Lyme Disease

Yesterday to this morning for me is another example of why I am so thankful every day that I took the University of Pennsylvania’s online course on learning and applying resilience skills, so grateful that I typed up every single word that was taught, and that I recently started this group to share this critical knowledge from the actual people that researched this.

U. of Penn’s definition of Resilience is not only the ability to bounce back from adversity, but also the ability to grow from challenges.

In this course, Dr. Karen Reivich focuses on the psychosocial aspects of resilience. The aspects of resilience that are determined by your psychology, and by your social relationships and interactions.

So, yesterday was one of the rare days within recent years that 1) my fatigue completely took hold of me, and 2) my brain’s sleepiness was to the point that most of my brain would not wake up - all day- and I could see myself not able to function practically at all.

It’s not like this was the first time this ever occurred, and it’s always a possibility, but it is still very hard to watch myself go through this and it is also very hard to wake up from the next morning—the kind of “slap in the face” reminder that oh yeah, I live with a chronic illness that can at times, and I will never know when, will have me almost completely disabled.

So, this morning I woke up with this “setback.” And I look at it like I was brought to a “fork in the road.” And now while yesterday’s adversity was not in my control, this morning, which I always work to look at as a fresh, new day full of good possibilities, it was actually now in my control as to which way I let myself go in my mind at this “fork in the road.”

Of course upon waking up, my mind started on autopilot and took me the wrong direction. Then, the moments that I made myself ready for, the clarity, the practice of never staying in autopilot and moving forward on purpose, with intention, with as much control as I can have and before it gets too hard to get the control back.

I turned my brain’s thinking around, I put my focus on the truths that were on my side- including but not limited to the fact that I Have Bounced Back From Much Worse Than This…;and I turned my mind away from dangerous cognitive distortions and right then and there pretty fast I would not let the negativity bring me downward.

Yesterday, I still had the mindful awareness to apply radical acceptance, non-judging, patience, trust, and just letting be with what is — for this one day -these are part of the 9 Attitudes of Mindfulness that I have begun to write posts about here for you. These all link together with the skills of resilience.

What you will learn too here, amongst other important things is that -it is when we start paying attention to our inner experience, that we rapidly discover that there are certain thoughts and feelings and situations that our mind seems to want to hold on to.

And amongst other what are called “resilience interventions” that I applied were these skills that I committed to in living with intention- what are called “protective factors” that I nurture every single day so they will be there for me when I need them most, when I have to dig deeper from a wider range of resources —

I learned the Critical Skill of Optimism —which gives us the attitude to continue to persist —and I learned how Optimism is the most important factor in resilience and in all of life - well-being and strong relationships;
I commit myself to living for clarified purposes that are bigger than myself, this is not limited to relationships, it is even better for our wellbeing to have an attachment to something larger than yourself which might also be to a mission, to a purpose, to an idea, something that you believe is critically important and worth fighting for (by the way, my personal mission is that all of you are worth fighting for);
I learned what my Personality/Character Strengths are and I learned how to leverage them;
I Developed Mental Agility;
I learned how to create a “buffer of positivity”, and what is called the “Broaden And Build” theory of positive emotions;
I learned how to take control of “thinking traps” by applying “cognitive strategies”…

All of these are what is so effective about the newest branch of psychology that I approach my life by to overcome all that I do overcome— where in addition to everything else, we build strengths supports.

Positivity Psychology, a somewhat newer term, describes a dual approach to mental health- where we build strengths supports, and healthy lifestyles, as well as treating illness and distress.

AlI of this is all what I will keep breaking down into chunks in most of my posts here to this group.
This takes some work first on my part - to keep breaking down the many variables- so bear with me.

#MentalHealth #MajorDepressiveDisorder #ChronicFatigue #ChronicIllness #Disability #ChronicFatigueSyndrome #Depression #Anxiety #MoodDisorders #MotorDisorders #BipolarDepression #BorderlinePersonalityDisorder #AutismSpectrumDisorder #AnorexiaNervosa #EatingDisorders #BipolarDisorder #Selfcare #ADHD #Relationships #FamilyAndFriends #Fibromyalgia #ChronicPain #Cancers #Addiction #Selfharm #SuicidalIdeation #SuicidalThoughts #SuicideAttemptSurvivors #Suicide #ComplexPosttraumaticStressDisorder #PTSD #MyalgicEncephalomyelitis #PostTraumaticStressDisorder #Trauma #RheumatoidArthritis #SocialAnxiety #LearningDisabilities #CrohnsDisease #GeneralizedAnxietyDisorder #PersistentDepressiveDisorder #RecurringMDD #TreatmentresistantDepression #Mindfulness #MDD #TRDSupport #EhlersDanlosSyndrome #AutonomicDysfunction #PosturalOrthostaticTachycardiaSyndrome #MultipleSclerosis #LymeDisease #MajorDepression #ClinicalDepression #MotivationMonday #resilience #Grief

