After eight years of searching for a diagnosis and then finally discovering I had PANDAS, it wasn’t enough for my family and I to simply know what my illness was. We wanted to know what caused it and who or what could be responsible:

Why did I get sick? What could’ve been done so that this never would’ve happened?

We blamed the doctors for brushing me off for eight years. We blamed them for not being willing to consider thinking outside the box. We blamed them for giving me more and more diagnoses while never stepping back to consider a single cause for all of them—while we insisted there had to be one.

We blamed the psychologists for completely missing my severe OCD at my evaluation in 2008. We blamed them for telling my parents I simply had “social problems,” when in reality, my OCD symptoms were preventing me from expressing myself to the evaluators. We blamed them for not considering OCD avoidance behavior as an explanation when they knew my brother and much of my dad’s family had OCD.

I blamed myself for not talking to anyone about my obsessions for six years.  I blamed myself for unknowingly concealing the one condition (OCD) that eventually led to a PANDAS diagnosis.  I blamed myself for not trying harder to get better after I first got sick. I blamed myself for catching the mono that led to this terrible flare last year. I blamed myself for not believing I would get better after my first IVIG, and somehow, causing it to fail.

My parents blamed themselves for not knowing I had OCD for six years. They blamed themselves for not trying harder to find an answer. They blamed themselves for “letting” this happen. They blamed themselves for passing on the autoimmune disease genes/rheumatic fever history that may have contributed to my illness.

Yes, it’s true that some of the doctors and therapists I saw over the years made mistakes and didn’t try hard to find an answer. It’s true that we would’ve found out I’d had PANDAS sooner if I’d been able to talk about my OCD. And yes, it’s true that I’ve probably inherited my parents’ bad genes.

But in the end, no one can truly be blamed for my illness.

Why do people try to find something or someone to blame for the bad things that happen?  Why does there have to be an answer?

The moment I admit that my disease is no one’s fault is the moment I admit that I have no control over it.  It means admitting that bad things can and do happen for no apparent reason.  This idea—this realization—is terrifying.

At the same time, I find freedom and hope in it.  I’m not mad at the doctors anymore, and I’ve come to understand that my family and I have done nothing but the best that we could for all these years, given the information we had at the time.

The hardest thing has been to realize that none of this was ever my own fault. It’s taken two years for me to be able to forgive myself for concealing my OCD for over a third of my life, but I’m slowly learning to extend the same compassion I have for others to myself.  I call it the Reverse Golden Rule:

“Give yourself the same grace you give to others. Don’t be so hard on yourself.”

Yes, even after my brain has healed completely, it will take a long time for my family and I to truly release ourselves of feeling responsible, in some illogical way, for what happened.  But I’m ready to stop playing the blame game. As hard as it is, it’s time to let go and focus on the hope I have of complete recovery…