So You Have Chronic Lyme Disease: A Guide to Dealing with Your Symptoms
Logically Approach Your Symptoms to Best Keep Them Under Control
The symptoms of chronic Lyme Disease generate a list that appears indefinite. They're symptoms that have a unique nature to them; only you can feel what no one else can see.
And the range of their debilitation is so grand that it makes the disease itself less likely to be considered credible in the eyes of your peers. From a single ache in the joint of a finger, to the complete loss of ability to walk which may warrant a wheelchair. It reaches a point where the symptoms of chronic Lyme Disease are so unpredictable, so unmanageable, and manifesting in such great numbers that the most appealing solution and response to them is to just endure.
1. Accept That You Have SymptomsYou may have acknowledged or simply observed that you have muscles weakness or brain fog, but that doesn't mean you've accepted it. And what is meant by accepting is exactly that. Just accept them! There is no need to take it a step further and "accept them for life" or "accept that you'll never get rid of them". Nope. Just accept them without the enticing urge to add uncertain truths to the situation that will only add to your already overburdened mind.
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So why accept your symptoms? Why not just continue to be bitter and disdainful towards them? Well, because when you accept your symptoms, you open yourself to the truths of the circumstances. And in truth, even in the most treacherous and difficult of situations, there exists a peace. Just say to yourself, "I have this symptoms because I have a bacteria in my body disturbing the chemistry of it". And just accept that for what it is - the truth. And accepting your symptoms will become the first step needed in order to begin addressing them.
2. Don't Beat Yourself Up
Moreso than not, your symptoms are going to arise at a time when you need them least. And when they do, they may cause you to not only behave or perform in a specific manner opposite of the intended result, but likely to be out of your control as well. Brain fog doesn't allow you to perform the mental math needed to give the correct change to a customer at your job, or that joint pain in your fingers arises at a time when you need to play that incredibly intricate guitar solo for your band. So what do we do? We blame and beat up ourselves.
Not only is our body and mind already taking a beating from our friends, family, and the bacteria within, but now the only other person who truly understands what we are going through, you, has decided to take their own shots. And it's going to happen. You're going to feel the overwhelming need to take your frustration out on someone. It's in our blood to find blame for fault, and because we haven't been able to find true fault for our circumstances in anyone, and because we can't reason with a bacteria, the winner of the blame game many times ends up being you.
It's so important to be able to control your thoughts and not take that shot at yourself. The last thing you need to do is to add insult to injury. When a situation arises where you feel your symptoms are going to negatively impact it, stop for moment, and analyze the truths.
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Understand that inflammation may be causing your brain fog and that it's out of your control for the time being. Tell yourself you'll search for a remedy for a specific symptom later on, and that alone should allow you to get through an undesirable situation, even if it doesn't turn out the way you intended. Accept that you likely would not have performed in such a manner had your symptom not existed at the time. Accept that you're under the influence of a bacteria, and that technically the manifestation of your symptom likely isn't your fault.
3. Understand Your Symptom. Learn What Causes It. |
There is no greater feeling than possessing the knowledge of how and why your symptom exists. Embracing this step will advance you to feeling empowered enough to find a remedy for your symptom, but forfeiting this step will keep you in a constant cycle of not trying to beat yourself up over it.
Educate yourself via any means on why your symptom exists! Speak to your treating physician, research relevant books and articles, and talk with others who you know have experienced the same symptom. The more you do, the more knowledge you'll acquire, the more confident you'll feel in finding a remedy for your symptom, and the more the stress of finding a remedy for the symptom will dissipate.
4. Find a Remedy for Your Symptom
As it was mentioned in the introduction of this article, the symptoms of Lyme Disease have a unique nature. There are so many of them, they arbitrarily manifest, and the difference in debilitation between two symptoms can be the difference in doing and not doing.
This nature of the disease is such that even if you know not only what is causing your symptom, but also how to remedy the symptom, many times just enduring the symptom comes off as most appealing. Especially after everything you've been through in regards to chronic Lyme Disease that has led you up to this point in your fight, that care that is needed to find and apply a remedy just doesn't preserve quality of life as well as just enduring a symptom does - if that care even exists at all.
But that's ok! You're going to have those days where you'd rather just endure than remedy. But sooner or later, and likely many times over, you're going to reach a breaking point in which your body will feel the overwhelming need to find a remedy for your symptom. It may be your third or fourth, or even fifteenth attempt at finding a remedy for this symptom, but you're increasing the odds of eventually finding one.
ConclusionSuffering from chronic Lyme Disease may be grand, or it may be minute, but its inevitable. It may come in a physical form or a psychological one. The suffering may last for a couple hours, or many years. The greatest knowledge we have though is that we have the ability to affect these factors. Someone somewhere has found a solution, though it may be temporary and only takes the edge off, for his brain fog. Another person has discovered why they're experiencing bizarre visual symptoms, and will soon be applying a possible remedy.
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The desire to increase quality of life exists within all of us, though at times the effort may be hard to find. It so important to refrain from designating blame, and instead to use that energy and time, and focus on learning more about a specific symptom, and then finding and trying a possible remedy. Because who knows, you may actually find your answer.
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