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Look Beyond the Psychosis, There’s Something There
After a tick bite led to 13 years of debilitating illness, misdiagnoses, and severe neurological symptoms, a mother’s relentless advocacy helped her son, Jeremy, uncover late-stage neurological Lyme disease and find a path toward healing, hope, and change.
Story Overview
I am Amy Hirschland, a dedicated mother and primary caregiver for my son, Jeremy. Our family spent 13 years navigating the complex, heartbreaking realities of late-stage neurological Lyme disease, mold, co-infections, alpha-gal syndrome, and autoimmune encephalitis. After visiting over 100 doctors and enduring years of severe psychiatric misdiagnoses, we fought to identify the underlying infectious triggers driving his condition. Through targeted immunological and antimicrobial treatments, Jeremy is in pursuit of recovery. We learned the consequences of treating auto-immune encephalitis while ignoring tick-borne illness (https://www.cdc.gov/vector-borne-diseases/hcp/clinical-guidance-immunocompromised/index.html). Our lived experience equips us to advocate fiercely for families navigating complex tickborne illnesses.
Target Audience
We aim to reach primary care physicians, neurologists, and mental health clinicians who evaluate patients presenting with sudden-onset psychiatric or cognitive symptoms. By highlighting our journey, we hope to compel medical professionals to look beyond surface symptoms, investigate underlying tickborne infections, and implement timely, comprehensive diagnostic protocols.
Priority
The single most urgent priority is establishing clinical protocols to screen for tickborne and infectious drivers in patients presenting with new-onset neurological, cognitive, or psychiatric symptoms. Too often, patients with neurological Lyme or autoimmune encephalitis are mislabeled with purely psychiatric conditions and subjected to ineffective, invasive interventions while infection spreads unchecked. Standardizing comprehensive diagnostic testing—including advanced tickborne panels and immunological evaluations—at the onset of psychiatric symptoms will prevent years of misdiagnoses, avoid unnecessary suffering, save millions in healthcare costs, and ensure patients receive timely, targeted treatments that enable true recovery. And, it will avoid fatal and tragic outcomes: https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/76/6/1142/6698570
External Links
Read the story in your browser, or download the PDF below: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oSvyJ1M1q5f3A4BewsspvqBwcQ5j1nVG/view?usp=drive_link
Vote for Jeremy! Thx a bunch
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This is wonderful, but how do you plan to "compel" medical providers to inform themselves and do proper testing? It's a systemic issue that won't be fixed unless some higher ups implement major changes.
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For those taking a moment to vote on Jeremy's story, please also consider Alec's. He struggled through a similar journey. In his memory, his parents have advocated for tickborne illness screening for those presenting with sudden onset psychiatric symptoms: https://lymex.crowdicity.com/post/891533
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