Surviving Adult Reports Childhood MSbP Torture: Part 2 – Co-opting Diseases

Hello everyone. This is my second post in a series explaining what happened to me and how I survived.

The Family Gets “Lyme Disease”

I was actually a healthy child, and I was never really physically ill except for when I supposedly got Lyme disease when I was younger, I think I was around 10 or so. Lyme disease is transmitted to individuals through deer tick bites, and is only in certain areas of the US (such as New England, where I was at the time). Lyme disease is easily diagnosable with a blood test, (although according to my mother it was very difficult to diagnose and the blood test to diagnose the disease was inaccurate) and if caught in time, can be successfully treated. However, if a diagnosis is delayed, there is a risk for long-term health consequences including kidney disease. In fact, because Lyme disease presents with a mild fever and flulike symptoms, it is often misdiagnosed, which can prove very serious because the missed diagnosis can delay treatment.

As I write this, I am realizing that although it was not out of the realm of reason that I actually got Lyme disease at some point (since kids running around in the woods in New England tend to get it if they are not careful), I’m not sure if I ever was technically diagnosed. It is not something that I recall, although I’m pretty sure I went to doctors about it. If I was, I do not know if I was actually treated. My father actually contracted Lyme disease, so she could have been extrapolating that unto me, or something like that. To this day, I don’t even know whether or not I had Lyme disease, so please bear with me as my memory is spotty.

I remember Lyme disease permeating my childhood and adolescence.  My mother became obsessed with the illness and she, my father, my sister and I all allegedly contracted it. I know for a fact that my father had contracted the illness because he presented with the typical palsy symptoms, went to the doctor and got diagnosed. However, I am unsure about whether or not my sister, my mother, or I actually got it, although my mother proceeded, in her late 40’s or early 50’s to get a double hip replacement due to “complications of Lyme disease”.

The Perpetrator Treats all of Cape Cod for “Lyme Disease” with Narcotics

According to my mother, apparently all of Cape Cod had “Lyme disease” too.  At least, that is what my mother thought, evidenced by the way she wrote prescriptions for OxyContin to pretty much everyone on the Cape for Lyme disease. Of course, you probably have already figured out that this is suspicious because 1) my mom was a psychiatrist; psychiatrists specialize in treating mental illness and not something like Lyme disease (although she did go on a rampage for a while and began researching everything she could about Lyme disease); and 2) OxyContin, a powerful narcotic, is not the typical treatment for Lyme disease which is an infectious disease usually treated with antibiotics.

Furthermore, it seems like it would do more harm than good to prescribe such a strong and addictive substance. It’s almost like the fact that I got “Lyme disease” gave her the “idea” of it, and then, everyone magically got it and needed treatment with OxyContin…or something else.

…And Treats my Sister with…Bile?

Obviously, for these two main reasons, all the pharmacies on Cape Cod became suspicious, but this did not dissuade my mother. I remember my sister having to drink this thick, disgusting looking yellow liquid, which resembled the bile one vomits up after there is nothing left to purge. I remember my mother telling my sister it was some sort of antibiotic used to treat the spirochetes caused by Lyme disease, and I was glad that I didn’t have to drink it.

I also vividly remember my young sister being very ill one time; so ill in fact she was vomiting and my mother, instead of rushing her to the hospital, went and got an IV bag from the fire station and proceeded to treat my sister with that an marijuana. Now, I am an advocate for medical marijuana. However, my mother was having my sister smoke it when she couldn’t have been older than six or seven.

Eventually the whole Lyme disease shtick got old, and as I aged, I developed bipolar disorder according to my mother. While I may or may not have had Lyme disease, I know for a fact that I do not have bipolar disorder, because as an adult I  got extensive tests done just to be sure.

In my next post, I will describe how “Lyme disease” segued into “bipolar disorder”. This is actually not an uncommon transition orchestrated by the perpetrator as the victim ages into adolescence. It is much easier to fabricate symptoms in younger children and coach them to agree. Stubborn adolescents speak their minds, and a strategic way for the perpetrator to avoid suspicion is to simply paint them as “crazy”.

Interested in psychiatric presentations of MSbP?

Read this article.

Tick picture by Scott Bauer.

Pills picture by 51fifty.