053 Lyme Disease Counseling

So this is the final stage where we really learn to accept that our life has changed and how to adapt to it. We accept that there are just certain things that we can no longer do, but that's okay. We accept the fact that we have a limited amount of energy some days and that we might need some extra help, and you know, that, that's okay. Acceptance is really where you'll find your inner peace with yourself and the disease. So this is the stage where— I love this stage because this is the stage where you see the most progress in a person. You know, this is where they really grow as a person and find contentment and even happiness in their disease. We learn to really accept that Lyme disease and its friends it brought along are now part of our life and how to really embrace it and how to really let go of some of those resentment and feelings towards it and really empower ourselves. I know for me, when I was diagnosed with this disease, you know, I had my good days and my bad days, which we'll all do. You're really understanding that your life is going to be different than it was before and not in a worse way, but just different. You know, you'll still laugh and smile. You may not be able to move through life as quickly as you did before, but once you reach the acceptance stage, you'll understand the importance of slowing down and really not letting life pass you by. You may not have a lot of physical good days, but you'll, you'll come to appreciate the good days so much more. You know, we often feel like we have lost so much because of this disease, but acceptance really helps us realize that, you know, we've gained a lot of things as well. It can really help us have a new outlook on life. And I myself struggled tremendously through the stages of grief, but I have truly become a new person after it. You know, I'm much more humble, I'm much more appreciative of life. And I used to take every day for granted before, before I was sick. And now I feel like I really appreciate each and every day that I'm given. And I realize that life is truly precious and I have gained a lot from it. You know, this disease, it's taken a lot from me, but it's also added a lot to me too. I no longer view it as a negative part of myself. I see the positive of what, of what it's brought to my life and what it's taught me through this entire journey.

Congratulations, Lyme Fighter! Today you had the courage to open your eyes and face another day.

Welcome to Lyme Voice.

This show's purpose is to help you put the puzzle pieces of Lyme into place. Each episode is designed to inspire, educate, and encourage you on your Lyme journey to wellness. Together we will fight. Together we will heal.

Together we will live.

Here are your hosts, Aaron and Sarah Sanchez.

Sanchez.

Sanchez.

Sanchez. Wishing your doctors could communicate and come up with a cohesive plan specific to your medical needs and genetics? At Invita Medical Center, they offer a team-style approach, giving you the opportunity to heal. In addition to a commitment of providing radical love and care for their patients, they are strategically located in sunny Arizona because Arizona offers the best integrative medical laws in the country. Call today to speak with one of their patient care coordinators. You can find them online at invita.com.

Lion Voice thanks Invita Medical for the continued support. Please reach them at 1-866-830-4576. Hi, welcome to Lyme Voice, where fighting is a mindset, healing consists of choices, and living is the outcome.

Hey Brittany, are you ready to talk about all things Lyme?

I am.

Awesome. My next guest is Brittany Gough. Everything about Brittany embodies the fight, heal, live spirit. As a Lyme survivor, legislative activist, and psychotherapist who specializes in Lyme disease counseling, She is a wealth of information and I'm so thrilled to be talking with her today. Welcome to Lyme Voice, Brittany.

Thank you. Thank you guys so much for having me. I truly admire the work and the dedication that you both have put forth in the Lyme community. So thank you.

Well, thank you. It's mutual for sure.

Yeah. So there is a series for those of you who don't know, produced by Discovery called Monster Inside Me. And it's a real— it's really interesting. Tells the stories of parasites and mysterious infections that can be hidden in your body. And Brittany was featured on one of these episodes. Was that a couple years ago? How long ago was that for you?

Oh gosh, it was a long time ago.

Okay.

I think, I think I filmed that. I was pretty young. I think I filmed it when I was like 21. And it aired when I was 23. So it was several years ago.

How did that come to be?

Um, so I was just really active in sharing my story and writing blogs and sharing my experience with other people. And I had a producer actually reach out to me one day and asked if he could feature my story, um, in a documentary that he was producing. And I actually didn't even know what documentary it was at first. Um, he didn't tell me that it was Monsters Inside Me. I actually didn't even know that it was a TV show to begin with. So after like several interviews, um, he asked if it would be okay to share my story, if we can move forward with filming it. So yeah, that's just kind of how, how it unraveled is just me really being active and posting my story and sharing it with other people. And they found me that way.

Interesting. It's funny, I watched that show years ago before I knew I had Lyme. And I remember thinking, really? Why? Yeah, it was before I knew I had something. Like, I knew I had something. And I remember thinking, maybe I'll find it if I watch the show. Maybe I can figure it out.

Yeah.

Wow. What are the odds?

Right? I know.

And here we are. How many years later?

Yeah, lots of years later.

Small world, isn't it?

It is.

So Brittany, your story is so fascinating to me because you obviously have this ingrained tenacity that comes out in everything that you do. But you making the decision to go back to school and become a therapist within the Lyme community is just awesome. Like, thank you.

I really, I really appreciate that.