Been battling Lyme disease since mid February. I got it at work since I work with dogs. Was out for a month and returned earlier than I should have to be there for the company and my coworkers. Continued working despite excruciating pain and maddening chaotic symptoms. The company started to accept too many dogs for us to handle in the kennel and was even accepting people aggressive dogs even though it says on our website under no circumstances we don’t accept aggressive dog and even dogs without the proper vaccinations which is required by law. Last Friday I brought up my concerns to my boss and as of 9:30am today I was fired. Been working there for over 2 years and had gone above and beyond for my coworkers and the company as a whole. Right now I have never felt so numb and borderline denial hoping this is just a nightmare I’ll wake from. My mind put up walls immediately so I would not completely break down in front of management. I expressed legitimate concerns, and I got fired for it. I live in South Carolina and the labor laws don’t protect me in this regard unfortunately. I feel like I have been kicked in the teeth and thrown in the garbage. My soul is covered in nothing but old scares and open wounds and the very people who I worked so hard for and put my faith in and loyalty in shanked me in the back. A whisper in the back of my head is telling me to let go, but another part of me feeling throughly betrayed and taken advantage of. I’m 35 and have yet to have an employer who actually values integrity. Not a single one. Sure they all say the right things but their actions contradict their claims of being good and honest people. I love dogs. I had developed deep and loving bonds with 100s of dogs and cats. Now I will never see them again. Since I was fired I’ve just been staring off into nothingness. I did not see this coming, I had no back up plan. I’m still paying off all my medical expenses since February. I have no idea how I will feel as the week goes on. Please please I just need some compassion right now and some support. #LymeDisease #BorderlinePersonalityDisorder #PTSD #MajorDepressiveDisorder #Depression #MentalHealth

Finally, after years of uncertainty, I have found the unwanted guest that is causing me quite a few management problems: it is Mrs. Borrelia Burgdorferi, a bacterium transmitted by infected ticks that causes Lyme Disease.

In Italy, in about 10 years, just over a thousand cases of this disease have been diagnosed, but the incidence could be higher considering that people still speak little and the differential diagnoses often leave something to be desired.

In fact, in 20% of cases the erythema migrans, which is the main symptom recognized by doctors, does not appear.

This can make diagnosis more difficult, and when the body can no longer handle the infection, I assure you that the symptoms can become strange and unpredictable!

My hope now is to finally find a specialist who can follow me on this journey, to check whether this cute arthropod has brought with it other bacteria and assess any damage.

Even if finding out so late makes everything longer and more complex, I'm relieved to finally be on the right path and not to have stopped in my search!

🌟 LESSON #1 : Don’t Give Your Power Away!#MightyTogether #malattiadilyme #borreliaburgdorferi #diagnositardiva #lymeawareness #chroniclyme #percorsodiguarigione Finalmente, dopo anni di incertezze, ho trovato l'ospite indesiderato che mi sta causando non pochi problemi di gestione: è la Sig.ra Borrelia Burgdorferi, un batterio trasmesso da zecche infette che provoca la Malattia di Lyme.

In Italia, in circa 10 anni, sono stati diagnosticati poco più di mille casi di questa malattia, ma l’incidenza potrebbe essere più alta considerato che se parla ancora poco e le diagnosi differenziali lasciano spesso a desiderare.

Nel 20% dei casi infatti l’eritema migrante, che è il principale sintomo riconosciuto dai medici, non compare.

Questo può rendere più difficile la diagnosi e, quando il corpo non riesce più a gestire l’infezione, vi assicuro che i sintomi possono diventare strani e imprevedibili!

La mia speranza adesso è di trovare finalmente uno specialista che possa seguirmi in questo percorso, per verificare se questo simpatico artropode ha portato con sé altri batteri e valutare gli eventuali danni.

Anche se scoprirlo così tardi rende tutto più lungo e complesso, sono sollevata di essere finalmente sulla strada giusta e di non essermi fermata nella ricerca!

🌟 LESSON #1 : Don’t Give Your Power Away!

