Terrible article. How do you test for it, and how do you treat it. Neither of those things is addressed at all. She doesn't even make a compelling case for "buy my book".
Lyme Is 'All in Your Head' – A Wake-Up Call to Mental Health Professionals
41–50 of 51 posts
Re: Lyme Is 'All in Your Head' – A Wake-Up Call to Mental Health Professionals
#42If you just assert hard enough, eventually it becomes true! Who needs hard evidence anyway?
Re: Lyme Is 'All in Your Head' – A Wake-Up Call to Mental Health Professionals
#43I don't see why this belongs in Mental Health. Where I Live patients go to their GP's who then either decides to send people to a "regular" doctor for bloodtest and so forth, or establishes a possible mental condition and you are send to a psychiatrist/psychologist.
The brain is physical in nature, and lyme is far from the only disease to exhibit neurological symptoms. A psychiatrist will be biased towards treating as if the root is mental and not physical/viral in nature. Not to mention, they don't have direct access in many cases to do the required tests themselves.
Re: Lyme Is 'All in Your Head' – A Wake-Up Call to Mental Health Professionals
#44Today it is very easy in most U.S. states to order your own blood tests for Lyme. If you think you may have Lyme, order the test online and go to your nearest LabCorp/Quest office. You'll get your results in 2-5 days. No need to convince a doctor that you need the test. If it's positive, you can take it to them and receive treatment.
"Chronic Lyme Disease", as used by some, simply means "untreated Lyme disease". It is not a chronic vs acute form of the disease.
Re: Lyme Is 'All in Your Head' – A Wake-Up Call to Mental Health Professionals
#45Well now I don't know who to believe.
I think it's okay to say "there are people with non-specific symptoms, and they really have these symptoms, but it's not proven exactly what's causing them". Because honestly that's where we're at now. I think it's likely that we'll figure get higher resolution into conditions like this and it'll become clear what the pathologies are.
What's dangerous is thinking you KNOW the answer (either in the affirmative or negative).
This whole article is an exercise in motivated reasoning. There's absolutely no way that the author would ever change their mind. They're far too entrenched in one camp. Even if we truly figure out the root cause, I doubt they'll ever give up their position.
Re: Lyme Is 'All in Your Head' – A Wake-Up Call to Mental Health Professionals
#46After nearly 4 years of my battle with Lyme, I finally found a doctor who cured me with an essentially illegal combination of antibiotics (4x the max daily dosage of doxycycline for 18 months). In her words, this will be bad, but not nearly as bad as not treating your Lyme. I haven't had any symptoms for 3 years now and am in best health I've ever been. Occasionally, however, I am still reminded of how ignorant our m…
Do you think the antibiotics were just a placebo for you? Maybe the pain you went through while taking the drugs knocked the disease "out of your head", so-to-speak.
Re: Lyme Is 'All in Your Head' – A Wake-Up Call to Mental Health Professionals
#47After nearly 4 years of my battle with Lyme, I finally found a doctor who cured me with an essentially illegal combination of antibiotics (4x the max daily dosage of doxycycline for 18 months). In her words, this will be bad, but not nearly as bad as not treating your Lyme. I haven't had any symptoms for 3 years now and am in best health I've ever been. Occasionally, however, I am still reminded of how ignorant our m…
Do you think the antibiotics were just a placebo for you? Maybe the pain you went through while taking the drugs knocked the disease "out of your head", so-to-speak.
The symptoms of Lyme are very real and in my case had physical manifestations on my skin. I highly doubt that "more positive thinking" fixes that kind of stuff.
Edit: just to be clear - the main issues were "under the skin," and very much in line with what's described in the article.
Re: Lyme Is 'All in Your Head' – A Wake-Up Call to Mental Health Professionals
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you think the antibiotics were just a placebo for you? Maybe the pain you went through while taking the drugs knocked the disease "out of your head", so-to-speak.
The symptoms of Lyme are very real and in my case had physical manifestations on my skin. I highly doubt that "more positive thinking" fixes that kind of stuff. Edit: just to be clear - the main issues were "under the skin," and very much in line with what's described in the article.
You've never heard of stress rashes? I have a friend who gets them all the time. She gets them after a few weeks of stress, like studying for an exam.
I don't want to diminish your suffering, just that there are other explanations for it. The mind is powerful thing!
Re: Lyme Is 'All in Your Head' – A Wake-Up Call to Mental Health Professionals
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
The symptoms of Lyme are very real and in my case had physical manifestations on my skin. I highly doubt that "more positive thinking" fixes that kind of stuff. Edit: just to be clear - the main issues were "under the skin," and very much in line with what's described in the article.
You've never heard of stress rashes? I have a friend who gets them all the time. She gets them after a few weeks of stress, like studying for an exam. I don't want to diminish your suffering, just that there are other explanations for it. The mind is powerful thing!
I should have made it clear that there's never been any doubt about the initial infection. I had the bull's eye and was diagnosed correctly. The point I am making is about what happens once you finish your initial 10-30 day treatment and the symptoms continue to persist.
Re: Lyme Is 'All in Your Head' – A Wake-Up Call to Mental Health Professionals
#50I travel to Old Lyme Connecticut at least once a week. This is the town where Lyme disease was diagnosed as a separate condition for the first time. Its also where the illness gets its name. We have a lot of ticks. Scientists link invasive barberry to Lyme disease: - http://today.uconn.edu/2012/02/controlling-japanese-barberry... The illness is definitely an imitator which is very scary. I've known people who have dr…
Small nitpick: Lyme doesn't mimic Bell's palsy, it can cause it. Source: my face during initial onset of Lyme, September 2000. Thankfully I got and noticed the bullseye bite mark, and 21 days of amoxicillin took care of it.