So was counseling in— did you already have like a bachelor's in counseling or psychology, or what, what, what was your journey to get to that place?

So I, I originally started school, I think I was about a year into school, and I didn't exactly have a major. I was just taking some normal classes and just got to the point where I was too sick. So I had to drop out of school for a couple years, about 2 years I had to drop out. And that was when I started really recovering. And so when I got well again, I decided, you know, I want to go back to school and really help the people that had the same emotional journey that I had. So I went back to school, I re-enrolled, and I started studying neuropsychology. I was really fascinated and wanted to understand how infections and certain diseases affect the chemistry of the brain. So I come from a really like neuropsychology and a therapy background. When I finished my neuropsychology and psychology degree, I realized I wanted to work more hands-on with patients instead of more like research or medical school. I realized that I wanted to work one-on-one with people and really help them get to a better level of functioning and really help them throughout their journey. Because, you know, I know for me the emotional struggle was almost the most difficult part of my journey, um, right? Really dealing with the depression, the isolation, loss of relationships, grief over my past life, anxiety that I was never going to get better, trauma from all the doctors telling me that I was crazy. I'm sure you— I'm sure that a lot of people have experienced that as well. Is that was— that was really the hardest part for me through my journey, and getting really my mind and my mental health better was, I feel like, what helped me physically get better as well. So I wanted to share a lot of the techniques and a lot of the different, you know, therapies that I learned throughout my journey with people suffering through the same thing.

Wow, Brittany, it's so cool to hear you talk about this because we do— we're singing the same tune. Because I mean, that's why we did the podcast. Kind of as you're talking there, I mean, that's what we've been discovering, especially in the last 3 or 4 years, is the emotional side of it can be just— I mean, I think you're right. I think it is more important than almost the physical healing because there's so many— I mean, it has to be addressed. And we're seeing that people that are not addressing that side of it are just not getting better. And you can see it really plain. Just go into a Facebook group, you know, Facebook Lyme group, and you can find a lot of healed— quotation marks healed— but they're still very sick. They're very angry and bitter. And yeah, and you can just— my heart breaks for them. I don't get angry at them. My heart actually breaks for them because they're making— in a sense, they're allowing the pain and the struggle to just really infect them. And you can see it just basically oozing out of their personality.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, it's such a long journey. It's so funny, Brittany, when you said neuropsychology, I was like, oh, that's why I like this girl. I totally nerd out on neuropsychology books. And we have— I mean, I started reading neuropsychology books like so long ago, I can't even remember. But, and then we have two kids adopted with attachment disorder. And so they grew up in, or spent two years in an orphanage. So there's all that emotional stuff that comes to play. So I really started diving in and reading it. But it really helped me even within my own recovery to understand that, that trauma side of things.

Yeah, absolutely. I feel like the biological part of it is so important too, which, you know, a lot of— there's a lot of therapists out there, but for me, coming from like a neurology psychology background, is when it comes to depression, is it's not just the environmental factors, it's different chemicals in your brain changing, serotonin changing, vitamin D, for example. Also like anxiety, that can be due to the imbalance of neurotransmitters and GABA. And GABA is a neurotransmitter that blocks impulses between nerve cells in the brain. And low levels of GABA are linked to anxiety, mood disorders, and chronic pain. And another good example is I see a lot of patients with ADHD-like symptoms. Right. And this really could be due to the imbalance of neurotransmitters, dopamine, frontal lobe dysfunction, executive dysfunction. And executive dysfunction is a term for the range of cognitive, emotional, behavior difficulties, which often occur after injury to the frontal lobes of the brain or infection.

Yes.

So there's so many different aspects. There's, you know, there's the environmental aspects that go into coping with a chronic illness, but, you know, there's also the biological aspects of it as well, which I think is really important to understand with this disease and treating it physically and mentally.

Right.

It's so funny because I go through different phases where I'm like, no, the pain was by far the most excruciating aspect of illness, like the pain was the worst. And then I'm like, no, it's the financial loss. The financial loss is definitely— but executive function for me always comes back up as one of those things that for me has become—

because it's the root to everything you do.

I mean, it impacts everything. I mean, so does finances and so does pain. But for me, like, I got to a point where— and my mom was so gracious and always trying to help me and coming over and doing dishes, and she'd say things like, well, Well, why don't you at least just have the kids stack the dishes? Like, just make them clear the tables so that the dishes are stacked, right? Like, we're trying to modify and problem solve all these things. And I got to a point where I couldn't even cognitively— I had so many other bigger issues, I couldn't tell them to clear the table. And I kept telling Aaron— Aaron would come home, and poor guy, he was carrying a huge load. He'd come home and be frustrated and like, Just have them do blah, blah, blah, or just make them do these 2, 3 chores every day. And I'm— and I kept saying, I cannot implement that. And I didn't even understand it as it was happening, but it impacted every area of our life.

Yeah, still does. Yeah, absolutely.

