A Strong Support System Can Help Lupus Patients Cope

Lupus is well-known to cause extensive tissue damage by pushing the immune system to go into overdrive and attack both antigens and healthy cells alike. As the illness progresses, lupus antibodies produced by the body to fight off the disease tend to cross the blood-brain barrier resulting in nerve tissue damage. When the brain eventually suffers bad enough damage from lupus, control over the body goes haywire. This, in turn, causes the patient to experience cognitive dysfunction and sometimes seizures. Neuropsychiatric symptoms often manifest even in the presence of normal biological lupus markers, causing agitation, confusion, paranoia, clouding of consciousness, visual or auditory hallucinations, and delirium psychosis. As worsening lupus turns the patient into someone very far away from normal, isolation leading to depression sets in which can be very emotionally devastating when faced alone.