Posted by bleauberry on April 13, 2018, at 10:01:10
In reply to Re: Why is alcohol the only thing that helps me? » bleauberry, posted by Prefect on April 10, 2018, at 12:21:03
> Also I have a lot of inner tension, tachycardia, and sensory agitation. Would Ritalin not make this worse, because it's also a norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor. I went on Fetzima last year for a weak and it turned me into a basketcase.
Wow. You are offering a very good description of what Bartonella feels like. Excellent choice of descriptive words. Accurate.
I don't know anything about your case. Looking in from the outside, knowing very little, my gut instinct is two-fold:
1. Find a med(s) as quick as you can that just helps your symptoms feel better - don't worry about a cure or perfection at this point - you just need improvement at this point. Whether it is Xanax or Ritalin or SSRI or antipsychotic, to me, really doesn't matter. What does matter is that you are more functional than you were, more relaxed than you were.
2. Find an LLMD.Because the real thing that needs to happen is to address the Bartonella and its likely tag-team of friends - they are causing your psychiatric symptoms - in my opinion.
In terms of psychiatry, Bartonella is often associated with:
1. over sensitive to random meds, requiring tiny doses
2. under sensitive to random meds, requiring massive doses
3.paradoxical reactions where the med makes you worseAs an example, one of my LLMDs starts his depression patients on one drop of liquid lexapro. I personally disagree strongly with any kind of reuptake inhibitors in Lyme, but that's another story. He liked lexapro and said he had a good method. That one drop was the same as 1/10th of 1mg! Some of his patients were making progress from depression with just 1mg to 5mg of lexapro! Because they were so sensitive. I often think the doses are way too high. Just my opinion. I think it is easy to accidentally overshoot a magical window.
A book called Healing Lyme by Stephen Buhner is a fantastic book to orient yourself on the complexities, mysteries, diagnosis and treatment via natural herbs and supplements. This is a great place to start! You can feel better with just some of the anti-inflammation and anti-toxicity strategies. There are potent antimicrobial herbs, including ones for Bartonella.
I think most people eventually need pharmaceutical antibiotics to get over the hump to the finish line. But herbal approaches can get you started on the journey at home while you hunt for the right clinician to help you. You can make a lot of progress before you even see a doctor.
You will want to specifically seek out LLMDs in your state. LLMD stands for Lyme Literate Medical Doctors - these folks have been to special training, seminars, and clinical experience that regular doctors/specialists have not. They are keenly aware of the strong correlation between psychiatry and Lyme, and they can even make educated guesses as to which organism is causing the symptoms based on the description of the symptoms. They know how to make the diagnosis, with or without testing, and they know the ways to treat that work, and the ones that don't work. I actually did some of this on my own for a while by ordering my own antibiotics from overseas pharmacies. I would not suggest anyone else do that. But I did.
I got a head start while I was still hunting for an LLMD. There were none in my state. I had to go the next state over which had 6 of them. That was years ago. My state now has 2 LLMDs and 1 LLNP. Where ever you live, there are probably a handful of them within reach.
Trying to figure out what kind of medication might help you feel better is hard. Will it be a NE med? DA? 5ht? Gaba? Don't know. I think what makes sense to start with meds that work fast - stimulants, benzos, and antipsychotics. The SSRIS and TCAs can take weeks or months of time and end up being a total waste of time often. They can behave badly when Bartonella is present. We can get oversensitive reactions or opposite reactions. SSRIs, for example, or any kind of reuptake mechanism, made my depression worse not better. And the numbness. Yuck.
I think an approach that makes sense in your case is to find the fastest short-term assistance you can get from meds that doesn't require a longtime commitment to see if it helps or not, to study a book or two, to begin treatment with a few select supplements/herbs at home, while hunting for an LLMD. The meds won't ever be your cure, if you ask me. But the LLMD stands a real good chance of being your cure.
Even simple herbal strategies could give you rapid relief of symptoms. I'm thinking Lemon Balm, Passion flower, Chinese Skullcap (Baical Skullcap), American Skullcap, Valerian root, and others. At the natural food store or online buy 2-4 of these are start experimenting with combinations of them. Any combos. herbs work best in combos. The ones I listed here are generally known for their calming properties on the nervous system, and not known for worsening existing depression (valerian could worsen).
I want to share with you one of my profound experiences. Just so you can think about it. This is recent. Last week I had incredible anxiety pop up for no reason. It is sort of like butterflies in the tummy or stage fright. I get lightening bolts of electricity through my heart. Heart palpitations. Fear of going out. Now, I didn't freak out over any of this because I already knew it was 'fake' - not real - a fake way of feeling, caused by infection, most likely Bartonella. Even though it feels horrible and impacted me terribly, I knew deep down where it was coming from. Ok so I see my doctor and she decides to change out antibiotics - one of Borellia regular, one for Borellia L form, one for Borellia Cystic form, and one specific for Bartonella. I do 3 during the week and add the 4th only on weekends (Flagyl - a cyst buster).
So here is what happened on day 2 to day 4: Lightening bolts gone, completely gone. Heart palpitations improved 90%. No fear of going out. Feeling peaceful and hopeful. Day 5 is when the Herx hit (die-off) which brought all the original symptoms back. I stopped a day to let my body catch up clean out the toxicity of death. Great peace again. And today back on meds. And so goes the battle. I symbolically compare it to peeling layers of onions. It goes like this: Meds cause improvement, but then it gets blown up by a Herx, then stop to rest, then restart for more improvement, then Herx, then stop again, then start again...and with each new layer the time of 'peace' or 'remission' gets longer and longer. At first maybe it's just half a day. Then next time it's a while day. Then next time it's 2 whole days. Then next time it's almost a whole week. And then as time goes by, the good days greatly outnumber the bad days, Herxing hardly ever happens anymore, much milder when it does, and progress is remarkable.
It is a hard fight I will tell you that. But there is a harder fight that doesn't end with remarkable progress. That's the fight we are in here, trying to choose the best psychiatric med.
That is my experience and opinion.
poster:bleauberry
thread:1098005
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20180331/msgs/1098123.html