When I was researching my popular book “Love, Hope, Lyme: What Family Members, Partners, and Friends Who Love a Chronic Lyme Survivor Need to Know,” I was surprised to find there were so many people who recovered from Lyme that wanted to help others in the community.

Many attributed getting to a better place to supportive friends and family, helpful people in the medical community, and community members who tirelessly offered counsel and advice. One community leader I met was Ali from the Tick Chicks.

I discovered her Lyme Time Podcast when I was trying to learn more. I got to know her and asked her on my “Love, Hope, Lyme Podcast” how she was able to recover from Lyme.

Five Things That Led to Her Recovery

On the podcast, Ali discusses:

• Her Antibiotic trial

• Surrendering to not chasing the bug and numbers

• Opening her mind to alternative healing

• Symptom relief: supplements, extreme clean eating, rest, faith, baby steps (stretching, walking), eliminating humidity and elevation.

• Brain retraining, breathwork, vagus nerve health, a vision of total cellular health.

As with many Lyme survivors, it took over three years for her Lyme diagnosis to happen.

Ali said, “My doctor said now that we know it’s Lyme, it’s probably not the first thing that you’ve had attack your immune system on a deep level, and it probably won’t be the last. He said that for many of his patients, Lyme disease is somewhere in the middle, and when the Lyme is triggered, that’s their starting point.”

“I was astonished that Lyme wasn’t one of the first things they tested for. I was astonished that they didn’t ask where I had been traveling prior to all these symptoms coming about. I was astonished that my own neurologist blew it off. I was just in shock,” she said.

“I remember telling my doctor that I wondered if it could be Lyme disease, but every time I went online to research it, all it talked about was the ineffectiveness of Lyme testing.”

Like many Lyme survivors, Ali quickly learned that there is no easy and quick path to healing. She then decided to treat her symptoms, which she said made her recovery more manageable.

“I’m a doer. I was very active before this whole bug bite thing happened, and so it was frustrating me. I had to adjust my lifestyle. When I surrendered from trying to solve everything, there was beauty in the ability to see healing going on,” she said.

Why Symptom Control Made All of the Difference

When she shifted her personal care to symptom control, the vastness of healing from the largess of the disease was more manageable.

“There are a lot of intolerances that you get with Lyme disease, such as altitude intolerance, heat intolerance, humidity intolerance. I developed all kinds of joint pain, and I was suddenly very sensitive to chemical smells. I had to swap out all my cleaning supplies for household cleansers that were organic. Same with my skincare. I was reacting to SPF even in my makeup. I was going through this huge mast cell activation. That led me to eliminating certain things,” she said.

Diet was something she had to completely rethink.

She advised, “Lyme survivors need to eat very, very cleanly and stop eating so much. Eating very simple whole foods and proteins will take away the mass cell issue that’s going on in your body.”

“Also, your vitamin Bs are key to Lyme disease recovery, especially if you’re dealing with neurological Lyme. Your body may not be processing it in pill form, so you may have to take it intravenously. When I was really at my worst, I would do one IV a week, and then I would do one every two weeks, and then I would do one a month. I just do them as needed now,” she said.

She said she eliminated hot tubs and massages and focused on baby steps in terms of movement, such as going for very short walks.

“Infrared sauna helped me. Sometimes it can also create a Herxheimer reaction, but you will be able to learn your tolerances with that and eventually go full throttle with it daily,” she said.

How Brain Retraining Helped

I recently covered cognitive and neurological issues with Lyme on the Love, Hope, Lyme podcast. We discussed how brain retraining helped her recover.

Ali said, “When you have Lyme disease, your symptoms may start getting better. You may start feeling a little bit of relief, but what happens is your body is still in fight or flight mode, and it can be very, very detrimental to your healing process. You walk into a room and you’re completely nervous that if you get sick from any one of these people, it’s going to start your symptoms all over again. You’re nervous to be outside in the way that you used to enjoy the outdoors, for example.”

She said brain retraining taps into your vagus nerve and retrains your brain and your body to accept your surroundings, be relaxed again, and get into a state of appreciation and gratitude.

“One of my favorite mantras is ‘I am safe,” she said. “Going through Lyme disease makes you question everything, and it oftentimes will put a person into that next stage of paranoia and panic about situations.”

“I recommend it to anybody who feels like they’re hitting roadblocks, even if you’re doing everything right. Give yourself a vision of your cellular health. Give yourself a chance to see the world in a positive way again, and put mind over matter, and to just be able to turn that brain and those thoughts around to really remembering that you do have a beautiful life and you have a lot to give to this planet, and you will recover,” she concluded.

