Lyme Disease: We're In This Together
Friday, May 9th, 2014We receive a lot of love and appreciation at Lyme Less Live More, but not every email or Facebook comment is all sweetness and light. Although far from perfect, we have moved forward with only one intention: to bring relief.
Recently, a Facebook exchange has inspired us to write another blog post.
We posted on Facebook:
"One of the things I've witnessed in my own journey with Lyme, is that the organisms in my body seem to resonate with my own beliefs about myself." - Dr. Beth McDougall, MD
We then received this Facebook Comment:
C.S.S. wrote:
"Tell this to the father who has to hold back his rage and helplessness because he is now homeless and has and entire family ill from this scourge and now has to watch their extreme disability and pain in a homeless shelter. Or the young mother who cries herself to sleep every night with her hands over the belly of what was supposed to be a new baby in her womb. Or the young woman who for 30 years has been continually told that her symptoms have been psychological and she is near death because of lack of treatment and completely disabled, and all this from a psyche ward of a hospital. You have completely trivialized and blamed the victim with this utter nonsense. I personally had the ideal childhood with loving family and parents with no hidden trauma. The only trauma has been this vile, evil, insipid disease. Sorry, but I am extremely disappointed in your constant references to mind over matter. You are perpetuating the trivialization of this horrible, horrible scourge."
Our Response:
"Hi C.S.S.,
We know you are hurting. We've all been incredibly frustrated with this illness. We have been beaten down by the illness, society and our own self doubt. The pain is incredible.
We understand that taken out of context Dr. Beth's Statement "One of the things that I've witnessed in my own journey with Lyme is that the organisms in my body seem to resonate with my beliefs about myself" could cause some upset, but please understand this is only one aspect of the many layers of healing.
Whether our trauma was there before the illness or being ill has caused the emotional upset (and/or self doubt), either way we have to get a hold of our emotional/spiritual health -- to have the life force to heal, to have the clarity for the very next step no matter what our circumstances.
Our intention is to explore this.
A huge problem here is presuming to know how much another has suffered. How can we possibly know what another has been through?
How do you know that we haven't been misdiagnosed, lost, abandoned and hopeless? We have.
How do you know that Dana hasn't been rendered penniless or cried herself to sleep with a would-be baby in her womb? She has.
How do you know that Brent hasn't struggled to keep his job, home, and his kids? He has.
We need to be careful in what we presume.
Everyone suffers -- we just choose different ways to channel the experience."
In our video interviews and group support calls, we are going right to the suffering and looking for ways of coping, calming and shifting our perspective to get our power back.
We are victims in a sense... but is that entirely true? Who are we waiting for to fix it? While we wait for the medical/political powers to wake up, our bodies deteriorate.
The Lyme epidemic (in our opinion) is an ecological breakdown -- global warming, GMO foods, electromagnetic radiation from wireless technology, pollution, to name a few. The environmental impact on our bodies is enormous.
In our feature with Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt, he addresses this reality head on.
"I’m looking at all the signs, and I know that the outcome of these illnesses is simply caused by the increase of environmental changes and pressures" - Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt
This begs the question: How do each of us contribute to environmental pollution? Many of us drive cars and use cell phones. We all live on this planet, so in this sense, Lyme is everyone's responsibility.
We are nature. If nature is out of balance, then it must be that we are too. We can't be separated.
As much as we LOVE to blame the little bug, there is so much more to this illness.
Dr. Klinghardt says in our interview that spirochetes have been around for thousands of years, and only now are they getting a hold on us:
"The microbes are not our enemy. They’re not here because we’re suddenly being invaded by the species. They were always here, but they weren’t expressing the illness... it took the other synergistic toxins, took the electro-smog, the sum of electromagnetic fields to actually make the bugs so aggressive, that they’re making us sick." - Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt
Getting through this illness is going to require a much bigger perspective in which some are not ready.
C.S.S. says: "You have completely trivialized and blamed the victim with this utter nonsense."
We are not blaming the victim. We are saying to them:
"You are loved. You matter. You are powerful."
Our mission is to empower people to step out of the hopelessness and blame and into responsibility and self-empowerment.
"Under Our Skin" shows the dark political side of the illness... Now what? How can we help ourselves? We can start by changing our personal habits (lifestyles choices and environment) and demand that corporations consider our health and welfare in their decision making.
"There’s nobody individually at fault in this. It’s just failure of the greater system and so it’s up to us individuals to help people and to hopefully move the train into a better course."
-- Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt
We are not here to convince the rest of the world that we are sick. There is no time or energy for that. Instead, Lyme Less Live More is focusing energy on support and solutions and is committed to helping people get well.
Everyone deserves to be healthy.
