Somewhere around 2003 I began experiencing confusing symptoms and was eventually diagnosed with Lyme.  I did a course of antibiotics and never thought about it again.  In February of 2019, after being taken off of 8 medications cold turkey (6 of them psych meds), I began to experience some unusual symptoms.  Thinking it was side effects of the one new psych drug they had put me on, Effexor, I became determined to get off of that.  I could not find a psychiatrist that would help with the process, so I weaned my self off of it.  The symptoms seemed to really increase around this time so I just assumed I was having withdrawal symptoms from going off of the Effexor.  But when I was put back on a small dose of the Effexor and symptoms didn't got away, I started to suspect something else was going on.  I heard someone mention Lyme and how symptoms can always return and then I remembered that I had had Lyme before.  I began researching the symptoms and sure enough, my symptoms matched up pretty much exactly to chronic Lyme.  I had had several ER visits and inpatient psych visits over the past few months since symptoms got very bad and scary at times and no one knew what was going on or was willing to listen to my symptoms and help me look into it further.  Finally, when I was leaving the ER very distraught last week, a social worker finally gave me some help and referred me to Coastal Home Care to get 24/7 nurses at my apartment.  During this time, a member of the Salisbury first responders called me and asked if he could come out to my apartment.  He told me that he has started a program called SWIFT (Salisbury Wicomico Integrated FirstCare Team).  They offer free services to patients who have called 911 frequently, trying to resolve the health issue that is causing the ER visits.  They look into resources, schedule appointments, and provide transportation to appointments.  SWIFT gave me the contact info. for the Lyme Disease Association of Delmarva and I was finally able to describe my symptoms to someone who totally understood.  She said that there are a bunch of tic-borne infections besides Lyme that I am being affected by.  The two she named were Bartonella which causes a lot of heart symptoms, and Babesia.  Anxiety is also a major symptom of all of these infections.  Whereas I've had anxiety issues for a lot of my life, the symptoms definitely got worse around 2013.  I had a psychiatrist who at the time as the symptoms worsened, just kept putting me on more and more psych drugs and all kinds of combinations to the point that in February I was on 6, two benzodiazapenes, and anti-depressant, an atypical antipsychotic, and 2 off-label mood stabilizers.  I had several overdoses during this time period and am very fortunate to be alive.  I am very thankful things are starting to be figured out.  I have an appointment with a Lyme specialist at Delaware Integrative Medicine on 10/21 and am looking into checking out other specialists in the area.  I am hoping to get an appointment with someone sooner since the symptoms are so debilitating that I am having trouble driving and  have major insomnia.  I am doing a lot of holisitic treatments that are definitely helping the symptoms.  Anyway, I am so glad things are getting figured out and the prayers and support of family and friends are really needed at this time, as I live alone and am not talking to a lot of close family.  That is why I have set up this site.  It seems a better way than constantly posting on Facebook.  Thank you to everyone that has helped so much already.  God is good and I know I can beat this!!