When I was doing the research for my book “Love, Hope, Lyme: What Family Members, Partners, and Friends Who Love a Chronic Lyme Survivor Need to Know,” I was unaware that a tick can transmit additional diseases known as coinfections. Coupled with Lyme disease, the coinfections can make managing a person’s health very challenging to say the least.

On the Love, Hope, Lyme podcast, GLA CEO Laura MacNeill discussed the coinfections and the difficulties in managing them. We discussed the work GLA is doing to improve treatment, diagnostics, and patient care for those who have these diseases, most commonly Bartonella and Babesiosis.

“You can get multiple coinfections from one tick bite, or you might get several bites. I’ve heard stories from people who have encountered tick nests, and they find hundreds of them at once. You need to be aware that these coinfections are not going to all have a bullseye rash, which is sometimes a key sign that you have been bitten by a tick. It’s going to be a very complex treatment process for you to go back to health if you have multiple things happening at once,” she said.

The two most common coinfections are Bartonella and Babesiosis. Unlike the bacteria borrelia burgdorferi that causes Lyme disease, these two are caused by parasites that also are transferred from a tick bite.

“This parasite destroys your red blood cells and leads to symptoms such as air hunger, which is the need to take a deep breath all the time. You can have lightheadedness and feel weak. Other common symptoms are high fever, night sweats, headaches, chills, and maybe even hypoglycemia,” she said. “You’re very sick if you’ve been infected with Babesiosis, especially in the later stage of that parasite infection.”

The challenge in treating these parasitic coinfections has led to GLA funding specific research for treatment.

“Antimicrobial drugs are used for treatment and are often administered in conjunction with homeopathic remedies. They can have some severe side effects. There’s a risk of drug resistance that can be developed, and they may or may not completely eradicate the full parasite,” she said.

To discover better treatment approaches, MacNeill said that GLA is supporting Dr. Choukri Ben Mamoun at Yale in his research.

“It’s a dual therapy approach. What his study highlighted that if you put two different drugs together, the antimalarials tafenoquine and atovaquone, to treat Babesiosis in mice, they have the potential for not only a complete cure, but they show immune protection against reinfection of the Babesia parasite. He’s been able to show that in mice, but then outside of a human host, just in the lab, he’s been able to show that this combination effectively kills three diverse Babesia species. It’s very exciting,” she exclaimed.

“This is very promising, but it doesn’t work for everybody. We need more research and more resources around this work so that we can further the research into clinical trials and continue to resolidify these amazing results he’s had in mice,” she said.

“Bartonella is a stealthy pathogen with a very slow growth period, which gives it the ability to evade detection for a very long time,” she said. “This can cause a range of symptoms including high fever, enlarged lymph nodes, to severe chronic illness that can infect multiple organ systems.”

“Plus, there’s also neuropsychiatric implications with Bartonella as the infection can get into your central nervous system. Testing can become very challenging, and you can have a lot of false negatives with Bartonella,” she said.

“If you think that this might be something you’re exposed to, you must be your own advocate to continue to get testing. Unfortunately, right now, the only good test we have is just going to be looking for it in your bloodstream,” she said.

“We need to have a better diagnostic for Bartonella, so we recently initiated funding for what we’re calling the Bartonella Discovery Project. The study aims to unveil these various hiding spots within the body, including the heart tissue, tissue in the brain, and find if bartonella is inside the cells or is it outside of the cells, or is it in the biofilms within those tissues? They are taking a deep look at where it is when it’s inside the tissues and not in the bloodstream, so we can better understand and find it,” she said.

MacNeill said this research is being done with Dr. Monica Embers at Tulane University, a specialist in Borrelia burgdorferi and Lyme disease.

“She’s evaluating antibiotic efficacy against Lyme disease, identifying treatments to eradicate Lyme disease and other infections, and looking at infections and looking for a cure for all of this. Over the years, she’s expanded her research to include Bartonellosis.”

MacNeill said, “You must have the resources available for scientists to even begin setting up a lab and setting aside a couple of years of their professional life to look at this. The GLA is providing those resources so that the scientists can choose Lyme disease and Babesia work. For GLA, that only happens through generous donors. We’re fully funded by the generosity of individual, corporate, and family foundations. Every gift that’s given helps us say yes to projects like Choukri’s, which is making a huge difference.”

