Patient & Family Resources
Lyme Disease Resources
Books, films, podcasts, and practical tools to help patients and families learn, cope, and navigate the challenges of long-term illness.
Trusted information & recommended resources
A thoughtfully organized library for the Lyme community
This section brings together resources that help patients learn, cope, and navigate the challenges of long-term illness. You’ll find books, films, podcasts, financial-aid programs, and other tools to support you and your family.
Recommended Reading
Books
Explore books on treatment and healing, lived experience, parenting, and the history, policy, and science surrounding Lyme disease.
Treatment and healing modalities
Breaking Through Chronic Illness: The Science of Cellular Repair and the Path to Lasting Recovery
by Melanie Stein, ND
Why recovery stalls for so many and what can be done to restart healing. Her insights come from years of treating complex chronic illness as a naturopathic doctor, and also from her own lived experience as a Lyme survivor.
Chronic: The Hidden Cause of the Autoimmune Pandemic and How to Get Healthy Again
by Steven Phillips, MD and Dana Parish
The authors show how a mix of infections they call “Lyme plus” can drive persistent symptoms and autoimmune conditions. They offer practical guidance on diagnosis and treatment for people navigating complex, chronic illness.
Conquering Lyme Disease
by Brian A. Fallon, MD, and Jennifer Sotsky, MD
A science-rich guide that untangles the medical controversies surrounding Lyme.
How Can I Get Better?: An Action Plan for Treating Resistant Lyme & Chronic Disease
by Dr. Richard Horowitz
A detailed, step-by-step plan for diagnosing and treating persistent Lyme. Helps patients understand complex symptoms through a practical, multi-system framework.
Recovery from Lyme Disease: The Integrative Medicine Guide to Diagnosing and Treating Tick-Borne Illness
by Dr. Daniel Kinderlehrer
An integrative look at diagnosing and treating tick-borne illness from multiple angles. A helpful resource for patients blending conventional and complementary approaches.
The Sensitive Patient’s Healing Guide: Top Experts Offer New Insights and Treatments for Environmental Toxins, Lyme Disease, and EMFs
by Dr. Neil Nathan
A compassionate guide for people who react strongly to medications, chemicals, or infections. Helps sensitive patients navigate treatment without feeling overwhelmed.
Personal experiences of Lyme patients
The Deep Places: A Memoir of Illness and Discovery
by Ross Douthat
A raw memoir of years spent fighting an illness no one could explain. His story captures the desperation many Lyme patients face and the hard-won insights that finally point toward healing.
Finding Resilience: A Teen’s Journey Through Lyme Disease
by Rachel Leland and Dorothy Kupcha Leland
A teen’s honest, heartfelt account of severe Lyme, paired with her mother’s insights. A powerful account of the devastating impact that Lyme can have on an entire family.
Love, Hope, Lyme
by Fred Diamond
A lively, clear guide that helps friends and family understand what Lyme patients truly need. Offers practical ways to show up, communicate, and support someone through the ups, downs, and daily realities of chronic illness.
Being Misdiagnosed: Stories That Reveal the Hidden Epidemic of Lyme Disease
by Terri McCormick
The book shares 12 real-life stories of people whose confusing, life-altering symptoms were ultimately traced to overlooked Lyme disease and co-infections. It shows how misdiagnosis happens and what patients often explore on the path to answers.
One Click Stopped the Clock
by Jennifer Crystal
Describes how Lyme disease abruptly derailed her life at 25 and the long, difficult fight it took to rebuild it.
Silver Scars: A Memoir of Chronic Lyme Disease and Recovery
by Sarah Krivos
A candid account of navigating long-term illness, highlighting the resilience and self-advocacy required to rebuild a life changed by chronic disease.
What Lurks in the Woods: Struggle and Hope in the Midst of Chronic Illness
by Nicole Bell
A compelling memoir about a family’s search for answers after her husband was misdiagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s, ultimately uncovering underlying tick-borne infections.
For parents of children with Lyme-related conditions
A Blind Spot on Autism: Rethinking What Could Be Driving the Autism Pandemic
by Debbie Kimberg and Ed Breitschwerdt, DVM
Examines the evidence linking Bartonella and other chronic infections to neurological and behavioral symptoms labeled as autism. The book challenges clinicians to rethink what they consider “untreatable.”
Brain Inflamed: Uncovering the Hidden Causes of Anxiety, Depression, and Other Mood Disorders in Adolescents and Teens
by Kenneth Bock, MD
A deep dive into how infections and inflammation can hijack mood, behavior, and cognition in teens. A good resource for families facing neuropsychiatric symptoms tied to Lyme and co-infections.
When Your Child Has Lyme Disease: A Parent’s Survival Guide
by Sandra Berenbaum and Dorothy Kupcha Leland
A practical, reassuring guide for parents managing pediatric Lyme. Discusses treatment, school challenges, daily life, and how to advocate for your child.
History, policy, and science
Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons
by Kris Newby
A provocative investigation into the murky history of Lyme disease and Cold War-era biological research. It raises unsettling questions about what may have shaped today’s tick-borne disease landscape.
Cure Unknown: Inside the Lyme Epidemic
by Pamela Weintraub
One of the first books to look at the science, politics, and patient experience of Lyme. Essential reading for understanding how the modern Lyme debate took shape.
Lyme: The First Epidemic of Climate Change
by Mary Beth Pfeiffe.r
A compelling exploration of how shifting environments are expanding tick habitats and disease risk. Helps readers connect climate trends with real-world impacts on Lyme.
Listen & Learn
Podcasts
Available on all major listening platforms.
Podcast
Love, Hope, Lyme
Weekly conversations with patients, clinicians, and advocates sharing real stories and practical insights.
Podcast
Tick Boot Camp
Interviews with Lyme patients and experts focusing on recovery journeys and lessons learned.
Podcast
Ticktective
A Bay Area Lyme Foundation podcast featuring in-depth conversations with researchers, clinicians, and advocates about tick-borne diseases.
Watch & Explore
Films
Documentaries and narrative films that explore the medical, political, emotional, and human impact of Lyme disease.
Under Our Skin
2008
The first documentary to bring the Lyme crisis into national view, exposing the medical, political, and human struggles surrounding the illness.
The Quiet Epidemic
2022
A follow-up to the Lyme story 14 years after Under Our Skin, revealing how little has changed. It follows teen patient Julia Bruzzese and Dr. Neil Spector while uncovering new evidence and long-buried history behind the ongoing crisis.
I’m Not Crazy, I’m Sick
2023
A look at the emotional, psychological, and financial fallout of being dismissed by the medical system. Through three families and WNBA star Elena Delle Donne, it highlights stigma, isolation, and the fight to be taken seriously.
The Red Ring
2023
Finnish filmmaker Joonas Berghäll documents his global search for answers after becoming ill with Lyme and co-infections. The film expands from his personal struggle into a broader look at why Lyme is so often dismissed worldwide.
Your Labs Are Normal
2021
A narrative feature inspired by writer-director Rhisa Perera’s years of undiagnosed Lyme disease. It follows a woman whose worsening symptoms are repeatedly dismissed, highlighting medical gaslighting and the toll of not being believed.