Restoring that executive function, is that just a combination of your body healing and your brain? Because that's what it seems like to me, like it's just slowly. It's not all of a sudden one day my brain worked. It's just been this slow— I have more and more executive function as the years go by.

Yeah, absolutely.

But what's interesting is I have two kids with Lyme and all three of our biological kids have some level of learning disability. And I see that within them, that executive function is way harder than it should be.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

But it's hard to know how to help. I'm like, you're a teenager and your brain is already growing and now you're dealing with all of this. But okay, so Brittany, you go back to school. Tell us about your clinic. So your website is called Lyme Disease Counseling and you're based in Maryland and you are partnered with other physicians and The clinic that you guys have just seems really remarkable. And then you also offer online services. So tell us about that.

Sure. So like I said, I went back to school. I really wanted to work one-on-one doing individual therapy with people that were suffering from chronic Lyme disease. So I specialize in chronic illnesses. Of course, I do individual one-on-one therapy. I also have group therapy there as well. I run a support group there. I'm actually a board member of NatCap Lyme, which is National Capital Lyme Disease Association, and we focus on patient advocacy, education, awareness, and supporting Lyme disease grants through fundraising. So, I run their monthly support group there. I also have a pain management group that I have as well. We have hyperbaric oxygen chamber therapy, lots of dietary guidance, case management, and by case management, I mean really helping patients apply for disability, get the benefits that they deserve and they need through their treatment.

Oh wow, that's huge.

Yeah, I share an office with Dr. Jaller. So we're both located in Rockville. And so he does a lot of the med management treatment. He does the whole medical side to it. So it's funny 'cause he was actually the doctor that treated me when I was really sick a long time ago. So he reached out to me. Yeah, so I had a Lyme disease My original location was in Sykesville, Maryland, but he reached out to me asking if we could merge our practices together and share an office for the convenience of a lot of our clients. So here we are now. We share an office together and, um, we have a, we have a lot of mutual clients, so it makes it easier on them, especially since people, a lot of people travel to see him. So I have a lot of patients from Texas, California, all, all over the place. So it's really convenient if they come and see him, they just can come right next door and see me as well. And the need for therapy, especially Lyme literate therapy, is so, so needed in the community. So I do online counseling as well. I, I get it, a lot of people can't come into the office whether they're too far away or they're just too sick to get out of bed. I get it. So yeah, absolutely, I do video counseling as well. That's a huge aspect to my practice.

What is so awesome about what you guys are doing is you actually have the, the client in mind.

I know, it's so reasonable.

Like, just, just a simple act of combining your, your offices is so huge because it was so hard to get Sarah to and from appointments, especially when she wasn't able to drive, uh, you know, she had to have someone take her there. And, and then, and we all know appointments can mount up to, you know, way past a full-time job just going to appointments. That's awesome.

Yeah, it's really convenient for all of my patients. It was hard for them when I was all the way in Sykesville and he was— because he was my main referral source at the time being. But, you know, my— a lot of my— we shared mutual clients and he was an hour from my office and we were like, this just isn't working, we need to make this more convenient for them. So we decided to merge offices in November, so pretty recently.

Yeah, everything you're saying, I'm like, oh, I want to go there. I want to be there. It feels all nice and inviting.

Come by anytime. It's a cozy, nice little office.

Yeah, it's just reasonable. Like, it's set up to meet the needs of these patients, which is so rare.

Yeah, which is— I mean, it's so great to talk to you because, I mean, just being able to talk about this, getting the idea out there, maybe some practitioners that are listening will, you know, get, get an idea of how they can put their clients at, at the foremost of their thoughts, you know.

Yeah, absolutely. And I definitely plan on expanding my practice in the future.

So awesome. Yeah, we need one over here on the West Coast.

So let me ask you this, Brittany. This is a question I see all the time in the Facebook groups, and I get it, um, on our own Lion Voice Facebook group. Is, are people actually getting better?

That is the number one question that I always get. Yeah. And the answer is yes. So the Lyme disease forums and support groups online, they're great. Don't get me wrong. I think that they're great for connecting with other people with Lyme disease, talking about different treatment options, getting resources. However, you have to keep in mind that sick people don't stay on those sites. Yeah. When people get well, they leave the Lyme disease community. They want to put it in their past. They want nothing to do with it. So they don't really stay in those forums. So we really only communicate with people that are sick. Right. Once I started practicing, I see people all the time get better because we have this mindset that nobody gets better because we read all these things on these sites, but we're only reading from people that are sick. Right. So, yeah, absolutely. People better. I see people progress and I see people get better every day.

Well, and we say the same thing. I tell people that there's people healing in a wide variety of ways. That's what I say online all the time. It's not just antibiotics. It's not just herbals. It's not just— there's no magic formula. But people are getting better and in a lot of different ways. And that to me is really encouraging. And I agree, we see the same thing with our listeners. Like, people come get the information and then move on. It's, it's kind of a temporary place. But those, especially Facebook groups, contain so much information that you cannot find, right? You know, for us, I could not— I was so alone in every decision and everything that I really did find valuable information there. You just got to dig through it.

