The Lyme Disease Survival Guide: Physical, Lifestyle and Emotional Strategies for Healing
by Laura Zeller
A few weeks back, Connie Strasheim contacted me here at the Public Health Alert
to announce her new Lyme disease book. Connie is the author of The Lyme Disease Survival Guide: Physical, Lifestyle and Emotional Strategies for Healing. The title of her book immediately caught me by surprise because I often have been pressed by friends and other patients to write my own Lyme disease survival guide. I am really glad to see this book available for everybody to read and guide them on their individual Lyme journeys. I just finished reading her book, and it is truly remarkable. Thankfully, I had the pleasure of talking to Connie about her experiences with Lyme disease and her exciting new book.
When did you contract Lyme disease? How sick did you get? What were your symptoms?
I "crashed" with an abundance of symptoms on September 26, 2004. I was packing for a trip in my job as a flight attendant with United Airlines and remember feeling exceptionally fatigued. That night, I woke up, my heart walloping a million miles a minute. I went to the ER and they told me I was dehydrated. The following day, I was broadsided by brain fog, confusion, depression, fatigue, heart palpitations, gut pain and other symptoms.
Over the next six weeks, I lost 15 pounds, was unable to eat, or pretty much function at all. Prior to September 26th, I had suffered from symptoms of severe back and neck pain, as well as anxiety and OCD that was so severe, it was like somebody was holding a gun to my head 24-7. These latter symptoms actually began in childhood but intensified severely after 2001.
I was based in New York when 9-11 happened and I think it was a "trigger" for the intensification of my symptoms. The second "trigger" was working 14-hour days at United Airlines. Nobody should ever work days that long. So I don't know when I contracted Lyme disease, but I became severely ill nearly four years ago, and was diagnosed three years ago.
Yes, I only had to wait a year once I realized I was ill! (Sarcastic grin). Neither do I know where I contracted Lyme. Growing up, I camped in the mountains of Colorado and, in my twenties, I worked in New York and traveled to over forty countries. My best guess is that I may have contracted it in New York about ten years ago (since I used to go running in a woodsy park in Queens, and my anxiety and back pain became much worse after I moved there).
What motivated you to write this book?
I have a blog on Lyme disease that Bryan Rosner, of BioMed Publishing Group, felt had valuable information to offer other Lyme disease sufferers. He suggested I write a book so that I could bring this information to a wider audience. My blog and my book are the result of over three and a half years of research and my personal journey with Lyme disease. The book contains most of what I learned about how to deal with the devastating consequences of Lyme disease, along with how to heal my body, things I wish I would have known at the onset of my illness. Having this knowledge might have saved me time, money, energy and much anguish. And not just knowledge about how to blast some bugs and detoxify my ailing organs, but also knowledge about how to deal with the financial, emotional, relational and other hardships that chronic illness brings into a sufferer's life.
So you wrote it to help save lives?
Yes, I want to save other sufferers years of research, if I can. Forget making money. Most people don't pay their mortgages by writing books and, being an unknown author, I am not likely to either. I wrote this book, hopefully to save a few from the depths of hell that I went through in order to get where I am now. Or at least to encourage them along the way!
Another reason I wrote the book was to provide a broad overview of the most important and successful protocols being used in both conventional and alternative medicine to treat Lyme disease, so that sufferers could choose a strategy that seemed most appropriate for them.
What treatment did you find the most useful, and how are you feeling now?
It is hard for me to say, because I feel that each of the strategies I have done has brought me one step closer to health. No one treatment has healed me completely. I suspect that bio-energetic treatments, such as IRT (Immune Response Training), and Quantum Techniques have been most helpful. Herbs produced strong herxheimer reactions for me but, due to impaired detoxification mechanisms (which I did not know I had at the time) I didn't seem to improve much with these. Rife machines and the salt/C protocol improved my symptoms slightly, and I did not do antibiotics for more than two months because I sensed that my body was not strong enough to deal with the herxheimer reactions. I also knew that antibiotics would cause candida and weaken my immune system over the long haul, so from the beginning, I was determined to find another way.
I am feeling much better now, but still have a couple of symptoms that I am trying to eradicate such as postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) which impairs my ability to stand for long periods without movement, and fatigue. I suspect that both of these are related more to damage in my HPA-axis, and less to infections.
Do you believe in using both traditional and alternative treatment methods?
Yes, I do. I tend to prefer natural methods of healing, but I believe that traditional medicine has helped many to heal from Lyme disease, too. Indeed, pharmaceutical antibiotics will be important for some to attain remission from symptoms. And that's not all! However, I believe that when it comes to treating illness, as a society, we have been brainwashed into believing that throwing some biochemical agent at the body is the way to health. It has been my experience that total healing requires going beyond antibiotics to performing strategies that address the mind and spirit. Changing one's lifestyle, thinking patterns and other aspects of daily existence are just as, if not more important, than taking bug killers. Also, evidence suggests that emotional trauma can lodge in organs and tissues just as infections can, and healing this trauma, on a physiological, as well as cognitive level, can be important for healing.
Hence, I wanted to write a book that would address healing on a holistic level, but that would suggest strategies that are specific for Lyme disease, not just any chronic illness.
Can you describe in more detail the information contained in the book?
First, this book is designed to provide a broad overview of the most commonly used healing strategies for Lyme disease, in conventional, but especially, alternative medicine. The book continues with information on detoxification and supportive strategies, as ridding the body of toxins, while helping it to function optimally with the help of nutrients, hormones and so forth, is critical to any Lyme disease protocol. Information on heavy metal detoxification and testing for co-infections, as well as tips for treating mold and candida, is also included.
Because this book is jam-packed with information on so many different strategies, I won't go into all of the book's supportive treatments, but if you go to my blog: http://www.lymebytes.blogspot.com, you will find a table of contents that lists most of these.