Love,
Dana and Brent
P.S... We are not teaching "Mind over Matter," but rather,
"The Mind Matters"
Written by Dana Walsh
| 9 Comments Posted in Lyme Less Live More
Dana Walsh (featured in the Lyme documentary UNDER OUR SKIN) and Brent Martin, founders of Lyme Less Live More, identified a giant gap while recovering from Lyme Disease --
"Mind over mater" but "Mind matters" is an incredible rearrangement of words that says the truth of the matter. Mind is not dominate, it is a powerful partner.
Love you guys, I'm here for you as you are there for me.
Carole
This debate is one that resonates with a whole lot of energy! My guess is, it will never reach a satisfactory conclusion, since it's a lot like religion. You are either one of us or not. That's too bad, but it is what it is.
I personally see both sides, but then I was raised in a very devout Catholic family and am now not religious, but still pull from my childhood teachings everything that I still like, and leave what I don't. I think my approach to my Lyme Disease jounrney has been the same.
As stepping out of the mainstream medicine world is likened to Alice in Wonderland's choice between the blue or the red pill, we all have our own choices to make and our our course to chart out here in the "Lymelands". Some "medical advice" will sound more like pseudo-science or cult feverishness than helpful, useful information. If you think about it, some mainstream advice falls into the same pot...research shows that sometimes it just depends which lobyist group or self-interested person(s) are paying to get the study results they want. So, we travel alone, self advocacy and our own "little voice" as our strongest ally. I say listen to it. When something is a bunch of hogwash to you - it may very likely be just that. On the otherhand, I also like to stay open to hear what is being put out there, just in case something useful does pop out. We all have to get good at filtering in this life. There will always been too many channels and not enough decent content, so exercise those channel-changer fingers!
I have also seen the mind-over matter arguement as unhelpful. I think it just never seems to come out right. I guess it's that when a person who believes some method has helped them in some way or another, he/she tends to get rather zealous about it and suddenly a very mysterious, personal and intangeable thing is being sold as an absolute, and it feels like its being shoved down the throats of everyone in a one size-fits-all form, when ofcourse, it never was one size for the person it worked for. So many variables, no absolutes. Maybe it would help if, when sharing "what helped me personally", a "this could be totally useless for you" tag was always attached at the end?
I have personally come a long way since I was bitten by a tic almost six years ago now. The anger is gone. My family and friends are proud of me. I often hear my mother say I manage it all so well. It is a testament to a kind of mind-over-matter effort, to the fact that I am a survivor, absolutely. But, my symptoms have not changed since my first 30% improvement after the first three months of abx. I've just learned to live with the illness. I live within my limitations, eat well, exercise, keep stress at bay and...love myself. And I keep trying new things as they come, hopefully but also with a healthy dose of acceptance that this may just be as good as it gets. To keep up such a long journey, desperation had to go too. Maybe acceptance is what we all need, but to each his/her own version of it.
Still, this doesn't cure me. It doesn't take it away. So, I totally hear those who argue that the over-promotion of the mind-over-matter approach is pap...I just wouldn't call it pap because I'm not angry enough to. I stream it out, like water off a duck's back. That has become part of my way of coping with life in the Lymelands. You get used to it. Learn to filter. Take what you like. Leave what you don't. And above all, be good to yourself and let no one take that away from you. The truth will set you free.
One note about the quote used above, "The microbes...were always here. They just weren't expressing the illness." I don't think so. Illness is all over and has been forever. Lyme was only given a name in the last half-century. That doesn't mean it didn't exist before. Burrascano cured Alzheimer patients with abx, remember?
You see how zealousness takes over when a person wants to make a point about a mysterious personal experience? Personally experience does not wipe out other facts. I see why some people would find this kind of cult-ish mind dangerous to the credibility of an important cause. Let's do stay as focused as possible. Though, as I said before, I will just keep my filter turned on. I don't expect perfection to take over in our lovely and imperfect world any time soon.
Peace,
CC
Our family has experienced how multiple-faceted and complex Lyme Disease is first hand. Even the dog has Lyme. The idea of the environmental changes and the effect it is having on this disease is very interesting and makes so much sense. The multiple chemical sensitivities, the food allergies, the strange neurological and GI responses, the sleeping but never rested feeling can make it easy to understand how people who are not going through this would think you are crazy. The social impact is understandable. We are rationale about it and know that someone else out there is going through something a whole lot worse. We have chosen to fight this disease head on. Fortunately, we were able to find a qualified MD quickly. I thank God for that each and every day. We will not let this disease get the best of us. We continue to work very hard to be able to fight it head on. It has given us the opportunity to meet some amazing new people and look at life a whole lot differently. The most challenging thing about Lyme is that it is not the same for everyone and there is not a single fix: no one stop shop here. We have experienced acupuncture, naturopathic, homeopathic, life coaching, allergy specialists, GI specialists, and family counseling. We try our best to live our lives as they are now and find the joy in the things we are doing. It is not going away but it all has made it a whole lot better. We embrace the good days and respect the bad. So, this is the new us:)
I understand the anger and suffering the commenter has gone through and I also agree with Brent and Dana especially since they THEMSELVES have gone through the devastating effects of Lyme. Additionally,some of their speakers have also gone through it themselves which add credibility to what has helped them with their healing journey and to share with us.
