strongwill new member with Bart question

Welcome to the forum Strongwill!

Sorry you are having such a bad herx. Are you detoxing? That can help a lot with the symptoms.

Please read the "New to Lyme?...Start here" It has lots of information on detoxing and more.

Can you get to see a Lyme Literate Doctor? Self-medication is really not safe, you should be monitored by an experienced practitioner as this is a complicated and dangerous course of treatment.

my experience with this is similar - With me, part of the disease/herx response is "real" and symptomatic of the die-off of the organisms. But, part, it seems, is me adding my anxiety to the response (worrying about the effects of the herx and the disease). You may be experiencing a similar thing. I use breathing techniques and the like to get through my anxiety attacks. Plus, breathing (deeply into the abdomine) actually HELPS with the die-off because the Lyme organisms hate oxygen and breathing deeply helps oxygenate the blood stream! Plus, I try and just accept the herx rather than "fight" it. This helps a lot too. Not saying it is easy - before I knew this to be Lyme over many years in my past, I suffered anxiety/depression and drugs for those conditions made me WORSE. The best things for both the disease AND the anxiety/depression are: SLEEP, eat HEALTHY (including getting to a healthy weight), EXERCISE, and vitamin/herb supplementation. Add in DETOXIFICATION and the antibiotics and the whole picture is made...

Just my 2 cents...keep the faith!

SW: there is no time frame - in the past, before I knew this was Lyme, my episodes would be prompted by a mjor life stressor - I mean a big stressor like a death in the family or divorce or a major life change (moving far away, that kind of thing). So, I have had about 5-6 of these in my life. This time, it was not a stressor but a tick bite that FINALLY had me tested for lyme - positive on CDC. In the past, with NO LYME TREATMENT (cuz I doid not know it was Lyme then), the episodes would last 6-18 months generally. I have no precedent to guess what it will be this time but I am hoping it will be much LESS since I know what it is and how to fight/manage it. You may be the same (less time). But, again, some words of wisdom - try and stay active now matter how bad in the head you might feel - depression will feed on inactivity. Exercise as you can to increase endorphins, get rest - if you cannot sleep, still lie down and rest as best as possible. Face but do not FIGHT anxiety. Especially panic attacks - no matter how bad they may seem, they are HARMLESS and seem to lose a LOT of their power if you can accept them and leave them be. I learn an acronym back when I had these before and am using it now - FAFL (pronounced faffle) : FACE, ACCEPT, FLOAT and LET TIME PASS. Face the anxiety head-on, accept it, float with it and just let time pass and it will diminish with time! The symptoms will go away as the meds and immune system rally against the Lyme and its breathren.

Keep the faith!