More and more ticks are infected with Lyme disease, thereby infecting people with the disease. In some parts of the country, 40 percent of ticks are infected with the bacteria that causes Lyme disease. The disease is treatable with antibiotics in 80 percent of cases, provided it is detected in time. Unfortunately, for 2 out of 10 people with Lyme disease, this means that antibiotics do not work and another way to deal with this nasty disease must be found.
In this blog, learn more about Lyme disease and what role hypnosis can play in treatment.
Getting Lyme disease
So you contract Lyme disease through a tick bite. This little nasty critter bites into your skin and sucks itself full of blood, then you can become infected if the tick is infected with the bacteria that causes Lyme disease.
It is important to remove the tick from your skin with head and all within 24 hours. Preferably as soon as possible. Then clean the tick bite with alcohol or soap and water to kill any bacteria. Sometimes you'll then be quick enough to prevent Lyme disease infection.
Always see your doctor to be sure, though. You will generally be given a course of antibiotics to eliminate the bacteria. Unfortunately, that cure does not work in 20% of cases.
People under the age of 15 and between 40 and 60 are most likely to get a tick bite because at this age you tend to be outdoors more than average and you are more likely to be out in nature wherever the ticks are.
People with pets are also at greater risk of Lyme infection because their pets can carry a tick inside. An acquaintance of mine who lives in a wooded area with a cat contracts a tick bite every year. Sometimes he doesn't feel it because the cat is lying on the office chair and then he sits on it afterwards and voila ... a tick bite.
Are you infected? Then you can often recognize this by a red spot around the site of the tick bite and sometimes a red circle around it again. Unfortunately, the red spot may not always be visible if you have had a tick bite from an infected tick. That is why it is so important to always see a doctor after a tick bite.
Even if the symptoms go away, it is important to see a doctor. This is because the disease can move unnoticed to other parts of the body.
If possible, bring the tick that bit you. Then the tick can also be tested for Lyme disease. Indeed, blood tests in humans cannot always properly identify the disease. Better tests are sometimes available in Germany.
Symptoms of chronic Lyme disease
Are you one of the unlucky ones where the antibiotic treatment is not working properly and causing you to suffer from Lyme disease for an extended period of time?
If so, you may suffer from the following symptoms:
- Severe headaches.
- Stiff neck.
- Arthritis with swollen joints.
- Loss of facial muscle strength/ facial nerve twitching.
- Irregular heartbeat.
- Nausea.
- Surrender.
- Eye inflammation.
- Liver inflammation.
- Inflamed brain and nervous system.
- Shooting limb pain.
- Senselessness.
- Tingling in the hands and feet.
- Total Fatigue.
- Memory loss.
- Losing weight.
These symptoms actually show that the bacteria of Lyme disease eventually infect the entire body and severely overload your immune system. Unfortunately, over time, people can become incredibly weakened by this disease so that some even have no desire to live, so this is really very serious!
Because the immune system has to work incredibly hard, you can also get incredibly tired. You are then totally drained.
Natural treatment for Lyme disease
Against Lyme disease, it is very important to take the course of antibiotics prescribed by the doctor. In addition, it is important to boost your immune system for an extended period of time so that it has a better chance of overcoming the bacteria.
Always consult with your doctor before making any major changes in your life.
Nutrition against inflammation
Lyme disease causes inflammation throughout your body, which is why it is important to eat foods that actually have anti-inflammatory properties, such as raw onion and raw garlic. These two vegetables contain substances that are anti-inflammatory. Therefore, it is always a good idea to add these two ingredients to your dinner or salads. Nice and spicy!
Foods high in antioxidants
Antioxidants help your immune system by neutralizing free radicals. Foods high in antioxidants can often be identified by a red or purple color. Whole dark chocolate, with more than 72% cocoa, is also full of antioxidants.
In addition, you can add berries and leafy vegetables to your diet. For example, by drinking a green smoothie daily.
Take plenty of rest
When you are sick, you often have very little energy. This is because your immune system needs all your energy to fight the enemy, the Lyme disease bacteria. Still feel like you have to work or something? Put this out of your mind! Take rest! You absolutely do not want this disease to take hold and take over your body.
This is a battle you absolutely want to win. The rest of your life can be affected by Lyme.
Avoid stress
Stress temporarily shuts down your immune system. Therefore, it is incredibly important to reduce stress as much as possible. Fortunately, hypnosis can help with this.
Hypnosis for Lyme disease symptoms
Hypnosis does not work to treat Lyme disease, but it can indirectly help you cope with Lyme disease symptoms and fight the disease in a different way.
So hypnotherapy certainly does not replace medical treatment for Lyme, but is an addition to treatment. It helps you create better conditions that strengthen your immune system.
Hypnosis can help in multiple ways. Lyme disease symptoms can cause a lot of stress over time which is also not good for the immune system. Hypnosis can help reduce fears about the disease which also reduces stress and allows the immune system to have a better chance of fighting the bacteria.
Hypnosis and anxiety about Lyme disease
Lyme disease can diminish your well-being tremendously. The symptoms can give you all sorts of beliefs about how the disease affects your life that don't make you happier or worse, that you even become very pessimistic or depressed about the situation.
Chances are you suffer from catastrophic thoughts. This means that you often view the situation much more seriously than it actually is at the time.
Hypnosis can help break through this type of catastrophic thinking. This can be done, for example, with a Socratic conversation. In such a conversation, the "Why question" is repeated several times to see what certain beliefs are based on.
Repeating the "Why question" can help put the problem into perspective, making it less of an issue.
Hypnosis and headaches
Hypnotherapy and especially self-hypnosis is also widely used for pain management. For example, self-hypnosis can be a technique for people with chronic headaches to suffer less from them.
Initially, you do practice this self-hypnosis with a hypnotherapist and then you can work at home to make the pain less palpable.
There are several exercises people can learn to shift the focus from pain to something else. Generally at least, visualizations are used. These can be visualizations of a nice place or practical visualizations of a button you can use to ease the pain.
The visualization of a nice place aims to relax your body. After all, pain is incredibly irritating and this can cause tension in your muscles during the course of the day. As a result, you may suffer from pain in your neck, for example. Visualizing a nice place helps you relax those muscles again.
You can also do this very targeted with a mindfulness body scan and then go to that fine place.
Visualizing a button to ease pain is also a technique that can be used. With a kind of volume knob, you turn the pain down a notch, making it less of an issue.
Hypnosis Against Nausea
Nausea is terribly irritating. You have to stop what you're doing, because before you know it, you're throwing up too. Precisely because nausea can overwhelm you, it is important to have self-hypnosis exercises that help you make the nausea less quickly.
To reduce nausea, it is important to first sit in a comfortable place and focus on pleasant breathing. When your breathing is good put your hands on your belly. You feel the warmth of those hands on your belly and you can then visualize how that warmth soothes your belly and how this causes the nausea to diminish or at least make it more bearable.
You don't have to put your hands on your belly, a light touch is enough. This exercise is not meant to make you more nauseous.
So hypnosis primarily helps to reduce Lyme disease symptoms; for the real cure, medical treatment is required. Think of it as an extra asset to tackle the disease.
Want to learn more about how hypnosis can help you or others? Then come to a playshop or check out Hypnosis Institute Netherlands' training programs.
Sources:
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00029157.2011.566767
https://www.webmd.com/rheumatoid-arthritis/arthritis-lyme-disease
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/lyme-disease/basics/definition/con-20019701
