Stress........

Stress - what is it, how did I minimize it, how did that help my recovery....

The three things that had the biggest positive impact on my recovery from late stage lyme disease were:
- the antibiotic treatment
- minimizing stress
- time

In this post I want to talk about minimizing stress.



A couple of years ago when I thought of stress I had in my mind a picture like that above. I saw stress as an unpleasant feeling that could be brought on by too much work pressure, money worries, relationship problems, etc. To be honest I never really gave stress that much thought and never thought I suffered from it.

My view now on what constitutes stress is completely different. Looking back, stress was a major inhibitor for my recovery from Lyme disease. And it was also something that held me back in the decades prior to getting sick with Lyme.

I see the following points as the main forms of stress I needed to overcome to recover from Lyme disease:

- Physical stress
I see this as the stress my body was under in response to the Lyme bacteria and to the antibiotics I was being treated with.


- Nutritional stress
When I first got sick I wasn't paying much attention to my diet. I was eating a fair bit of processed food, sugary food and drink, alcohol and cafine. Dealing with this and trying to extract nutrients from this food was putting my body under stress.


- Sleep stress
My worst Lyme disease problem was insomnia. For two years it felt like I had lost the ability to sleep. Often insomnia is caused by stress but for many people with lyme disease it's the other way around.



- Work stress
Now we're getting into the types of problems people typically associate with stress.


- Life stress!
Most days, due to lack of sleep and pain, just getting through the day was a struggle.

What I now realise is that these stress types were reinforcing each other. I wasn't sleeping so I was taking extra caffeine and sugar to get by at work. This led to more sleep stress. Because I wasn't sleeping I was getting stressed out by trivial problems at work. This work stress was adding to my sleeping problems. And so on, and so on, and so on..... I found it a vicious cycle that was extremely hard to break. And my recovery from Lyme disease didn't really kick into top gear until I was able to break it.



What worked for me was to focus on what I could do to minimise each of the stress types I was experiencing.

For physical stress I found acupuncture helped a lot. I drank lots of water. I took probiotics and natural remedies such as cats claw to help improve my immune system. I made a real effort to consistently exercise. Initially just getting out of the house and walking around the block was a real effort but over time it got easier.

For - Nutritional stress I completely overhauled my diet. You can read more about the details in some of my other posts. I cut out processed food and other high glycemic index foods such as white bread, white rice and pasta. I introduced more vegetables and legumes into my diet.

- Sleep stress I found natural sleep aids Melatonin and Valerian helped a lot. I did a mindfulness course and learned about and used meditation, yoga and other techniques such as body scanning. I also found exercise (especially weight training) helped a lot in terms of improving sleep quality so I put a real priority on exercising.

- Work stress and life stress I found that as the other stresses in my decreased then my work stress and general life stress also decreased. Things that seemed like unsolvable issues when I was getting by on 2 hours sleep a night could be easily resolved with the presence of mind and energy I had when I was sleeping 5 or 6 hours a night.

It didn't happen overnight but over a period of months the vicious stress cycle slowed down and then reversed turning into a positive reinforcing cycle. As I ate better I experienced less nutritional stress therefore I slept better and could function better at work thus having less work related stress. I didn't need junk food and caffeine to get through the day and, as I could see the benefits, it was a no-brainer to stick with my dietary regimen.

The breakthrough for me was in August 2012, exactly 2 years after I was diagnosed with late stage lyme disease. After that I began to sleep consistently well and the rate of my recovery skyrocketed. It's now 7 months later and things are still going great. I actually feel much less stressed and much more productive and confident than what I did prior to getting sick.

Coping with insomnia

I had many painful symptoms when I was suffering from Lyme disease; loss of vision, arthritis, nerve pain, etc, etc. The worst and most persistent problem was insomnia. For more than two years I battled terrible insomnia. In this post I share what worked for me in dealing with it and overcoming it.

Initially my sleep problems were due to pain. I was having bouts of nerve or bone pain every couple of minutes and these were so severe that there was no possibility of sleeping through them. The first month of so after I started antibiotic treatment was the worst. There were some nights when I didn't sleep at all. Not a minute. There were a lot of nights when I was getting by on 20 minutes sleep a night. For a month or so I never got more than 2 hours sleep in a night.

My coping mechanism at that stage was all about survival. I was on a whole smorgasbord of pain and sleep medication. I used to watch comedy on TV in the wee hours when everyone was asleep. At that time I'd often end up on the floor in fits of laughter - laughing was a pleasant side effect of having 2000mg of Gabapentin coupled with valium :-)

Luckily this horrendous period only lasted a month or two and after that the pain diminished fast. After a few months I was able to stop completely with the pain medication. I had stopped months earlier with the sleep medication. I was, along with my doctor, concerned about the possibility for becoming dependent on it. However even though the pain had largely gone, my problems with sleeping persisted for another 18 months. I tried many, many things in that time. Here is what worked for me:

Nutrition Cutting out sugars, processed foods and alcohol and introducing more fruit and vegetables into my diet. See my other posts on nutrition for more details.

Acupuncture: I had my first acupuncture session after I'd had 6 weeks or so of almost zero sleep. I was desperate and felt on the edge of losing my sanity. The night after my first acupuncture treatment I slept almost 6 hours! Winning the lottery wouldn't have made me happier than that sleep! After that I continued acupuncture for the next 18 months often going twice per week. Generally, but not always, I slept reasonably well the night following a treatment. I had a few different acupuncture practitioners and found that the effectiveness of the treatment is very dependent on the practitioner. If it's not working for you try another practitioner. Don't give up on acupuncture straight away.

Natural sleep supplements Two that really helped me were Melatonin and Valerian. Generally I would not take these together. I found it worked best to have Melatonin each night for a few weeks and then switch to Valerian. Over time the effectiveness of them would wear off but by cycling them in this manner I could maximise their effect.

Taking it easy / minimising stress The problem for me during most of 2011 and 2012 was that insomnia was really the only problem I had. My pain was gone, my vision and hearing were OK. So I felt like I should be back at work and should be being productive. But working fulltime on 2 hours of sleep a night was just setting myself up for failure. Most days I would work but every now and again I would stay home and just take the pressure off. Initially I waited too long before taking one of these sick days but that wasn't the right option. My work and mental health were really under pressure. After a few months I started taking time off before the stress got too much. Generally one day off in 10 was enough to allow me to work effectively on the other 9 days.

Exercise It's hard to summon the willpower to exercise when you're not sleeping but for me it was vital in recovering. I built exercise into my day by cycling to and from work. I found a combination of aerobic exercise (cycling) and weight training had the most positive impact on my sleeping.

Meditation and mindfulness I did a mindfulness course and the techniques I learnt there (meditation, body scan, etc) helped. I found having the self-discipline to do these regularly was very hard particularly if I was not sleeping.

Laugh Those comedies I watched when I was at my worst were a lifesaver. Even though I wasn't sleeping the laughing and relaxation helped tremendously.

Stay positive I had some very dark times when I wondered if I would ever be able to sleep again. Especially when I had setbacks in my recovery. My recovery was not linear, sometimes I would sleep well for a few weeks and then terribly for a couple of weeks. It was hard to remain positive during those times but it was vitally important to see these setbacks as temporary.