Yeah, absolutely.

Well, and I feel like another thing that's confusing for people is that they say Or they just, they don't understand the longevity of what this is going to take. Like they say, they're like, I've been on antibiotics for 3 months and I'm not feeling better. Like, how long is this thing going to last? And I think just as a society, we don't know how to help people with long-term illnesses.

It's funny you mentioned that because that's the number 2 question I always get is when am I, when am I going to get better? And really there's just no answer to that. Lyme disease is so different. It affects everybody in such different ways, whether whether it's neurological or whether it's not, whether it's just physical pain. It's— everybody's body is different and there's really no one answer to it, which is unfortunate because, you know, with a lot of other diseases it's like, okay, you have this disease, take this medicine for 8 months and you'll be fine. With Lyme disease, that's, that's not the case. Yeah. And for a lot of people that's hard to accept, but, um, that's just how it is unfortunately.

Yeah, it seems like it's so easy to look at other people who got better and, you know, not just be envious, but how come I'm not getting better? And really, we can't look at that. We really have to look at our, our body itself and say, okay, you know, ignore what other person's experiences— what is happening in my body? Am I getting better? Is this month better than last month? You know, not to look at even day to day, because day to day is—

you gotta look at quarters. Yeah, that's what I always say. Yeah, it's a quarterly assessment.

Yeah, definitely.

Yeah, knowing your own body and being aware of your own body is really key to it.

How big of an issue is people have to come to this place where they realize the medical system is not waiting around to save them? They have to advocate for themselves. They have to think outside the box. They probably are going to have to see practitioners that aren't under their insurance plan How big of a learning curve is that for people? And are you finding them at the beginning of that process, during it, in the middle, or are you finding that by the time they find you, they've kind of already crossed that threshold of understanding?

See, I have patients from all over. I have patients that just began their medical treatment, patients that are 2 years into their medical treatment. You know, I've had patients that haven't even started their medical treatment, but the majority of patients that I do see, they are pretty educated on, you know, the CDC, the controversy, what it's going to take to get better. So I also focus a lot on education for those patients that don't know it. You know, it's funny, I had a patient last week where she had no idea that it was even a Lyme disease controversy. So yeah, so doing a lot of education with her and making her aware of, you know, this is what it's going to look like for you. And yeah, the majority of the patients that I do see is ones that are already active in treatment, ones that are seeing a Lyme literate doctor. But occasionally I do get the other ones that are in the beginning of their treatment or not even educated on it at all. And it's a big learning experience. I remember the look on this woman's face when I explained to her everything about the CDC and the whole controversy. It was almost like she didn't believe me at first, but I recommended some books and documentaries. And I just remember the next time I saw her, she hugged me and cried and told me how I was her Lyme hero and how she had no idea idea. You know, she had gone to Johns Hopkins and NIH, and she just so stumbled across me when she was looking for therapists, um, to do like neurological testing because, um, I think somebody at Johns Hopkins recommended it to me— recommended it to her. So, you know, I see patients from all over.

What is one of the things— I mean, I know you do group therapies and you work with local support groups up there What is one of the most valuable things that come from that experience? Because in a sense, that's what we've tried to replicate within Lyme Voice is because we had no one, no one at all. And I don't know of any therapists even in that area who understand Lyme like you and Laurie Dennis are huge resources, but it just doesn't exist in a lot of places. So what is one of the benefits? What do you see happening for the patients when they sit in a group therapy session?

Are you speaking about individual or you said group, right?

Yeah, I would just imagine that within a group there's a lot of healing just hearing other people who have the same issues. But from your professional experience or perspective, what do you see the benefits coming out of that?

The biggest benefit that I see is really just that connection, that interaction with other people that get you, that understand, that are going through the same thing that you did. And, you know, I know for me, isolation was a huge role in my depression when I was sick and I didn't feel like I had anyone. And so I think that giving people the chance to connect with other people that share the same experience is really empowering.

What do you see on an individual level?

Oh gosh, I could talk for hours about this.

Yeah, give us some examples.

