Recently, a new obsession has been poking my brain:

Am I nuts?

Given what my illness has put me through in the last year, it’s not an unreasonable concern. When I’ve had bad flares—which can consist of screaming out whatever disturbing thoughts are in my brain, running out of the house or throwing myself into walls, having all manner of bizarre involuntary movements, and being unable to focus my eyes—I would certainly appear “nuts” to an outside observer.

When I flare, I feel totally nuts myself, because so far, I’ve always maintained some sense that my behaviors are unreasonable (yet I cannot fully control them). I know that my unusual behaviors and obsessions are due to brain inflammation, but I’m concerned that others misunderstand me and secretly think I’m crazy. Even in flares, deep down, I still know who I am, but I worry that others can’t see me through the symptoms. I somehow also worry that everyone will think I’m nuts when I’m not in a flare.

If you were me, wouldn’t you sometimes wonder if you were, in fact, crazy—that it couldn’t possibly just be an autoimmune disease? If you daily lived with the knowledge that you could descend into frightening and bizarre symptoms at any moment, wouldn’t you feel you were some form of madwoman? I sometimes worry that my PANS isn’t real after all—that it really is “all in my mind” like I was told for eight years before my diagnosis.

One of the main symptoms of my illness is severe OCD and anxiety, so I naturally have a tendency to get stuck worrying about things that don’t even make sense to worry about. The fact that I worry so much only farther feeds my growing concerns for my sanity, since some of my anxieties and obsessions are quite irrational.

So I’m forever asking my parents, and sometimes my close friends, if they think I’m crazy. The answer is always no, but no matter what anyone tells me, I still worry. Being afraid of being crazy and constantly asking for reassurance on the subject can be a relatively common symptom of OCD, whether or not one has PANDAS/PANS. OCD is never satisfied and is never fully convinced. I want to be completely sure, with irrefutable proof, that I’m not nuts; such evidence doesn’t exist.

Like most of my obsessions, there’s always some small amount of truth in them—just enough to make me pay attention and worry about them. It is true that I act pretty strange during flares. However, I’m quite normal on most days. Besides, the fact that I’m concerned about my sanity proves that I’m not crazy at all.

Given that it’s my brain that was attacked by my antibodies, it’s understandable that I might question even my most basic assumptions about how I perceive the world. I don’t expect my anxiety about my sanity to relent any time soon, considering how frequently I still flare. But for now, I’ll do my best to ignore my OCD thoughts and believe that I’m not nuts—I’m a rational and intelligent person whose brain is irritated by bad antibodies. Most days, my illness isn’t obvious on the outside, so no one would have any reason to think I’m nuts.

PANS is a crazy disease; it’s a crazy reality that an infection or virus can trigger mental illness and behaviors that make one appear “nuts.” But people with PANS are not crazy—we are survivors, doing our best to get through each day and behaving rationally given the inflammation in our brains.