extreme herxing from stephania root?

hi
one of my most bothersome symptoms with lyme has been severe vision issues. i still have yet to find anyone else with the same vision issues as myself. so i'm not sure if it's from bartonella, lyme or damage done to my eyes or that part of the brain. i recently started stephania root per buhner's healing lyme book. he says it helps with ocular symptoms. i started out with 1/16th teaspoon and went up to 1/8th teaspoon 2x a day for several weeks. last week i upped the dose to 1/4th teaspoon 2x a day. i think i may have upped the dose by too much because i have been feeling AWFUL for the past week. the flashing lights and streaks in my vision have been worse and my neuro symptoms and dizziness have been worse as well. the vision especially has been rough. thursday night i had my eyes closed and i saw what i assume to be a colony of lyme spirochetes floating around my left eye. very scary...

so what's the deal? i thought this herb was supposed to help with ocular symptoms, not make them worse? this is the worst they've ever been. i describe it as visual hallucinations. i'm seeing spots and lights and sh!t that aren't even there. i can't live like this... so is buhner totally full of it? he states constipation as a side effect and nothing else. taking this herb has made everything 10 fold worse when i thought it was supposed to help with symptoms?? everyone says the herbs are much safer than antibiotics but i have to disagree. never have the antibiotics messed up my vision this bad. i quite literally feel like i'm losing my mind. i'm pretty irritated that i spent 40 dollars on an herb from a place he 'recommends' buying from (suspicious in my opinion). has anyone else tried this herb and felt like they were going insane with visual hallucinations or is it just me? i'm very concerned that taking this herb has done some kind of damage. has anyone else had vision problems that ever went away cuz i feel like i'm chasing this symptom around in a circle.

thanks

I did not take Stephania but had all the symptoms you are describing. Mine was just a lyme symptom and scary as heck.

I swear there was a black dog in my back yard and he kept going by my sliding glass door. I would open that door 3 or 4 times a day to shoosh the dog away. There was no dog.... It was a shadow I kept seeing for some reason in that room.

I saw spiders on the walls too. A black dot that I swear was a spider. I would blink and it would be gone. Treatment - and I did herbs- and all is gone now.

I agree with Traveler, you are herxing and it very well may be that you went over your limit of Stephania. Back off to 1/8th of a teasp and get settled down. Then when you up the dose, only up by drops, not double, like you did. That was way too much too fast.

I did the same thing with my herbs and learned quickly to go SLOW.

Hang in there. You can do this!!