Sunday, August 25, 2013

DEPRESSION & CHRONIC DISEASE - A DOUBLE DILEMMA



After being bitten by a tick in 1996, I developed chronic Lyme disease.  My symptoms included fatigue, muscle aches and pains, brain fog, dizziness, Bell’s Palsy that would come and go, memory problems, digestive issues, Meniere’s disease, chronic sore throats, chronic sinus infections, chemical sensitivities, and food and environmental allergies.

My former LLMD, Doc Brown, found that I was also positive for the co-infections,  ehrlichiosis, bartonella and babesia,  candida, mycoplasma pneumonia,  Epstein-Barr virus, and other opportunistic bacteria, viruses, parasites and fungi.

I remember that fateful day, sitting in Doc Brown’s office when he gave me the bad news:

“Chronic Lyme can never be completely cured. You will always have it.”

I blinked in disbelief and immediately started sobbing hysterically.

And this is when it all began. The hopelessness. The helplessness. The depressing thought and fear of never getting well.  And the loneliness of chronic disease. 

I was in shock.  Well…who wouldn’t be?  I was just diagnosed with a chronic illness. A complicated and controversial chronic illness. And to make matters worse, I knew no one else who was diagnosed with chronic Lyme. NO ONE!  I had no one to talk to. I had no one to confide in. Doc Brown was my only hope! Doc Brown was going to help me! Doc Brown understood what I was going through! Or did he?

“I can’t believe this is all from a tick bite!” I cried. 

Doc Brown kept on assuring me that I was being treated and I will be OK. But I was far from OK.   I was just told that I had a chronic disease. A chronic disease that can’t be cured!  My thoughts suddenly switched to my father and grandmother.  I grew up with a father, who suffered from chronic heart disease and a grandmother (my mother’s mother) who suffered from complications from rheumatic heart disease. They were going to top notch Western doctors who treated them with pharmaceutical drugs and diet restrictions.  But that wasn’t enough. They were never healed. They were chronically sick. Were they also depressed?

Unfortunately, they are not with us, so I will never know for sure. But if my hunch serves me correctly, I believe that, like me, they also suffered from depression.

It is a fact that chronic disease and depression go hand and hand. And it’s no wonder. The definition of chronic disease is a “disease that is long lasting, recurrent and is rarely cured.”

To many, this is a… death sentence. A slow, drawn out death sentence.  Where is the ray of hope? The glimmer of healing? The return to well being? How can you have hope when you were just given a “death sentence”? How can you have hope when the word “healing” is not part of your doctor’s vocabulary? How can you possibly…heal?

YOU CAN’T!!!!

You can’t heal when your doctor doesn't believe you can heal!  The Western medical establishment, in general, doesn’t believe that you can heal from ANY chronic disease. No wonder so many people are depressed! My depression was directly linked to Lyme disease. I could not separate the two. So I was never clinically diagnosed as depressed. And I never thought of depression as one of my symptoms.

Until now.

Now, that I am symptom-free, I can look back and see that I was depressed throughout my conventional Lyme treatment.   I also realized that pharmaceutical drugs would not have worked for me. I was chronically sick, not only physically, but emotionally, mentally and spiritually, as well. Lyme disease affected my soul. I could feel it. And it would take more than anti-depressants to remedy this.

My health finally returned when I broke away from conventional treatment and thinking and discovered the holistic path of healing body, mind and soul.

The Allergie-Immun Therapy, a holistic energetic therapy from Germany, corrected energetic disorders so that my immune system could function effectively, harmoniously and in a balanced state. As a result, my chronic symptoms (including Lyme and depression) have DISAPPEARED!

Dr. Gurevich found that I had an abnormally high level of mercury in my brain, thyroid, liver, sinuses, intestinal tract and kidneys. (Most of his patients who are positive for Lyme, depression, anxiety, bi-polar and mental disorders, are also positive for mercury in the brain.) He put me on the heavy metal detox ,IMP,  that slowly and safely removed the toxic metals from my system.

With the holistic and emotional healing treatments of Dr. Rasa and Dr. Gurevich, I discovered that in order to be healthy, I had to be balanced physically, emotionally and spiritually. Unblocking and dissolving past emotional trauma and changing negative thought patterns to be more positive and loving was a big part of my recovery.  Through Mental Field Therapy, (a self-healing therapy), I continue to resolve past emotional issues, dissolve negative patterns and stay healthy and well.

To Be Continued....