Why Lyme Disease Is Like Being Haunted by a Poltergeist

Lyme disease has been with me off and on for years. I think of it sometimes as my lyme personal poltergeist. It is five years as a recognized relationship and many more as an unidentified disruptive presence. Over the course of time I have tried to engage or befriend Lyme disease and come to some accommodation. For the most part, I have not been successful.

Some people tell me, “Don’t be angry, make friends with Lyme.” Others say, “Kill it. Put up distinct boundaries.”

Bouncing between these two extremes hasn’t really helped. Sometimes I think I need an exorcism of my own Lyme personal poltergeist.

What is a Poltergeist?

A poltergeist is a type of ghost or other supernatural entity. In fact, the word poltergeist translates into “noisy ghost” or “pounding ghost.” It is intelligent energy. Ghosts appear and try to communicate, but poltergeists also create physical disturbances. Poltergeists attach to people and places and often don’t leave on their own.

Traditionally, poltergeists haunt a particular home or family and trouble them by misplacing and levitating objects, hitting, pinching and tripping people, and sometimes even seriously injuring family members. Poltergeist effects range from innocently mischievous to deliberately malevolent depending on the situation and conditions.

Why is Lyme My Personal Poltergeist?

This is very Lyme-like. In my body this entity is a group of intelligent infections that work in community. Lyme effects body mind and spirit. The physical disturbances are many and varied patient to patient and within one patient. It feels like possession. For many people the symptoms are mysterious and mischievous, and annoying for me it went towards malevolent.

Lyme communicates in baffling symptoms that come and go, like the visits from a poltergeist. The symptoms appear confusing and unconnected. Sometimes it pushes you off balance into a wall, other time a sharp pain makes you miss a step. It disturbs your sleep and wears you down. I have learned from this visitor, but it hasn’t always been pleasant.

Lyme moves in. It is a bad tenant an unwelcome presence. Lyme disease sets up a secret life in your life. Lyme disease will get in front of the line for nutrients you eat and digest.

It will steal from your body to do it. It took over the climate control, and adjusted my pH. When it did this inflammation increased in my body causing all sorts of little problems that I dismissed as a virus or an off day.

As the interactions and symptom got worse, I sought help. Doctors told me at first nothing was wrong, I was imagining things. Nothing was causing all the symptoms I have. There was no consistent symptom map that they could name and treat.

They told me to lose weight or get more sleep. They told me menopause is different for different people an it would get better. Pretty good advice, but it made me feel bad and insecure. Things did not get better – they got worse. All the while Lyme evaded detection and made me confused.

Turn a Light on the Dark Presence of Lyme Disease

Family and friends saw and believed. They kept pushing me to find out what was really going on. They encouraged me to drive through the disbelief of my medical support team and get some data to work.

When I finally found a Lyme literate doctor who would listen and run the tests I need to get a diagnosis, things were bad. I had been haunted with escalating pain and injury for years. Lyme had been acting as a phantom in secret, but now the lights are on. I was not just having a really bad decade and really bad menopause.

Today I work with a much deeper understanding of my body and my unwelcome guest. I feel less haunted and more in control of my health. Lyme makes its presence known far less often. I am rebuilding my wellness and working to dissipate my Lyme poltergeist.

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Thinkstock Image By: jessicahyde