Chronic Illness Truth #11

It's very common for someone who suffers from neurological Lyme disease or any other chronic illness that affects the nervous system to experience intense anxiety.  It doesn't matter if I'm falling down a stair or if I'm falling off a cliff, it all feels the same to my Lyme riddled nervous system!

I often feel like I experience and feel things much deeper than the average person and wonder if this deeper awareness of things is a blessing or a curse.  I remember when I was at my worst, my heart constantly seems to be pounding out of my chest, and I often felt like I had little bugs crawling under my skin.  This constant feeling of distant danger would follow me everywhere, and these feelings often made me feel completely incapable of finding peace.  I still have times when I feel desperate for the relief, but I've now learned and continually practice coping mechanisms for this intense anxiety.  

I find my head spinning often about how I'm supposed to feel or react despite the fact that I have this hypersensitivity to my surroundings.  I'm supposed to be happy, but not get overly excited.  Hopeful, but refrain from getting my hopes up.  Grieve and process emotions, but not for too long or too deeply.  These mixed messages of how I'm supposed to feel do not help with the healing process and doesn't promote self-love or self-care in the least.

I've found that it is possible to find peace in this illness by grounding myself and shutting some of the voices around me off.  Peace comes to me through daily meditation, and connecting to the earth and to God.  It may seem impossible to find peace in an overly anxious body, but it's possible as we take time every day to heal our bodies, minds, and hearts.

Comment below if your illness makes you feel hypersensitive, and how you find peace through it all!​