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Huib writes, "The major cause of death from Lyme disease is suicide. Other psychiatric causes of death include homicides and opioid overdoses. Based upon epidemiological calculation, there are at least 1200 suicides in the US and 140 in New York State per year from Lyme and associated diseases."
Excerpt from Annie Perkins article:
"With any chronic illness, there may come a time when symptoms become overwhelming, when the judgments from those we love can weigh us down and with the large number of psychiatric manifestations that Lyme and co-infections can cause, some days can be significantly harder than the rest."
Over the past 5 years of my research into my own sickness and many doctors and symptoms, I have concluded that the top killer for Lyme Disease and co-infections is suicide. Lyme Carditis is the next in line. I have struggled to stay on Lyme facebook pages because of the overwhelming hopelessness which burdens me. The only way for it not to bear me down is to take it to the Lord in prayer. I pray that I can be a light of hope to all those suffering.
I think it's time for people to know the truth; it's time for those watching to show empathy for the spirit of the sufferers. The fact that the disease loves the brain and central nervous system causes sufferers to NEED the support of those around them. I am so very blessed to have a husband that supports me; I could not have pushed so far without him.
Your brain is the control center for everything, from walking to talking, down to your emotions and moods. Lyme is not just about joints and flu like symptoms; it's deeper than that. If you are a support person and don't know the depths of the disease, I really hope you will dig and learn. And not only by the research articles, but by stories, real life stories of those suffering.
Sue Baiata's suicide story
written by John Baiata (brother)
NBC News producer
"She developed advanced Lyme disease in the years after being bitten by a tick. One of the side effects she experienced was hyperacusis, a sensitivity to sound so severe that she tried to find a doctor willing to surgically deafen her."
Medical article on the subject
put out by US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health.
Bransfield RC writes, "Suicidality seen in LAD (Lyme and associated diseases) contributes to causing a significant number of previously unexplained suicides and is associated with immune-mediated and metabolic changes resulting in psychiatric and other symptoms which are possibly intensified by negative attitudes about LAD from others."
He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.