advice to get a diagnosis and treatment. PTSD will only worsen Lyme symptoms, and it’s hard for Lyme symptoms to improve when your body is in a state of trauma.
The treatments for PTSD are talking therapies, and sometimes doctors prescribe medication to help with the symptoms. You can also help improve symptoms with lifestyle changes such as exercise, healthy eating, meditation, and brain retraining programs which are highly recommended by those in the Lyme community.