The symptoms of Lyme disease are not easy to classify. Trying to find a doctor who believes your symptoms are not psychological can be frustrating.

©NYC Department of Health
Bull's-eye circular skin rash (erythema migrans) appears at the bite site after three days to a month. As the patch expands, the center of the rash may clear, resulting in a bull's-eye appearance. Although the majority of people with Lyme disease dovelop the rash, 20 to 40 percent do not. (CDC)


Many of us with chronic Lyme disease have spent years of our lives in our relentless pursuit of good health. We have been to dozens of physicians in search of correct diagnosis and treatment.

Likewise many of us who have been on this quest hear physicians dismiss us with a something like this, "I can not help you. This is all in your head. Now, go get a life."

Those words feel like a close-fisted slug to the belly. Those words knock the wind out of a patient who is desperate to get their life back from Lyme. Those words spoken by a trusted medical doctor create a heavy load of shame and cause the patient to wonder, "Am I really just insane?"

One fellow I know left his primary physician's office with the business card of a psychologist. This was the doctor's prescription for dealing with what had been erroneously determined to be psychosomatic.

Those of us who decide to plug along in spite of hearing those painful words leave many a doctor's office shaking our heads and thinking, "OK, I may be crazy, but what about the double pneumonia and/or the floaters in my eyes and/or the tremendous pain in soles of my feet, and/or the non-stop itching and dozens of other symptoms for goodness sake. These symptoms are real. How can we deal with those?"

If you are on the lookout for real solutions to your very real Lyme-related symptoms this next sentence may cause you to laugh right out loud after. Lyme disease really is all in your head, but not in the way your Lyme illiterate doctors imply.

When a load of Lyme spirochetes are injected into your blood stream and make it through your immune system's lines of defense where do you think they go? Those little bacteria go straight to your brain, begin multiplying and begin causing multiple brain infections.

Upon learning this important piece of information each of our Lyme-infected family members quit telling people that we all have "Lyme." That statement alone caused people to look at us with that "deer stuck in headlights look." Now, when we get into conversations about health struggles, first we admit to having brain infections, then we talk about Lyme. With this change in language lay people and physicians alike seem to take our words and symptoms more seriously.

As you learn about Lyme, you will find out that it does not travel alone. It takes company with it where ever it goes. So, in addition to learning about Lyme, be prepared to learn about Lyme-related co-infections as well. Yes, they like to take up residence in brain matter too.

Some of the Lyme-related co-infections that our family members had included, Epstein-Barr virus (mono); Parvo virus (comes from dogs); Strep; HHV6; H-Pilori (the number one bug on the planet) to name a few. Each of these little buggers were diagnosed and treated, then, thakfully came wellness.

Now your challenge is discernment. The next time you hear, "It is all in your head." You can ask yourself, "Does this person think I'm nuts? Or, have I finally found someone who is Lyme literate?"