Yeah. So I, of course, I see a lot of depression, anxiety, and trauma. PTSD and trauma is a huge one. So this is the final stage where we really learn to accept that our life has changed and how to adapt to it. We accept that there are just certain things that we can no longer do, but that's okay. We accept the fact that we have a limited amount of energy some days and that we might need some extra help. And that's okay. Acceptance is really where you'll find your inner peace with yourself and the disease. So this is the stage where I love this stage because this is the stage where you see the most progress in a person. You know, this is where they really grow as a person and find contentment and even happiness in their disease. We learn to really accept that Lyme disease and its friends it brought along are now part of our life and how to really embrace it and how to really let go of some of those resentment and feelings towards it and really empower ourselves. I know for me, when I was diagnosed with this disease, you know, I had my good days and my bad days, which we'll all do. You're really understanding that your life is going to be different than it was before and not in a worse way, but just different. You know, you'll still laugh and smile. You may not be able to move through life as quickly as you did before, but once you reach the acceptance stage, you'll understand the importance of slowing down and really not letting life pass you by. You may not have a lot of physical good days, but you'll, you'll come to appreciate the good days so much more. You know, we often feel like we have lost so much because of this of this disease, but acceptance really helps us realize that, you know, we've gained a lot of things as well. It can really help us have a new outlook on life. And I myself struggled tremendously through the stages of grief, but I have truly become a new person after it. You know, I'm much more humble, I'm much more appreciative of life. And I used to take every day for granted before, before I was sick. And now I feel like I really appreciate each and every day that I'm given. And I realized that life is truly precious and I have gained a lot from it. You know, this Lyme disease, it's taken a lot from me, but it's also added a lot to me too. I no longer view it as a negative part of myself. I see the positive of what, of what it's brought to my life and what it's taught me through this entire journey.

For nearly 2 decades, Invita Medical Center has been leading the way with the latest in personalized treatment options designed for patients dealing with Lyme disease complex. At Invita Medical Center, they offer a team-style approach and the latest technology regarding treatment and testing at an unmatched radical love and care environment for their patients. Call to speak to one of the patient care coordinators today to learn why hundreds of patients choose Invita Medical Center each year. You can find them online at invita.com. Hi guys, I want to let you know about a book I wrote called Little Bite, Big Trouble, and I'm going to read a review that recently came in. This is from Carolyn, and she says, thank you so much for writing your book. It has become the means by which I have I have explained Lyme to my 4-year-olds. They ask for it to be read as a bedtime story over and over again and love that the mama birdie does yoga and juicing like their mommy. I can't thank you enough for writing this book. It has helped my family so much. You can find it today at amazon.com, Little Bite, Big Trouble.

Man, as you were speaking, and we were both— Sarah and I, I could tell on Sarah's face, we're just going to flashbacks of all of our whole last 10 years of journeying down this. And each one of those points that you talked about, I remember going through them, especially like, yeah, the acceptance part of it. I think there was a point— I, I put it— it's a little bit crude, but I call it the, the poop to fertilizer effect. And, and really what we've, you know, when, when I especially was able to get to the point where I could say, you know what, these things, yes, they, they are poop, they're feces, they're horrible, but can I use this? And it It was a time of looking at it with a fresh eye and really evaluating the situation and looking at what had come of it. And that is— that, I don't know. I mean, I don't know if I could— I'm glad we have people like you because I don't know how I could get someone there, you know, by talking them through that. It's such a spiritual journey. Yeah, it is. It is.

It's very spiritual.

Interesting. And I think for you too, one of the things that I've seen you change with was you had this mentality of how things should be. Like, I should be able to work 40, 50, 60 hours a week. I should be able to— and, and not that you imposed that on me, but, but we kind of imposed it on each other in the sense of like, it both— it took both of us working really hard all the time to keep things— because we have 5 kids, so there's just a lot of factors actors. But I think for you, what I saw you change the most in is realizing that just because most people work these jobs, that isn't necessarily what's best for us. And I feel like that was huge for you, realizing our lives aren't going to look like everyone else's because it doesn't work for us as a family. And that in and of itself ushered a whole new series of changes that you I can't imagine you coming to that position any other way. Yeah. And yet, yeah, that revelation has brought us such tremendous amounts of freedom and stability for our kids and our family and our marriage. And yet we wouldn't have gotten there if we condemned ourselves because we couldn't operate under this one specific pattern of behavior.

Yeah, absolutely.

So it is such a spiritual journey. Journey. Let's talk about that aspect of things. How do you walk people down that journey?