The first section of The Lyme Disease Survival Guide concludes with information on protocol considerations, such as how to discern herxheimer reactions from symptom flares and relapses.
The second part of the book offers lifestyle strategies for healing, including tips for creating a healthy diet, exercise plan and daily routine. Relationships, finances, work and travel are among other topics covered in this section.
Finally, the third part of The Lyme Disease Survival Guide addresses emotional strategies for healing; cognitive as well as physiological.
Besides the biochemical mess that borrelia makes of the mind, circumstantial difficulties
contribute to the emotional trauma of living with Lyme disease, and exacerbate that "mess." This section is dedicated to strategies for making the most out of a sedentary, lonely life, while healing the brain and mind through prayer, visualization, and other thought pattern-altering strategies. The importance of discerning subconscious motivations for illness and setting boundaries in relationships is covered, as are suggestions for therapies that bypass the conscious mind, such as NET (Neuro-Emotional Technique). An appendix suggests the role of God in healing and is based upon my own experiences of having wrestled with, but often found peace with, a God who has helped me to get through the trauma of Lyme disease. In my opinion, this is the best part of the book, as I believe that a divine hand guided me through the writing of this section.
If this sounds like a lot of information, please consider that The Lyme Disease Survival Guide is a book of "tips." It is not intended to comprehensively cover every strategy I suggest. Also, I am a professional writer who avoids repetitious information and who tries to make every word count so, on the other hand, I have packed a lot of information into this book.
You describe emotional strategies for healing in your book, what has been the most important one for you?
Prayer and healing visualizations. Whenever I was disciplined enough to do this first thing in the morning, it would help me to get my thoughts off "on the right foot" and keep them there. In moments where I would pray for wisdom, if I sat and listened long enough, I would hear words of truth--positive, affirming words that would enable me to counter the thoughts of despair that so often greeted me and my aching body in the morning. I mean, how can you ever wake up in a good mood when your body says, "Good morning! It's already 11 A.M. How about that Mac truck that just plowed over your brain and body while you slept?"
These strategies were also important for me because I believe that changing my thought patterns helped me to change my biochemistry.
You sure have, and I noticed how brilliantly you used your sense of humor throughout your book.
Yes, I use anecdotes, sarcasm and humor to describe and illustrate some of the strategies in The Lyme Disease Survival Guide; hence, the latter part of the book's title, With a Dash of Humor to Light the Way. While there is nothing funny about Lyme disease, I find that humor is a powerful way for me to be able to say to readers, "I know what you are going through; I have been there, and here are some solutions to this problem." If you read the book, you'll see what I mean!
Why did you feel you were qualified to write a book on Lyme disease?
While I do not have six letters after my last name, I have accumulated a lot of knowledge about Lyme disease and other health topics from having spent the past three and a half years researching these subjects. The medical information that I present in this book is a result of that research, and has been written and supported by those who do have six letters after their last name! So readers don't have to worry that I am "inventing" facts. I am simply sharing what has worked for other professional health care providers in treating Lyme patients.
Also, I feel that experience is a good teacher and I have learned more in the last few years of my life as a result of this disease than perhaps during any other time period of my life. Those lessons have enabled me to heal exponentially and especially in my mind and spirit. I don't pretend to be an expert on any health subject, but I feel that I would be doing a disservice to other Lyme disease sufferers if I did not share what I have learned, in the event that my experiences can help them. At least half of this book is a direct result of my experience, and no title, MD, PhD or otherwise, could have ever prepared me to write this work.
You describe in your book the 9 most important lessons that chronic illness teaches you; can you give us a few examples of those?
Life is about being, as much as it is about doing, and it is okay to slow down. It's likewise important to cultivate a spiritual life, because true peace comes from a relationship with our Creator. And, it's important to treat the body right, with proper nutrition and by avoiding contaminants. I don't think "healthy" folks get to understand this on as deep a level as the chronically ill.
Very true! What is the best advice you can give to Lyme patients who feel lost and overwhelmed by their frightening situation?
The anxiety and neurological symptoms I used to suffer as a result of Lyme would leave me soaking my carpet with tears on a daily basis (Why the carpet? Well, when you hurt, you just have to get into the floor, don't you!), mostly because I thought I was losing my mind. Just three years later, I now consider myself a sane, fairly balanced person. I never thought that would happen.
So if I can go from being a Looney Tunes Lymie to an Almost Normal Nellie (anxiety-wise, anyway), just know that you can, too! But I won't lie to you, healing is a long, long road. It requires discipline, time, energy, money and infinite amounts of patience, but it can be found if you truly want your life back. Get on Internet support groups, make friends with other Lyme disease sufferers, and do your research!
Step back from thoughts of Lyme from time to time and watch a good movie. Too much information at the outset is overwhelming, and you must take it in doses. And if you believe in God, believe that the Creator of the universe has the power to help you overcome ALL things, and that includes Lyme disease.
Excellent advice, Connie. What do you hope that people will get out of the book?
I hope that people will be encouraged as a result of this work. Indeed, hope and encouragement may be the most powerful emotions, or sentiments, that my writing conveys. As Dr. James Schaller, M.D., so kindly states in the book's Foreword: "You will feel alive and hopeful as you read this book." May this be true! Also, if a Lyme disease sufferer can find healing from just one of the strategies that I mention, then, in my mind, the book has been successful. I also hope that, by reading my work, people will understand that healing from chronic Lyme disease is complicated, yet possible. Finally, I hope to put a smile on the face of a sad Lyme disease sufferer through the brief stories and humorous anecdotes contained within the book's pages.
Congratulations to Connie Strasheim on her new book The Lyme Disease Survival Guide, available from www.lymebytes.blogspot.com.
