Living with Lyme Disease can be a brutal burden.

This is her story:

Lyme has done some awful things to me. I think the worst are the feelings of despair, anxiety, loneliness. The physical symptoms are not permanent. And although it is sometimes hard to believe, the emotional and psychiatric symptoms are not going to linger forever either. No one can understand how disabling this can be if they haven’t walked this path. If I said I had cancer or MS, I think people would relate (“oh, so and so has that”). We’ve made those illnesses a part of our vernacular. Chemotherapy is almost universally understood. As a society, we know what to expect when someone gets those diagnoses. We are compassionate, sympathetic. I know when my dad was diagnosed with cancer, people came out of nowhere with cards, meals, time.

Lyme is not yet seen the same.

Late-stage Lyme is debilitating. But it is invisible. There is a great website called “But You Don’t Look Sick” that has some great stories about perseverance through invisible illness. I’ve been called a hypochondriac by people who claim to love me. That’s heart-breaking. I sometimes don’t have enough energy to get out of bed to make dinner. I certainly don’t have the energy to convince someone that my whole body hurts and that I have fatigue that can only be temporarily overcome by several large cups of coffee. I’ve realized that putting on that front though only makes it less obvious that something is wrong.

I don’t want to be a burden to those I care about, so I try to minimize my complaints. But truly, I feel very alone. When my dad was sick, I felt there was no other choice but to move in with him, make sure he was cared for, that healthy food was on the table, that he didn’t have to worry about driving home from chemo. Where is my caregiver? I don’t mean for that to sound desperate or clingy. I guess I just don’t understand. I would do anything for friends and family. Quite frankly, I have, sometimes to a fault to where I haven’t left anything for myself and my family.

I am ready to be healthy again. I want to have non-caffeinated energy. I want to be able to work out without feeling crushingly fatigued from lifting ten pounds. And I want a social life back. I know it takes time to maintain friendships, and I feel like I have lost my ability to do that. Mostly I’m just tired of being alone.

And being sick is just one more reason for me to feel distant from others.