Sure. So I think I mentioned earlier, cognitive behavioral therapy. So it is a very spiritual journey. You reflect a lot on yourself and you gain a lot of insight. So I practice a very— I also, along with CBT, is I do a lot of mindfulness therapy. And mindfulness was such a huge factor in my healing journey. And when I talk about mindfulness, I always I always think depressed people live in the past, where anxious people live in the future. Mindfulness is finding that middle ground between the two and really living in the moment. And I'll give you an example. So when a patient tells me, if only I got diagnosed sooner, I wouldn't be so depressed, this is a depressive thought of living in the past. So when a patient says, I'm never going to live a normal life, "my life will never be the same." You know, this is their anxiety. They're concentrating too much on the future. So it's really helping people focus on the present and find that balance between the two so they can find that middle ground and really focus on mindfulness. So I'll ask them, you know, if I hear a quote like I just said, I'll ask them, "Well, how can we focus on the now? How can we focus on this very moment right here, right now with you and I?" Another mindfulness technique that I love is practicing gratitude. You know, every day we take things for granted without even realizing it. So when we're having a negative thought, I encourage people to focus on the gratitude of it. If someone says to me, I'm so miserable, my joint pain is just extreme today, I'll talk about gratefulness with them. I'll ask them, okay, well, what symptoms aren't feeling bad today? Okay, your nausea isn't as bad. So let's, let's take a minute to think about how grateful that we are that this symptom is more manageable today rather than the other days. So I help people focus on the positive, not the negative. I definitely acknowledge manage their negative symptoms, but help them get to a mindset where we're not thinking about the negative. I like to use the analogy of like a stuffy nose. You know, when we become sick, we think about how miserable we feel, we can't breathe through our nose, we're having trouble sleeping. We totally forget and take for granted the time where our nose wasn't stuffy and how bad it is. So, and when that stuffy nose goes away, we don't think about that. You know, we totally forget about it. We totally forget that we were sick. Sick and it's just not in our mind anymore. That's how our Lyme disease symptoms can be, is we focus so much on the negative ones. Is I like to help people focus on the positive ones that are getting better rather than focusing on the negative ones. You know, I hear a lot from people, you know, I have nothing to be grateful for. I'm miserable. You know, I'll tell them to take a look around the room. Imagine if we're sitting in this very office on the floor with no couch, no carpet, or no lights. We're sitting here in the dark. See how we take advantage of everyday things that we don't even realize it? Remind yourself, I'm grateful that we have electricity in here. I'm grateful for this big comfy couch that you have to sit on. You know, sometimes we don't recognize things in our life until it's gone. You know, yes, our lives are tough. It's always going to be tough. But really taking a minute to look around and appreciate what we do have rather than what we don't have.

So yeah, just focusing on, okay, this is what we can do today with the resources, time, energy we have. This is what we're capable of doing today. It's not going to solve all your problems, but we can focus on this for today.

Yes. Well, and help finding that, that balance between those negative thoughts about the future or about the past and really bringing them to a mindset, okay, how can we deal with this today?

So you said something that's always brought a question to mind for me, just going back a little bit. You you said that you bring people to look at the good things that are happening. But then on, on the flip side of that coin is, you know, dealing with the past issues or acknowledging them, that, that has to be a, a step in it. But at the same time, why, why is it so bad or, or detrimental to somebody to stay at that point where they're continually stuck on the, the bad things that happened?

You ask why is it so bad if they're stuck on those things, right? Or if there's— if there's— okay, so when we have— so going back to the whole mind-body connection is, you know, when, when we're having these negative thoughts, we're filled with hopelessness. It causes hopelessness in our lives, and that causes our cortisol levels to, to peak and to be high. And our cortisol levels are that suppresses our immune system. So when we're stressed and consumed with these negative thoughts and hopelessness, we're impacting our own immune system and we're not allowing for our bodies to truly heal or to get better from the disease. So really focusing on positivity, it might sound silly, but it truly does have an impact on your physical health too and your healing process.

Well, and we know it does. I mean, we've— yeah, we've been walking this journey now for the last— well, it's almost been 5 years now.

Dang.

Yeah, coming up on 5 years where, okay, yes, our lives have drastically changed, our resources have changed, our abilities have changed, and yet what can we do? How do we move forward? I think one of the things that was so hard for me is— and I hear this all the time, so it's worth talking about is for me, I am like proactively doing everything I know to do. I'm swallowing all my pills every day. I'm doing coffee enemas. I'm juicing. I'm, you know, I really had to like step back and realize that if I didn't, like, I had to commit full time to healing myself because I couldn't give anything to my kids at that point. I had nothing to give besides like an occasional come sit in bed with me and watch a movie type thing. So I felt like I was fighting on so many levels and had been for so long. It took me 17 years to get a diagnosis. So there was a lot lost before I even knew what I was fighting. So within that, I felt like, you know, on a day-to-day, I was conquering so many battles and doing the best I could. And then, and then our utilities would get shut off. And it was just this ongoing— there was these key points throughout my recovery where I just felt so defeated because we were doing everything that we knew to do. And so when I feel like what I see happen especially like for families who have multiple people who are sick, is those aspects of crisis aren't like typical anxiety. I would have thought, oh, beforehand, oh, if you didn't pay a bill, I would have had anxiety. I'm like, no, not only can we not pay that bill, there's no money coming in to compensate for that. And oh, by the way, I just had my second kid diagnosed with Lyme disease. And so those for me were so traumatic because because you're not— you're trying not to live in the past and you're trying not to live in the future as far as anxiety goes. But when your utilities really are shut off, man, it's just so defeating to then be like, okay, I'm glad I have water. I mean, that's what I would do. Like, okay, at least we have water. And then sometimes the water would get shut off. But I don't know, how do you help people who are truly like kind of reliving the crisis, right? Does that make sense? Like the crisis isn't over, the crisis actually happened for decades. And then even once for me, I went out to treatment and stopped the pain. But then I have kids that I'm fighting for. And it requires the same level of exertion years down the road. Like, I don't know, how do you, how do you help people who are complete disaster?

That's a really good question. So Are you focusing more on like the mindfulness that I was just talking about? Like how to— you, you've just talked about how the electricity shuts off, like focusing on like the water or something.

