Psychological Effects Of Lyme? Is this what it is?

I was hoping I might find someone else who has experienced these symptoms who has been positive for Lyme. Being a health worrier I get myself worked up that its something even worse :(.

So here's my story. I was great during the summer, my anxiety was lessening, I was more outgoing, I felt healthy and strong, and generally happy. I spent a lot of time outdoors, I live in the country so getting tick bites is a weekly occurrence my entire life but I usually always catch them early. However this summer I found several that had probably been there for days.

Anyway it all started in September when I woke up out of a deep sleep in the middle of the night disoriented and confused, it was weird and scary. It passed and I fell back to sleep but that next day everything seemed off, it still does. I don't know how to explain it in any way except things feel different.

I feel...

- Mentally cloudy, I can't think well it feels like something is keeping me from thinking clearly.
- Very "out of it" disconnected from my surroundings.
- Everything seems surreal and weird.
- Short term memory problems, I'm forgetting where I set things ALL the time and just generally more forgetful.
- I am WAY more anxious.
- I feel depressed and this feeling of dread, its strange.
- I feel like I'm losing my mind (maybe its just anxiety xD).
- I generally feel like I drank a big glass of wine or am on heavy medication..

The doctors tell me its just anxiety but why in the world would I one day feel like everything is looking up and everything is getting better and then, like a ton of bricks, it hits me and everything goes wrong. My anxiety comes back, I feel mentally disabled, I feel tired and sick.

I'm also running a low grade fever on and off of 99.5, which the doctors have also come to the conclusion that it is my normal temperature.

Anyway does anyone else have these mental symptoms with Lyme? Thank you so much for reading this I'm just worried :(.

[youvegottobekidding]

All those symptoms you have listed are ones I have experienced with lyme." Feeling disconnected" and "feelikng like I am losing my mind" are  the phrases actually used in medical texts describing some of the mental symptoms of lyme.
They also fit with bartonella, another tick borne infection with similr symptoms to lyme but particularly bad mental ones.
I most definitely think you should get tested for lyme, I'd do it provately at Igenex if you can posssibly afford it.

[mojogal]

I have had those symptoms too. You should get checked by an LLMD , lyme literate Dr, very soon. They use the lab youvegottobekidding mentioned above.
Go to ILADS dot org and read things, also email them and ask them for an LLMD near you.

They will be able to help you a lot.

Good luck!

[JackieCalifornia]

Others will chime in too, but everything in your list could be part of Lyme, and I've had most of those symptoms myself.  Lyme is a changeling and affects everyone differently at different times.  (Think about the common cold:  everyone's symptoms vary at some level both in manifestation and intensity.)

I think now that I was bitten at least twice, in different years -- and the piling on of infection can finally send the immune system over the edge.  It think this common, but docs don't recognize it, and/or can't do anything about it anyway, except deal with the mess when finally presenting at the doc's office.  And I never saw a tick at all.

"Things feel different" -- that is how I was.  I couldn't explain it except in fragments -- tired, confused, achy sometimes.  The best I could come up with was 'a cross between the flu and a hangover.'  Not pretty.

Anxiety is a big part of Lyme too, so count that as a symptom of the infection, not necessarily your personal reaction to a physical ailment.  Lyme affects the nervous and endocrine systems too, therefore mental processing, emotions, and all the combos thereof.

When you throw in the symptoms of various co-infections, it's a real stew pot.  It's natural to try to sort them all out and pin them on this infection or that one, but except in the early stage of trying to tell the doc what your symptoms ARE, don't make yourself crazy trying to sort them out. The doc will do that, and truly, you probably can't divide them all up into tidy categories anyway.  It's a logical thing to try to do, but Lyme ain't logical.  It plays by its own rules.

Take care, keep us posted --

[Ricobord]

I had the same symptoms you describe with my Lyme.  I also had Bartonella (also known to cause anxiety), so I encourage you to get tested for that, too. Both are neurological infections, so they can affect our brains and our thinking in many ways.

IGeneX is the best place to get tested.  You can test false negative for both, so be sure to get to a LLMD who knows how to diagnose and treat them properly.