For the whole of 2017 and some of 2018 I went through mite infestation. For months I was attacked, swarmed on, crawled on and into, including into my eyes, nose, ears and vagina, and in a hell of itchy disfiguring bites… I had ongoing wounds that would not heal and I was broken in every way… I got very very close to suicide… I am now free of it all but it has taken me this long to write about it because it was so traumatic, but I want to share this because I know there are people out there who are still desperately suffering/suicidal and I hope this info can help them…

I did everything I have ever read on any forum/website and more… I smothered myself in everything from coconut oil, neem, teatree and clove oils through to salt/borax sprays and bleach baths through to stuff like permethrin and sulphur. I took everything internally from supplements to borax to countless doses of Ivermectin. I am a trained naturopath/herbalist so I also did quite a lot of strong herbal stuff not available over the counter, both internally and externally… and nothing worked – I might get some temporary relief but nothing stopped the onslaught.

I bought a fogger and everyday, for months, I fogged my home and myself… at first with the cedar stuff and then, when that didn’t work, I tried everything else I could think of including ammonia and hydrogen peroxide and pyrethrum. My home is still rusting from all the treatments I tried on it and I did some dangerous things… several times I nearly electrocuted myself, I blitzed myself with toxic chemicals and I lost 20 kilos.

I ripped up all my carpets, threw out all my furniture, slept on a blow up plastic mattress, put all my clothes through hot wash and dry treatments that shrunk and ruined everything, kept everything in plastic bags, put all my paperwork and personal belongings in the microwave or freezer…
It was a time of total hell, madness and desperation and nothing nothing worked.

I bought a microscope and took skin scrapings from myself and samples from my home and I believe I could clearly see collembola mites in and on my skin and environment… but I went through several medical specialists and in the end was basically told I had delusional parasitosis.

On top of this I was so afraid to see any of my friends – or anyone – in case I gave it to them… and then I lost the relationship that I finally thought was my one, my love… the man who promised me everything and who brought this plague into my life finally left me with it, and the betrayal and pain I didn’t think I would ever get over.

I lost everything, everything – my health, my home, my finances, my work, my relationships… all I had left was literally a shell of a home I couldn’t be at peace in.

And I was suicidal, very close to death… but I have been through so much in my life and still there is something in me that won’t give up. But what I know now, what I believe, is that there is little I/you can do to the outside of yourself, to your home or to your skin, that will make very much difference – in fact I think the more I tried to eradicate the mites from the outside of me, the worse they got.

For a long time I was so worried about passing on this plague to another person, or to an animal, but what I came to see, to understand, was that it just didn’t work like that… other people could come into my home and be around me and not be remotely affected. A friend who did remain a lifeline to me would sometimes come and stay over and literally sleep on my mite-infested carpet and be completely unaffected while I would be bitten to death. It began to feel like very much like a personal plague to me, like I was being targeted – but it also made me fully aware that there must be something about me, something different about me, that was attracting the mites, that made them attracted to me as their food source and made them flourish around me, in a way that just didn’t happen with other people.

And then I came across a small post on one of the forums that I had not seen before… someone posted about how they had been supplementing iodine (15 drops of 5% Lugols three times a day) and had been mite-free for three months… and that was the beginning of the end of the hell for me. I haven’t been able to find that post again but I want to thank that person from my heart for giving that small post – because it changed my life and led me to answers and to be able to live again…

I knew I had to be careful as over-supplementing iodine can lead to hypothyroidism, but tests had already shown I had some thyroid dysfunction and I had long suspected I had subclinical hypothyroidism – and frankly I didn’t care, I felt I had nothing to lose. Within weeks of supplementing iodine (I did 5 drops 15% Lugols three times daily) life was returning to normal. I was no longer being crawled on or attacked or bitten or itchy. My body was healing. I could re-wear clothes for goodness sake and sleep in sheets and just start to be normal again…! Suddenly I was like everyone else – whether the mites were there or not didn’t matter. They were not bothering me anymore.

I knew that quite a lot of supplemental iodine ends up in the skin and could kill off/repel the mites… but iodine is also vital for the functioning of the thyroid gland and production of thyroid hormones, which in turn impact just about every other part of our physiology including the immune system… one way or another iodine was profoundly affecting my ability to be unaffected by the mites.

And for me I think hypothyroidism was always a part of why the mites were attracted to me and no one else I knew… subsequent tests showed I was hypothyroid, and then in time, as I was prescribed thyroxine, I was able to stop supplementing iodine and remain mite-free – even while drinking coffee, eating sugary foods etc.

But this is still not the whole story… about six to eight weeks before the mites began to invade and destroy my life I began taking 25mg Amitriptyline for fibromyalgia… and during the worst of the mites my Dr increased the dose as I was also so depressed/suicidal… but I know now that Amitriptyline can cause hypothyroidism! In fact one of the side effects of Amitriptyline is skin blisters, itching, scratching etc, and I don’t think this was simply the drug making me feel itchy, I think it was instrumental in my hypothyroidism/making the mites attracted to me… I stopped taking the Amitriptyline in around 2018 and have been pretty much mite-free… but I started a trial of 25mg again a couple of months ago and again after six to eight weeks started to experience being bitten, feeling itchy, having unhealed wounds etc… and so I’ve stopped it and started supplementing iodine again, just for the short-term, and again all the symptoms have started to subside and resolve… it has been frightening to experience the mites/symptoms again but I also know it will settle again and I am not at the mercy of it in the way I was.

This post has turned out way longer than I meant it to – but what I’m really trying to say is to really look at what is going on for you personally in terms of the mites seemingly targeting you… are you hypothyroid? Are you taking any drugs that are altering your physiology and biochemistry? And I would strongly recommend trying iodine… be careful and sensible but it may just give you your life and peace back.

One last thing – I am a great believer in the emotional wounds that need to be healed underneath the physical wounds… I have autoimmune hypothyroidism, which means my own antibodies attack my thyroid – I literally attack myself and this then makes me vulnerable to the mites. At a fundamental level liking, loving and forgiving myself is perhaps what this has really all been about and is what will truly protect me from stuff like the mites.

I truly hope this post helps somebody, anybody… I never thought I would come out of the other side of the mites but I have, I am, I am growing into health and happiness again and I honestly believe it is possible for any of us x