If you or someone you love has Lyme disease, or chronic Lyme disease, you are probably very aware of how debilitating it can be both physically and mentally. And then there’s all the confusion. The tests are vague. The “official” (CDC) take downplays everything. You don’t actually look sick. The ones that do agree that chronic Lyme is a thing repeatedly say there is no actual cure, you can only treat the symptoms and put it in remission. There is a daunting supply of information out there on Lyme, and it’s all contradictory. The whole package really puts a strain on an individual’s hope.
Every one of us is different. We are put together differently. We have different lives. We have different influences and situations. And all of our bodies react differently to disease. Understanding and embracing that fact is step one in healing.
Just because something worked for someone, doesn’t mean it will work for you. But, just because something didn’t work for someone else, doesn’t mean it won’t work for you.
You know your body the best. You know yourself, your life, your situation the best. You know what you are feeling. You know what you believe. You already know what you need to heal yourself. It’s in there, I promise.
Now, I’m not saying everyone has the knowledge of the cosmos and can tap into it at will to figure everything out. What I’m saying is, if a doctor says, “based on my professional opinion, you have disease x or y syndrome,” or if a friend says, “I’ve had that; it’s definitely z,” you don’t have to own that. If your doctor, herbalist, naturopath, partner, friend, mother, etc., etc. suggests a path, a treatment, a remedy, you don’t have to follow their advise. If you don’t feel it, if it doesn’t resonate with you, if you don’t identify with it or believe it, then it doesn’t have to be. It’s your body and your life. Own it.
So chronic Lyme.
Well the CDC and all the “really smart people” who are government funded and are supposed to have the absolute best and most up-to-date information say it doesn’t exist. Do you believe it does? Are you going through it?
The Lyme Literate doctors, or LLMDs suggest long term, high dose, IV antibiotics as the treatment to at least put the Lyme into remission. Do you believe antibiotics are your answer? Is remission enough for you?
Naturopaths suggest a whole slew of methods and remedies that are mostly unstudied, so also unproven except by testimonial. They include lifestyle changes, energy work, homeopathic remedies, herbal remedies, diet, exercises, cleansing, meditation, acupuncture, essential oils, conventional medicines…the list goes on and on. Do you believe in those methods of healing? Can you commit to following through with them?
Herbalists believe in the healing power of plants to eradicate disease. Do you?
Your mind is your most powerful ally in any situation, especially in illness, or dis-ease. If you don’t feel your ailment is x, y, or z, who knows better than you? If you don’t feel like treatment a, b, or c will work for you, who knows better than you? Stick with what you know. Stick with what you believe in. Stick with what you know you can manage, mentally, physically, or otherwise. Take control of your own health, and you will always find the hope that is so very crucial to any healing process. Have faith that you have the ability to overcome.
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
— Hebrews 11:1
This is my journey, my experience, so I focus on Lyme. Yes, I’ve been diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, but I didn’t identify with that. I didn’t believe CFS was my problem, so I let that diagnosis fall by the wayside. But I did believe I had Lyme. And I do believe I do not have Lyme now. You can read the details of my initial years with Lyme disease in other posts (13 parts…yeah it was a loooong journey). But since that initial stage, when my life journey continued into a different set of beliefs, when I learned to put more faith in what I believed to be true rather than what I was told was true, when I had learned to use what I knew to make the right decisions for myself, when I had flare ups and old familiar symptoms, I did do other things.
I looked to nature. Lyme disease has been around for probably ever. Long before people put a name to it, long before antibiotics in their current forms were invented, there were people experiencing things that are reminiscent of the symptoms of Lyme. And back then, they looked to nature. So I found what has been used historically. Like teasel root. I did as much research on how it works, what it does, what evidence was available, and made the decision to try it. It helped me. When the pain came back, I used teasel root tincture and believed it was my answer, and it worked for me.
Lyme disease is related to and also behaves a lot like syphilis, which has also been around forever, and is well documented. So I researched historical treatments of syphilis. Some I wasn’t willing to try. Some seemed completely unbelievable. Some made sense to me, so I tried them.
Like heat. Viruses don’t like heat. That’s why your body creates a fever when a virus gets bad. Your body raises the heat to try to defeat the virus. Lyme (and syphilis) is a virus. So I did the research on actual methods used (very hot baths, steam huts, wrapping in blankets, herbal supplements, etc.) and the possible hazards with each and then I went for it. I did everything I could to raise my body temperature, careful to do it only when others were around should I overdo it. And it worked for me.
There are dozens of Lyme protocols. There are probably hundreds of books on Lyme disease. There are probably thousands of websites dedicated to Lyme disease. There are millions of opinions about Lyme disease. Find what works for you and your life. Find what you believe in, and try that first. And maintain always have faith in your knowledge of yourself, and the hope will come flooding in to carry you along in your journey.
No Magic Pill 