May is Lyme Disease Awareness Month.
This is my story: I was never bitten by a tick, at least not to my knowledge. However, anxiety attacks and Lupus were triggered for me by a variety of factors, one of which was Lyme & Co-Infections, but also relapsing EBV and poor detox pathways.
Many of my clients with chronic mood disorder struggles, especially anxiety, also have a stealth infection and haven't realized it until I test. This is how I met Tick Bootcamp. TB is a podcast and platform that teaches people about Lyme disease and gives voice to the stories of those with it. I feel blessed to be invited back annually as part of the Tick Boot Camp Hackathon, where people learn how to heal.
Please know that when your health goes offline, nothing else matters, nothing.
I am like so many people with unseen but chronic illnesses who have had moments where continuing to work a career has felt impossible. So many of us stop functioning and struggle to take care of our families. There is literally no energy to get through the day. Additionally, we overreact to different stimuli and environments. Our nervous systems can be quite dysregulated by psychological demands and stressors, taking much more than is reasonable from our health. It feels so isolating and scary.
Because of my journey and success, I have women with these issues who find me all the time. They know that I have unending empathy for how scary this is and will always offer holistic treatment for the combination of environmental illness and mental health in my practice.
My Tips:
- Start with Foundational Blood Work and Gentle Detox
- Don’t skip the basics, evaluate core blood markers to identify nutritional or systemic imbalances.
- Follow with gentle drainage and detox protocols to open the body’s natural elimination pathways without overwhelming it.
- Support the Nervous System Before Killing Infections
- Nervous system dysregulation makes treatment harder and Herxheimer reactions more intense.
- Dr. Tiffany recommends tools like:
- Safe and Sound Protocol
- Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT)
- Primal Trust neuroplasticity work
- These approaches help the body shift into a healing state, reducing reactivity and improving outcomes.
- Prime the System, Then Proceed
- Jumping into antimicrobial treatment too soon can backfire.
- By first stabilizing the system, healing becomes smoother, more sustainable, and less traumatic.
“Before you start trying to eradicate infections, make sure the system is primed and ready… then it won’t be so hard, and healing can happen.”
– Dr. Tiffany Brown-Bush
To learn more, visit the Tick Boot Camp website to watch the video or click here.