Posted 4/5/2021 1:27 PM (GMT -6)
My history is quite extensive so I will try to keep this as short and to the point as possible. I'm in my early 20s and from the Northeast. I live in an Lyme-endemic area. Wondering if it is worth looking into lyme+PANS/PANDAS.
Brief synopsis of my life growing up: always been the anxious type (always been a very anxious person, started picking my fingers at a very young age- like 5, no one knew why I was picking my fingers so much), had two outdoor cats when I was younger, dogs all my life and basically lived at the swim club (swim club was in the woods-extremely grassy/bushy)
Psychiatric History:
When I was 15, I suffered from a psychotic break that caught everyone in my life off guard as just before then I was fine. Had just completed my freshman year of high school and I did well- made more friends, joined sports, etc. As the psychosis was getting worse my pediatrician told my mom to take me to the ER and they did not really know what was going on. Everything came back normal and I was sent home. However, the psychosis was still there and getting worse. So my mom took me to multiple psychiatrists and took me to a neurologist. Psychiatrists didn't know what was going on and wanted to pump me with meds, neurologist said I was fine. I just experienced your typical psychotic thoughts- thinking there were people following me, I was convinced at some point that the FBI was trying to give me the lethal injection, etc. one psychiatrist told my mom that it would be best to put me in patient. While, inpatient I was prescribed antipsychotics. The antipsychotics barely helped and after a couple of days, my mom pulled me out of the inpatient facility. Went to go see another psychiatrist and he referred me to a psychiatric day program for adolescents. This day program admitted me as a patient and at first did not know what was going on. The psychosis took around 2 and a half months to lift. While I was psychotic, I completely regressed. I was unable to sleep, could not dress myself or even shower myself. My speech was extremely limited and I was saying very odd things. The psychiatric day program diagnosed me with generalized anxiety disorder and said the psychotic break was a result of years of bottled up anxiety. I got put on antidepressants/ a benzodiazepine. I honestly never felt the antidepressants helped me, however I have always been on the same antidepressant, did not try any new antidepressant. The psychosis that I experienced was a one time episode and since then, I have not experienced any psychosis.
Well flash forward to going off to college, crap broke out and I got worse. My OCD got worse to the point where I was up for three days straight performing rituals. From there, I took a medical leave and went to a residential treatment facility for 7 weeks. That helped, but I still deal with a degree of OCD. Well, anyways- I returned to school in the spring semester and then one day, I started suddenly feeling ill. Like I was experiencing flu like symptoms and I passed out on my university's bus. I got taken to the ER and they ran all kinds of tests (I did not have the flu) They kept me overnight for observation as my heart rate significantly reduced. Everything came back normal- labs they ran, got an EKG all normal. They asked me about Lyme but both my mom and I were in disbelief that they would even ask because both of us envisioned Lyme to have that bulls eye rash. None of us recall that. Then again, my memory sucks.
Well, flash forward to now- I don't know I feel off. Besides the psychiatric symptoms that I experience, I have concentration issues, experience chills, sound/light sensitivity, irritability, writing/speech issues feeling disoriented, fatigue and brain fog. There are days where I am so tired that I cannot do anything. I don't really experience much physical symptoms. A lot is more cognitive/psychiatric for me.
I probably missed some information as I don't want this post to be insanely long, but I think I covered the gist of what I have experienced over the years. . Wondering if it is worth looking into Lyme+co infections /PANS.