Yeah, I feel like for me, I, I did— I was doing those and trying those and obviously learned and got better at it. But I felt like I was put back in a state of grief all over again, immense grief, you know, and then immense feelings of failure, just, you know, getting your utilities shut off. If you can't turn your utilities on, there's a lot of other things you're And, and so how do you encourage people who are dealing with these long-term crisis situations?

I mean, I feel like mindfulness is such a good key to that, is I really help people deal with the stress and anxiety in the moment. For example, like if, if your electricity gets shut off, helping you really be in the moment, figure out step by step on what you can do instead of of, you know, having a mental breakdown, having a panic attack, really teaching you techniques on in the moment how you can deal with challenges and situations that you face.

It's really the same story played out, right? Whether your initial crisis or 10 years down the road, that mindfulness is the same. You just become more proficient at it.

You're seasoned. Well, more accustomed towards having Lyme disease, I guess. Yeah. And dealing— because I mean, there's always going to be challenges, there's always going to be barriers in our way, you know, when it comes to your utility shutting off or, you know, me getting a letter in the mail that my insurance isn't covering this. It's, um, for me it was— I would go into a panic mode, I would start panicking, I would have a panic attack. I didn't know how to cope with things like that, and I would, I would kind of shut down. And isolate myself and be hopeless and be like, this isn't worth it, I want to give up. But really empowering people to not give up, stay mindful, use breathing techniques to not get yourself into that anxious, panicky mode that these different life— like these different barriers in life can cause. Because we're all going to have barriers. It's just really teaching people on how to cope with them in the moment.

Moment. Yeah, yeah. And it's interesting because with Sarah, I noticed— I, I didn't experience Lyme disease, but I, you know, watched Sarah go through it. And it was interesting to watch her become sensitive to so many things, physical things, you know, like, okay, all of a sudden certain fabric softener was giving her a lot of— and giving her a lot of issues. And the list kept growing. But even mentally, you know, Lyme makes you irritated to, to certain things easy. And I think mentally it kind of does the same thing where, you know, a lot of people can go through an issue of a car, you know, a car being broke into and, and dealing with it without throwing themselves into a 4-week spiral. And really, we have to look, you know, at the same way mentally. Like, yes, a fall can lay you out for 4 weeks. Well, at the same way, a mental experience such as whatever it may be. It's kind of the same deal.

It is. You're absolutely right.

Yeah. And the end, you know what, that's true. I hadn't thought of that. Because I definitely dealt with that panic behavior. Same thing, like getting, oh, by the way, you now owe $1,200 that we didn't cover on this appointment or whatever it is. And you're like, oh my, oh my gosh. But for me, I would panic because I didn't know how to cope with it. I had no physical or cognitive strengths. But that's— it's hard. It's hard to live that way.

Yeah, I mean, mindfulness is a really great technique. But, you know, cognitive behavioral therapy works wonders for situations like that you just described. Do you mind if I go into a little bit about cognitive behavioral therapy and how it applies to? Yeah. So CBT is, is one of my favorite techniques. So over our lifetime, certain events, traumas, relationships, external factors really shape the wiring of our brain, our personality, and our coping mechanisms. You know, I think I mentioned this earlier, is our brain does this incredible thing called neuroplasticity that you literally can reshape our brain and rewire the way that we think. So the thing that I love about CBT therapy is it's not changing our situation of having Lyme disease, but we're changing and altering the way that we perceive it. And perception can be everything. So CBT really focuses on solutions, encouraging patients to challenge distorted cognitions and change destructive patterns. Many patients with Lyme disease experience negative thinking like, I'll never get better. So CBT really helps us rewire our negative thoughts with a more positive thought. It sounds simple, but it's, it's really not. You really need somebody to help you break down those negative thoughts and challenge them. So the majority of the time when we're sick, we're consumed with all these negative thoughts and they're automatic. We don't recognize that we're doing them. They're a total unconscious behavior that we do. So when we fill ourselves with all these negative thoughts, like I said earlier, it results in hopelessness. And when we're hopeless, we block our ability to internally heal. So, you know, what I really do first with my patients when I do CBT is really helping them identify their distorted cognition or negative thought patterns, because we do it without realizing it every day. We do. So once we're able to identify cognitive distortions or negative thinking, I encourage my patients, okay, challenge them. Ask yourself, where's the evidence behind this? If there is a patient having a negative thought that, oh, I'm never going to get better, I'll ask them, where's the evidence for that? You know, what evidence do you have that you're never going to get well? How likely is this going to happen? Where's the evidence of this? And 95% of the time, there is no of evidence, you know, helping people recognize that the thoughts that they're having is irrational beliefs because there's just no evidence supporting their thoughts. So another aspect of CBT is really recognizing that a lot of our automatic thinking is based on emotions and not facts. So this is why I ask people to question the evidence to it, because most of the time we realize that there is not any evidence and we're basing our conclusion or automatic thoughts just strictly based on emotions. I really love using charts for this therapy, like recording the situation, the thought, the emotion, the behavior, and having them come up with an alternative thought to it. So this therapy, it takes practice. You know, it's not a few-week process. It's a lengthy process that really takes repetition. Think about it like muscle memory. If you wanna gain muscle in any part of your body, you have to repeatedly work out that area. You know, it's same with CBT. You have to continue to work on your brain and restructuring your thoughts by practicing some of the techniques that I teach. And once you practice some of those over and over, you'll naturally have more positive thoughts. Instead of those automatic thoughts being negative, they'll eventually start to be more positive. It's also— you can also look at it like learning a new skill. You know, you can't just pick up a guitar and be a musician. You have to repeatedly practice it over and over until you master it. Same with CBT and reshaping your negative thinking.

