Even as sick as I was, there was still always this fear that maybe I was, it was psychosomatic

and the more diagnoses I got and the more problems I had, the more I worried could this be in my head

at times, right? Because there's no diagnosis, you really crave an answer.

You're listening to How To. The show that tackles life's toughest problems with the smartest

people we can find. I'm Amanda Ripley. Today, we've got a mystery. You only get a few clues and

the stakes couldn't be higher. You're in pain and you need answers. Something like 30 million

Americans are suffering from mysterious unexplained illnesses forced to do their own detective work,

day in and day out, online and in doctor's offices. Our listener this week is currently trapped

in this exact maze and it's maddening. My name is Mike. I am a graduate student in Minnesota

and I've been struggling with, you know, mysterious sort of chronic illness for the past four,

maybe five years at this point. Back around 2017, Mike started getting these headaches that were

unlike anything you'd ever experienced. You know, I'd teach for two weeks and then I'd get, you know,

some really bad headaches and I'd feel like it had the flu and this sort of process would repeat

over and over and over again. And I really didn't know what was going on. So Mike went to a doctor

and then another and another after that, looking for answers. I all started with some obvious theories.

You know, I think early on, you know, I'm a grad student suffering with headaches and all sorts

of, you know, aches and pains. And so I think everyone's first instinct is, you know, it must be

something sort of psychosomatic, like maybe you're depressed, maybe you have anxiety. And so,

you know, the initial response sort of by doctors was to, you know, send me to a therapist.

So Mike took antidepressants for a while, but that only made his symptoms worse. So then doctors

moved on to other theories. Maybe there's mold in his apartment. Maybe he had mono or maybe

it's a tick-borne illness, especially since Mike likes to go camping. Then something happened

...