LYME AND SUICIDE
Suicidal ideation and completed suicides are certainly not uncommon among chronic Lyme disease sufferers.
I clearly understand why this is the case. I have personally witnessed the intolerable suffering of those who have wanted to end their lives. I have also read plenty of stories about those who have taken their own lives as a result of Lyme—stories that are heartbreaking and tragic, and perhaps could have been prevented.
There are a number of reasons why people commit suicide. Chronic Lyme is the perfect storm. It’s a disease that matches up with so many reasons for not being able to see a way out of the darkness. It is so clear to me how and why chronic Lyme sufferers, in particular, so often succumb to this disease by their own hand.
Lyme sufferers are often anxious and depressed. Anxiety and depression are commonly experienced neurological symptoms of Lyme. After all, with Lyme, the brain is inflamed and therefore subject to all sorts of neurological imbalances. This, compounded by the lack of and often outright negation of medical attention, leads to discouragement, fear, helplessness, frustration, loss, grief, loneliness, and, at times, little hope for recovery. When an illness is chronic, and there is often unrelenting suffering and inadequate relief from the myriad of debilitating symptoms, anxiety and depression can become even more pronounced.
Lyme depression is often intractable—that is, resistant to treatment. Lyme can also affect the endocrine system, potentially creating mood disorders. Among other symptoms, Lyme sufferers can experience psychotic episodes, attention deficit, panic attacks, obsessive-compulsive disorder, rage, dissociation, and depersonalization.
Lyme sufferers are sick for years and even decades and get worn down over time. The collection of symptoms—including brain fog, headaches, fevers, joint pain, nervepain, anxiety, depression, shakiness, instability, dizziness, vision and auditory disturbances, hallucinations, seizures, paralysis, and more—experienced day in and day out, can wear you down, making even the most resilient warriors eventually want out.
Lyme sufferers are socially isolated, medically denied, crying out for help, and no one is listening. Family and friends don’t know how to help. Some loved ones all but abandon the Lyme sufferer because they get fed up with the constant complaining and limitations. As doctors are showing Lyme sufferers the door—dismissing, mocking, and negating their disease and suffering, and offering no answers for finding relief—it becomes more and more difficult for loved ones to understand and support those with Lyme.
Lyme sufferers feel like a burden. They lose their independence, their livelihoods, and their ability to function. They feel like they’re losing their minds at times. They live with constant brain fog and cognitive limitations, making every task far more difficult. They get worn down by the chronic pain and illness, by the fear, the inactivity, and the inability to plan or have anything to look forward to.
Lyme sufferers have to face loss every day. Loss of health, loss of the person they once were, loss of independence, loss of dreams and goals, loss of missed opportunities, loss of the life they once had, loss of an identity, loss of self-esteem, loss of loved ones who abandon them, loss of hope, loss of finances, loss of employment, and loss of a future.
Lyme sufferers are victimized many times over—by the disease itself, by doctors who turn their backs, by family and friends who roll their eyes and walk away, by insurers who refuse coverage, and by a medical system that negates the very existence of this disease.
In short, Lyme causes a multitude of neurological problems, and when our brain isn’t working well, we are not working well. Depression and anxiety can cast a very darkshadow over our thoughts. This, along with the pain and exhaustion of chronic daily suffering, a lack of support, medical negation, gaslighting, and abandonment—it’s no wonder that suicide can sometimes feel like it may be the only way to stop the madness.
Now... if ONLY mainstream medicine would WAKE UP to this global pandemic ... just imagine how many lives could be saved.
This is an excerpt from the book LYME MADNESS, named #1 NEW RELEASE in Immune System Health on Amazon, authored by Lori Dennis, MA, Registered Psychotherapist. For more information, go to loridennisonline.com
LYME MADNESS is available on Amazon. http://amzn.to/2fVkW7v
The Kindle version is only 99¢ for the month of May in honour of Lyme disease awareness month.