LEWISTON, ME – From Lewiston, in early March 2017, like the flip of a switch, something was horribly wrong with Amy Stacey Curtis’ brain. Her brain would be deluged with horrific, repetitive, vivid, moving images that would play nonstop, 24 hours a day, for 22 months. Six months into this psychosis Amy lost all control of the muscles in her body including the muscles in her face. Limbs and head in constant motion, she lost her ability to speak, stricken with a severe palsy and sometimes complete non-verbalism.

 After 15 months of schizophrenia-diagnosing doctors, two psychiatric wards, and eight antipsychotic drugs, it was finally determined by a naturopath that Amy had had Lyme disease some time in her past and that it had attacked and severely injured my brain. By then it was too late to treat the Lyme disease; it was all about restrengthening Amy’s brain and trying to reclaim her abilities.

 After 22 months, Amy’s psychosis was slowed with 16 treatments of electroconvulsive therapy. But it would take two more years for the images to completely stop. Meanwhile, Amy met a local occupational therapist with whom she figured out muscle control fixes through trial and error. After six years of progressing from psychosis and wheelchair, to walker, to cane, back to her feet, Amy was still struggling with her speech when she intuited that playing an instrument could help, doing multiple things at the same time as a regular practice.

 Within a week of playing the ukulele Amy was capable again of normal speech except in environments where her brain is over-stimulated. For the past two and a half years, Amy has been learning five cover songs a week, a self-prescribed occupational therapy that has steadily improved her speech even when palsied. Amy has played over 500 songs, singing in Lewiston most Mondays at Fast Breaks’ open mic and many Tuesday open mics at the The Cage. She also shares her story and singing on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok (all @Amy Stacey Curtis), where one of her ukulele videos has over 600K views.

 Amy recently won Maine’s Got Talent, one of eight finalists performing at the Franco Center May 3rd, an event which raised $60,000 for Andwell Partners’ Pediatric Services including speech therapy for kids. She is looking forward to more opportunities to share her story and play her ukulele, to raise awareness about the bigger effects of Lyme disease. She is also actively looking for an agent for her memoir Hero In My Head: How My Brain Saved My Life (Twice).