Menu
The truth about Lyme disease is infuriating. You know what I mean. The refusal of the ISDA to acknowledge chronic Lyme. The ignorance of physicians about how to treat it, and even worse, their condescension and closed-mindedness. Or how about the refusal of friends and family members to help you through your pain and financial hardship? Not to mention the fact that Lyme-related bio-warfare organisms continue to be developed, dumped and (perhaps intentionally) disseminated throughout the world.
I’m going to stop here, because this is about as far as I can go before irritation starts creeping up on me. I’ll leave the Lyme literature, Yahoo! board rumors and conversations regarding the truth about this disease to somebody else.
Go ahead, tell me I’m sticking my head in the sand. While I may be bending to the grains on a brown beach someplace, I am yet not uninformed about the politics, ignorance and tragic truths about Lyme disease. But the second I start feeling those truths wear at my soul, I head for the sand.
We need to understand the difficult truths about Lyme disease, in order to fight injustice and help ourselves and others to heal. On the other hand, and unless you are able to detach fully from the politics and other problems of Lyme, these truths must be taken in doses, or else you will find yourself worrying, fuming and fretting, when what your body really needs are “happy thoughts” in order to heal.
Indeed, worry, fear, indignation, anger and rage–emotions that Lyme truths often elicit in those who have been a victim of these “truths”, are not beneficial for the body.
It can be hard to know, however, just how much information is too much. After all, news about the latest LLMD who has had his license revoked may sadden you, but it doesn’t make a dent in your mood until you stumble upon another piece of discouraging information. And then, the combined weight of two tragic stories begins to fray the edges of your soul. Yet you keep going, because each new “find” somehow fuels your fire in a way that keeps you hungry for truth-and ultimately, justice.
Yes, sometimes anger motivates us to fix the problems that ail the world, but for the sick, it may become too difficult to release the rage that accompanies knowledge of injustice, especially if that injustice is the reason you are sick. If you are able to productively fight the injustice in our government, within the ISDA and even within your own home, without rage, and without taking negative sentiments to bed with you at night, then I congratulate you–other Lyme sufferers need people like you! But if you ruminate upon all that is wrong, and if you fume and fret over every article you read about Lyme politics, then perhaps it’s time to take a vacation from knowledge, for the sake of your health.
Really, you must think about where your mind goes the majority of your life’s minutes. If you struggle to stay positive because bugs have chewed up your neurons, chances are, the slightest bit of news on a Lyme group about a physician who told yet another patient that, “This disease is all in your head” is likely to cook up a storm in your thoughts and send a wave of disaster over your DNA. Yes, your thoughts affect your DNA and your cellular behavior!
Decide to love yourself enough to not get too deeply involved. Love justice, love truth, but take care of your health, because without it, your fight for justice will be less productive. Battles must be fought with love, not anger.