Lyme Disease — a Celeb’s Fiction or a Real Ailment?

October 28, 2025

2 min read

A simple tick bite most often causes Lyme disease or borreliosis. The acute form of the disease has characteristic signs and can be treated with antibiotics. However, the chronic form and the very fact of its existence cause a lot of controversy.

Key takeaways

A simple tick bite most often causes Lyme disease or borreliosis.
Background history
What is true?

Who this is for

People exploring Bacterial and viral infections through Lyme disease, ticks.

Why it matters

This piece helps you get oriented quickly, then move into a collection or series if you want to keep going.

Article author

Dr. Anastasia

Infectious disease doctor

Background history

The first case of the disease was recorded in the mid-1970s in the town of Lyme, Connecticut, USA. The disease manifested itself in the form of a rash, strange swelling of the joints, and periodic fever. But there is still a lot of speculation and questions surrounding Lyme disease, especially when it comes to the chronic form of the disease, which by strange coincidence often affects the rich and famous. For example, Bella Hadid, Avril Lavigne, Kelly Osbourne, Ellie Hilfiger, Crystal Hefner, and many other celebrities have had it.

Instagram even has a hashtag #lymewarrior as a way to show the world that it can have a chronic form.

What is true?

Some time ago, the publication The Cut published an article in which the existence of chronic Lyme disease was questioned. The author of the material notes that the symptoms of Lyme can be almost anything — from diarrhea to fog in the head — and that such a diagnosis is made when the doctor, having tried all possible options and made all possible tests, could not understand why the patient is sick. Lyme disease is also very expensive to deal with. For example, the cost of one appointment with one of the pillars of the Lyme community, Dr. Bernard Raxlen, is $1,600.

Part of the personality

Dr. Raxlen states that in a standard case of Lyme disease when an expanding bullseye-shaped rash appears around the area after a tick bite (according to the CDC, this happens in about 70-80 % of cases), the doctor prescribes a course of antibiotics. However, sometimes people don't even notice the bite or don't get a rash, so they don't seek help in time. In the meantime, the disease progresses, takes a chronic form, and becomes something the person must deal with.

This outlook is confirmed by Colombian psychiatrist Brian Fallon, who runs a research center for tick-borne diseases and specializes in anxiety, hypochondria, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. He believes that emotional and/or cognitive disorders can sometimes be the only symptoms of Lyme disease in the chronic course of the disease. These include depression, anxiety, irritability, rage, hyperactivity, and problems with attention and concentration.

Conclusion

While Lyme warriors spare no effort in proving the existence of chronic disease, there is still no consensus in the scientific community on the issue. For the most part, followers of evidence-based medicine deny the existence of a chronic form of Lyme disease. Some sources describe the detection of borrelia DNA in the synovial fluid of affected joints. However, it is believed that the detection of only positive IgG to borrelia and the presence of antibodies indicates a transient process and does not require treatment.

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