Symptoms of Lyme Disease – General Overview
Lyme & Tick-Borne Illness Symptoms
Physical Symptoms
Early Signs and Symptoms
(3 to 30 Days After Tick Bite)
- Fever & Chills
- Headache
- Fatigue
- Muscle And Joint Aches
- Swollen Lymph Nodes
- Erythema migrans (EM) rash
Later Signs and Symptoms
(Days to Months After Tick Bite)
- Headaches & neck stiffness
- More Rashes
- Dizziness
- Shortness of breath
- Arthritis- severe joint pain & swelling
- Intermittent pain in tendons, muscles, joints, & bones
- Facial palsy
- Inflammation of brain & spinal cord
- Nerve pain – Shooting pains – numbness, tingling in the hands/feet
- Lyme carditis – Heart palpitations, irregular heartbeat
Neurocognitive Tick-Borne Disease Symptoms
- Short-term memory loss
- Difficulty with working memory and executive functioning tasks
- Executive functioning Impairment
- Difficulty sequencing information
- Verbal fluency difficulties – such as name or word retrieval
- Slow processing (listening, oral, and with written word)
- “Brain Fog”
- Sustained attention
- Attentional switching
- Problems with writing, math, and sustained reading/comprehension
Neuropsychiatric Tick-Borne Disease Symptoms
- Irritability
- Emotional dysregulation
- Sudden rage/anger
- Nightmares
- Impulse control/hyperactivity
- Conduct problems/oppositional behaviors
- Easy tearfulness
- Anxiety or Panic attacks
- Depression
- Withdrawn behaviors
- Confusion
- Mania
- Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
- Paranoia
- Auditory/visual hallucinations
- Sleep disturbances (too much or too little)
- Sensory hyperarousal (typically auditory, visual, and touch)
- Social skill deficits
- PANS and Autism (it is estimated that 25% of those with Autism have PANS/PANDAS – O’Hara, N. (2014). Lyme Connection Mental Health Conference.
Other Physical Tick-Borne Disease Symptoms
- Chronic Fatigue
- Headaches
- Nausea
- Fibromyalgia
- Bell’s Palsy
- Nerve Pain
- Arthritis symptoms
- Joint pain/Chronic Pain
- Multiple Sclerosis symptoms/Lupus
- Seizures
- Stomach problems (very common sign of Tick-Borne Disease in children)
- Frequent urination
- Constipation
- Vestibular dysfunction/Visual issues
- Cardiac problems or POTS (25% of those with cardiac problems have Lyme) Phillips, S. (2015). Lyme Connection – Leir Center Conference
- Unusual infections
- Low nutrient levels in the blood
- History of concussion
Sources:
- Symptoms of Lyme Disease – CDC
- Neurocognitive, Neuropsychiatric, Other Physical Tick-Borne Disease Symptoms – Dr. Roseann Capanna-Hodge, Ed.D., LPC, BCN, LLC
Lyme Disease – Neurocognitive & Neuropsychiatric Symptoms – Dr. Capanna-Hodge
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Gabriella True