Huh, I've never thought of cognitive behavioral therapy in that way. It's a discipline like anything else.

You develop it. Yeah, you practice. I love it. I love CBT.

Huh, cool. Well, hey, in conclusion here, you said that you recommend documentaries to people, and documentaries— there's so many people who can't read, so we love recommending documentaries. Do you have—

who can read but just don't— their physical strength, right?

Right. Sorry, Lyme has prevented them from reading or comprehending Um, so documentaries are a great source. What documentaries do you recommend to people on this journey?

Under Our Skin, right? Under Our Skin. Yeah, usually like when people, um, when they're, when they're kind of new to Lyme disease, the first thing I tell them is watch this documentary and then we'll talk, right? Highly recommend that documentary to anyone. It's so educational and informative and really helps people understand the controversy and, you know, what do it's backed.

Yeah, it does. What about the emotional side? Healing the emotional side of things? Do you have any recommendations on that front?

I don't right now, but I will get back to you on that answer because that's a really good question.

Because I know, like, I actually— are you familiar with Food Matters TV?

I am, yes. Okay.

I love Food Matters TV, and they have a documentary on there called Let Me Be Frank, and it's about a guy who starts juicing and eating vegetarian And you see the spiritual, emotional struggle come out with him as he's like doing colonics and all these things that nobody sets out wanting to do. But it heals his life. But it is this, like, it's not just this one and done thing. It's things he has to like learn and implement long term. And he does it to some extent. And ultimately he does. But to me, those have been so powerful for me in healing because it gives me hope. I'm like, okay, there's people who are healing after immense trauma, like, and those have been so encouraging for me to just keep finding.

Yeah, that's— what is this documentary called?

It's called Let Me Be Frank. And then there's another one called Emotions, and it interviews a bunch of different— and it's just on mindfulness. The whole thing is on mindfulness and how trauma lodges in our bodies and how we have to undo that. It's— yeah, Emotion is another one. It's just really good.

Yeah, that's awesome. I'm definitely going to be checking those out tonight.

Well, this has been such an entertaining conversation with you. I mean, I'm sure if you're not a Lyme, you're— this is not very entertaining, but, um, there's just hope.

I feel like what I— yeah, there's hope in your voice, there's hope in in what you're doing. You've seen the success. We know other people are healing. So that is, you know, and you can be reached online.

That's really amazing. So yeah, since we're at that point, we'll of course list all of your, uh, info on the show notes so you listeners can just click on the show notes and, and look up, uh, her information. But why don't you go ahead and give it to us over the air? That way if people don't have time to look it up, they can just grab it now.

Sure. So if you guys want to check out my website, it's lymediseasecounseling.com. It's all one word. Um, you can also shoot me an email. Um, it's Brittany— so that's B-R-I-T-T-A-N-Y— at lymediseasecounseling.com.

Perfect. Thanks so much for being with, with us today, Brittany.

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much for having me.

Wishing your doctors could communicate and come up with a cohesive plan specific to your medical needs and genetics? At Invita Medical Center, they offer a team-style approach, giving you the opportunity to heal. In addition to a commitment of providing radical love and care for their patients, patients. They are strategically located in sunny Arizona because Arizona offers the best integrative medical laws in the country. Call today to speak with one of their patient care coordinators. You can find them online at invita.com. Disease is contrary to life. Therefore, wherever disease exists, life must also fight to exist.

Good job fighting, Lyme fighters. Keep Keep it up. We'll see you next time. Lion Voice contains general information about medical conditions and treatments. The information is not advice and should not be treated as such. Okay, Lincoln? Okay. The medical information on Lion Voice is provided as is without any representations, warranties, expressed or implied.

Okay?

Okay. Lion Voice makes no representations or warranties in relation to the medical information on this podcast. Podcast. You must not rely on the information on this podcast as an alternative to medical advice from your doctor or other professional healthcare provider. If you have any specific questions about your medical matter, you should consult your doctor or other professional healthcare provider. And for you, you consult your parents, okay? Okay. If you think you may be suffering from, from any medical condition, you should seek immediate medical attention. You should never delay seeking medical advice, disregard medical advice, or discontinue medical treatment because of information on this podcast. Got it, Lincoln?

Got it.