“So many people are sick right now, and they can’t quite clear it with the current treatment. We’re talking 10s to 20s millions of dollars to be able to get it from what we know now, to get it to a clinical practice where you walk in your MD’s office and they say, “Here’s your combination therapy. You’re going to be just fine.”

“We continue to push forward our mission so that we can get these drug therapies to the doctor’s office with great understanding, so Lyme survivors don’t have to worry about it anymore,” she concluded.#

When I was researching my popular book “Love, Hope, Lyme: What Family Members, Partners, and Friends Who Love a Chronic Lyme Survivor Need to Know,” I had no idea how traumatizing being out in nature could be for some persistent Lyme disease survivors. Even seeing a deer on the side of the road could be triggering.

But I met some people who have attributed embracing the nature they once loved as helpful in healing while still maintaining tick prevention habits. One such person, marine scientist Alayna Bellquist, discussed on my Love, Hope, Lyme podcast how she was able to reduce her Lyme anxieties and challenges by fully embracing her love for the sea and horseback riding as critical to her recovery.

“I’m a classic Lyme person in that I was very overachieving, very people-pleasing, very go, go, go. I live in San Diego, had a relatively frantic life (before being infected),” she said.

Although she was bitten by tick in Southern California, she said she was not tick aware growing up.

“I grew up on Vancouver Island where no one ever spoke about Lyme. I had no tick awareness until I moved to Southern California, and it came up a bit more,” she said.

She said she was bitten when riding her horse, noticed the infection, and immediately sought antibiotic treatment, which mildly helped. In 2020, her symptoms increased, and she became bedridden for a year. Although she tried a lot of conventional and alternative healing methods, and did mental and emotional work, it was getting back into the nature she loved that accelerated her healing.

“Fearing nature is understandable when you have Lyme, but I think that mindset is dangerous. I want chronic Lyme survivors to know that getting back into nature can be helpful, while, of course, ensuring you take proper precautions,” she advised.

Missing Nature Was Brutal, But Led to Healing

“Before I got sick, horseback riding was a big part of my identity. I was a marine scientist and a horseback rider. Every minute I wasn’t working, I wanted to be on the back of a horse. I’ve been nature and animal oriented my whole life,” she said. “There was no limit to how much time I could spend around them.”

She said becoming bedridden and not being out in nature was brutal.

“Having had worked in fisheries for 20 years, I learned that nature always heals, given the chance. Nature is inherently resilient and heals from devastation that you cannot even grasp. These are principles that people are not really taught,” she said.

“Growing up in Vancouver Island, there’s nature everywhere and we are a part of it. I learned that if certain species, such as white sharks, can be in such terrible shape for a long time and then recover, that principle can apply to me, too.”

She said since the bond with nature was so intrinsic to her, she did not realize how fearful of it Lyme survivors might be.

“There is a lot in science to back the healing properties of doing that, especially for your nervous system,” she said.

“My nervous system was 100% fried when I was bitten. I was running all of time and had chronic anxiety and a racing heart. My stomach was always in knots. I also had babesia, but sitting on the earth, calming my nerves, taking the time to look at the stars healed me. I know it’s so basic, but I never looked at the stars before,” she said.

“Being back in nature, while at the same time ensuring that I am preventing another tick bite, has been the most important to my recovery,” she said.

Getting Back into Nature Healed Her

“If you want to bring a species back from depleted numbers, you work on the ecosystem. You work on the things that depleted its resiliency. If there’s pollution or problems in the food chain or warming oceans, for instance, those are the things that you address so that the species can flourish,” she said.

“I asked myself, ‘What are the things that are attacking my ability to heal?’ People-pleasing, never saying no, running 12 to 14-hour days nonstop, perfectionism came to mind. Those are my pollution and overfishing and ocean warming. That was the connection I made. Those are the things that made me incapable of healing,” she realized.

Alayna said although she accepted that she was infected, she didn’t accept it as a lifelong diagnosis. Returning to nature helped with her emotions and mindset.

“I’ve chosen, through a lot of work, to shift from victim to ownership. I radically own what happened to me. Wanting to be a people-pleaser and an overachiever is on me. That’s radical acceptance and responsibility,” she surmised.

“But in owning it, it’s up to me how the direction this goes. I don’t want to lose control. I want control of the next 40, 50 years of my life and returning to nature helped me realize that,” she summarized.

She also advised bringing family members into the healing process.

“You can be there simply by answering the phone, going and doing something in a Lyme friendly way. If all your Lyme family member can do is sit on a rock, go sit on a rock together.”