Brent and Dana, your response was very thoughtful and informative. I want to thank you for doing this for all Lyme sufferers as you both have put out so much work and have admitted that you still suffer from bad days due to Lyme while doing this work.
The most important issue here is that the failure is usually not on the part of the individual, but is a deep and complex failure of the medical profession, our government and our society in general.
That people with serious illness end up devastated physically, emotionally, financially, and have lost health, job, home, family etc.. This is NOT the fault of the ill person who often doesn;t even know what's wrong, or when they finally learn they have Lyme they are told that it doesn't exist, or that their doctor doesn't know how to treat it.
As far as whether the cause is physical or emotional/mental,
it's important to see that it is not an either/or situation.
It is a continuum.
For some the physical aspect and the microorganisms are the primary issue, and taking care of that will get them well.
For others there will be environmental toxins/metal toxicity in addition to Lyme and just addressing the bugs is not enough. They will have to address the toxins in their body, their detoxification and methylation, and the external environment that is poisoning them.
Still others will have past or present constant stress or trauma, and need some mental/emotional healing along with dealing with the physical.
Some will have multiple physical imbalances before they contracted Lyme - endocrine issues, digestive problems, chronic sinus infections, dental issues etc.. so that it becomes a search for all the things that have weakened them for the Lyme.
Some will be genetically predisposed to illnesses or have genetic issues that prevent them from being able to detox mold, or metals or pesticides etc..
And some will have contracted Lyme in the womb and not know it for many years..
There are physical, mental, emotional and spiritual aspects to every illness - everyone is different and in a different place on the continuum - the more complex their situation the more they have to address all 4 aspects of the self.
Some will be genetically predisposed or unable to detox.
I've learned this disease requires much patience and skills to maintain some sort of peace of mind. I have found that my spirituality is the only thing keeping my sanity in check. Don't get me wrong... Some days I feel there is nothing left to live for, but then some mystical message appears to give me hope again. I too, have discovered much deeper meaning to this disease and hold the faith that someway, somehow it serves a greater purpose. I'm grateful for my awakening.. I may not have opened my eyes so widely without the help of my daily reminders of pain. I understand each persons journey is different and is one only that fellow Lymie can take. But regardless the next persons choice in dealing with it, I offer compassion and love and prayer. At this point I believe my thoughts do count for each and every one of you so I must be responsible in keeping those frequencies high so we all may be free some day from this tortoring and disabling dis-ease. I am Word through this intention to offer love and compassion to the many suffering with Lyme disease...word I am word
I totally agree with vibrant health's comment above. Having been a hypnotherapist and married to a Ph.D. neuro-psychologist who has always used science based but alternative methods (biofeedback, hypnosis, etc since 1974), I am well aware of the power of the mind and its ability. It's just that it's not always controllable, and certainly one's ability to heal also has to do with genetics. I do have to take issue with your meme above attributing that quote to Einstein, thus lending it far more credibility than it deserves. He never said it, it was "channeled" by Darryl Anka: http://www.angelvalley.org/assets/pdf/bashar-ides-of-march.pdf
The 1970s outbreak of this illness seems to have begun when second growth forests were cut for subdivision housing developments, chasing raptors out and allowing unchecked populations of the white footed mouse in the NY New England areas. This mouse is able to live with the spiroochete in it, reproduce etc. Other species carry the infected ticks around, but this rodent is a known reservoir. I wonder if controlling it would help stem the spread. Has this been tried?
Certainly agree, mind matters. And, the tools are invaluable.Free will and choice is an interesting exploration. As an astrologer ( vedic) what may be true for some people is that the ability to work with the mind, and its patterning is so fixed, like being born with 9 toes, that the possibility of mindfulness would be nothing short of a miracle. Having a strong mind is a big huge gift. I think we all marvel at Stephen Hawkings, or the character in Life is Beautiful. For some being a tremendous athlete is a possibility, for others not, just impossible.I'd say the same holds true with the mind...if we are born with the ability to work with it, that is nothing short of grace.And,quite possibly, the greatest indicator of the quality of the experience a person has of their life....regardless of circumstance.