If you've been keeping up with Justin Bieber, you would know that he really hasn't done much since 2017. He cut his world tour short in 2017 due to health issues and his last album released was "Journals." Many of his fans assumed he was depressed or got back into drugs. Turns out he was struggling with a Lyme disease diagnosis, on top of having mono. Lyme disease is caused by getting bitten by an infected tick. I realize some people might not understand what Lyme disease consists of or what it does to the human body, but I've seen three people in my life get diagnosed with Lyme disease and deal with the after-effects: my dad, his best friend, and my grandpa.
It's crazy what this disease does to the body.
Symptoms of Lyme disease can include short term memory loss, nerve damage, full-body joint pain, and so on. It can mimic a lot of other diseases and that's what makes it so hard to diagnose this disease quickly. It can also cause severe depression because of everything it puts your body through. I totally understand why Justin took off two years in order to focus on his health and deal with this terrible disease. Some doctors believe that this disease can be treated with a heavy dose of antibiotics, but others believe it's more like herpes — that it stays dormant in the body and then flares up during times of stress and anxiety. After watching my family members deal with this, I definitely believe it always stays in the body.
What's messed up is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention doesn't classify Lyme disease as an autoimmune disease even though it attacks your central nervous and immune system — even your heart and joints if left untreated. They also don't recognize it as an official epidemic even though Lyme disease is the fastest-growing infectious disease in the country.
Thirty-thousand people get diagnosed with Lyme disease every year.
It's so bad on the east coast that if you have any symptoms of having the disease, they automatically test you just to rule it out. The test is cheap and really quick to do.
I was shocked to find that other celebrities like Shania Twain and Alec Baldwin also have Lyme disease. With Justin Bieber coming out with a docuseries on YouTube called "Seasons" (which you can actually stream right now), I'm hoping he really shares his journey with this disease and how it has affected his everyday life. I think we need a person like Justin that has that big of a following to put this disease on the radar and get more serious about what this disease does to people. I'm hoping he can become a representative of what thousands of other people have gone through with this disease.