Fred Diamond is based in Fairfax, Virginia and can be contacted via Facebook. His popular book, “Love, Hope, Lyme: What Family Members, Partners, and Friends Who Love a Chronic Lyme Survivor Need to Know” is available on Amazon. The e-version of the book is always free to Lyme survivors. PM Fred on Facebook for your copy.

When I was researching my popular book “Love, Hope, Lyme: What Family Members, Partners, and Friends Who Love a Chronic Lyme Survivor Need to Know,” I had no idea how traumatizing being out in nature could be for some persistent Lyme disease survivors. Even seeing a deer on the side of the road could be triggering.

But I met some people who have attributed embracing the nature they once loved as helpful in healing while still maintaining tick prevention habits. One such person, marine scientist Alayna Bellquist, discussed on my Love, Hope, Lyme podcast how she was able to reduce her Lyme anxieties and challenges by fully embracing her love for the sea and horseback riding as critical to her recovery.

“I’m a classic Lyme person in that I was very overachieving, very people-pleasing, very go, go, go. I live in San Diego, had a relatively frantic life (before being infected),” she said.

Although she was bitten by tick in Southern California, she said she was not tick aware growing up.

“I grew up on Vancouver Island where no one ever spoke about Lyme. I had no tick awareness until I moved to Southern California, and it came up a bit more,” she said.

She said she was bitten when riding her horse, noticed the infection, and immediately sought antibiotic treatment, which mildly helped. In 2020, her symptoms increased, and she became bedridden for a year. Although she tried a lot of conventional and alternative healing methods, and did mental and emotional work, it was getting back into the nature she loved that accelerated her healing.

“Fearing nature is understandable when you have Lyme, but I think that mindset is dangerous. I want chronic Lyme survivors to know that getting back into nature can be helpful, while, of course, ensuring you take proper precautions,” she advised.

Missing Nature Was Brutal, But Led to Healing

“Before I got sick, horseback riding was a big part of my identity. I was a marine scientist and a horseback rider. Every minute I wasn’t working, I wanted to be on the back of a horse. I’ve been nature and animal oriented my whole life,” she said. “There was no limit to how much time I could spend around them.”

She said becoming bedridden and not being out in nature was brutal.

“Having had worked in fisheries for 20 years, I learned that nature always heals, given the chance. Nature is inherently resilient and heals from devastation that you cannot even grasp. These are principles that people are not really taught,” she said.

“Growing up in Vancouver Island, there’s nature everywhere and we are a part of it. I learned that if certain species, such as white sharks, can be in such terrible shape for a long time and then recover, that principle can apply to me, too.”

She said since the bond with nature was so intrinsic to her, she did not realize how fearful of it Lyme survivors might be.

“There is a lot in science to back the healing properties of doing that, especially for your nervous system,” she said.

“My nervous system was 100% fried when I was bitten. I was running all of time and had chronic anxiety and a racing heart. My stomach was always in knots. I also had babesia, but sitting on the earth, calming my nerves, taking the time to look at the stars healed me. I know it’s so basic, but I never looked at the stars before,” she said.

“Being back in nature, while at the same time ensuring that I am preventing another tick bite, has been the most important to my recovery,” she said.

Getting Back into Nature Healed Her

“If you want to bring a species back from depleted numbers, you work on the ecosystem. You work on the things that depleted its resiliency. If there’s pollution or problems in the food chain or warming oceans, for instance, those are the things that you address so that the species can flourish,” she said.

“I asked myself, ‘What are the things that are attacking my ability to heal?’ People-pleasing, never saying no, running 12 to 14-hour days nonstop, perfectionism came to mind. Those are my pollution and overfishing and ocean warming. That was the connection I made. Those are the things that made me incapable of healing,” she realized.

Alayna said although she accepted that she was infected, she didn’t accept it as a lifelong diagnosis. Returning to nature helped with her emotions and mindset.

“I’ve chosen, through a lot of work, to shift from victim to ownership. I radically own what happened to me. Wanting to be a people-pleaser and an overachiever is on me. That’s radical acceptance and responsibility,” she surmised.

“But in owning it, it’s up to me how the direction this goes. I don’t want to lose control. I want control of the next 40, 50 years of my life and returning to nature helped me realize that,” she summarized.

She also advised bringing family members into the healing process.

“You can be there simply by answering the phone, going and doing something in a Lyme friendly way. If all your Lyme family member can do is sit on a rock, go sit on a rock together.”#lyme #LymeDisease #ChronicIllness